|
Monthly Message: March 2003
Fellow Karate-ka:
It is important to remember that you will
have no idea how you are going to be attacked by someone. What kind of
method of attack that they will use against you is something that only
they know. From a punch to the nose to a kick to the groin we must be
ready to block the unknown attack.
This is why it is important to use
complete "focus" on our assailant and try to avoid any confrontation. If
an attack is unavoidable we must, through our concentration be able to
defend against it. As we progress in our karate training we must become
more reflexive with our techniques. They must be ingrained in our bodies
so that we can react without conscious thought. Therefore, you must
practice your techniques thousands of times. If you have to think about
what block you're going to use to defend yourself, then you are too late
and we'll probably all be visiting you in the hospital.
When you are practicing your basics in
class remember that you are doing this so that they become automatic
reactions of your body. So when you're getting the idea that you might
be bored with the "same thing again" stop and realize what it is that
you are trying to make those repeated basics do for you.
So when an attack from someone is
unavoidable you must be ready to respond and if you've trained your
basics thousands of times then they will not fail you. Your reaction to
the attack will protect you and after the attack your remaining spirit
of concentration (zanshin) will keep you keenly focused in case the
assailant thinks of attacking some more.
This is why we stand in front of each
other and throw countless numbers of strikes to the different levels of
the body without letting the defender know where we're attacking. First
we do this on count and later we allow our partners to go at us so we
can see where we stand with our reactions.
Of course we never want to be in a
situation of being attacked and we certainly do not look for one as a
true practitioner of the budo. If however, the situation arises we will
be prepared to defend ourselves in the appropriate manner.
This is the way.
Sensei Dave
|
