Osu!
Sensei Motoi, Sempai Dana
So we
study and practice when we can, discipline in the
ranks need not be as severe as if we were fighting
under Casear's Elite Tenth Legion. Caesar had his
Centurions, Shihans have their Shihan-dai's,
Sensei's, and Sempai's. I love Roman history. But, we
know deep down that "practice makes perfect". It's
one thing to pay tuition in the School Of Hard
Knocks on the way to skill mastery, agreed. Making
mistakes and learning from them is imperative to
advancement, especially in battle. You do not run
your legion five miles over plains, up and down
hills to engage your adversary.
We are
are not going to make mistakes, hopefully. I love
precision. It's another thing to continually repeat
the same error's and gain no insight from the
process. This is how we usually distinguish wisdom
from foolishness. And that's why it is so important
to deliberately think about what we're doing,
especially combat, and using weapons as an extension
of our bodies.
The
more primitive portions of our brains are amazingly
good at getting our bodies to do what we want---all
without much conscious thought on our part. We will
it and it happens, at least with some practice.
Practice refines and firmly establishes the neural
connections involved, and the pattern constitutes
muscle memory-----independent of insight.
If
we're only dealing with our bodies, we may not need
much insight to achieve basic proficiency. We might
do okay if we just "keep at it" and let autonomic
processes organize our muscles more in keeping with
our intentions. Learning to ride a motorcycle
requires utilization of more advanced (and unique
human) parts of our brains, where imagination and
logic cooperate to build mental models of mechanical
systems systems and force vectors. We see with our
mind's eye a tire's contact patch and additive
tensions of braking and cornering loads, even as we
also feel subtle squirming of the tire carcass
beneath us in a fast turn.
So you
say what's this have to do with my Martial Arts,
when I ride there is a cross-over from my Martial
Arts to Motorcycling. Such physical sensations are
cues to action, make a mistake you crash, period.
Interpreting them accurately requires more software
than what the brain comes loaded with as standard
equipment; we must learn and think logically, not
bodily. Same for our Martial Arts, we do not have to
recite a physics textbook chapter in our heads while
negotiating a dangerous intersection ------or
entering into combat, rather, we end up perceiving
the whole situation in a new and different way.
Wisdom isn't just about knowledge; it's about
perspective.
Thinking and learning had changed what "came
naturally". We didn't start out in our Martial Arts
with that perspective and the reflexes you now
attained. Such transformations can only happen when
we're well informed, and we've taken the time to
practice "unnatural" action long enough to lay down
new neural pathways. We have to first think about
the factors involved in order to perform in a way
that gets us what we want.
"Thought, action and intention are then integrated
in a sweet seamless flow". Be well my friends.
Mental
Motorcycling Mark Barnes, Ph.D