Overcoming Fear Part VI
Apr 25, 2018
“Teaching people a large number of sword techniques is turning the way into a business of selling goods, making beginners believe that there is something profound in their training by impressing them with a variety of techniques. This attitude toward strategy must be avoided, because thinking that there is a variety of ways of cutting a man down is evidence of a disturbed mind. In the world, different ways of cutting a man down do not exist.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Complete Book of Five Rings
Okay like Overcoming Fear Part V, you're going to need more coffee for this one which will probably be the last installment of this series.
I start with this quote because of the importance of what Musashi was conveying. That there is no magic to this stuff and if you read between the lines he basically poo-poos on the notion that one needs to learn 5,000 intricate techniques to wield a sword effectively. What was true then is equally true today. Musashi in his day killed a lot of people and was in over 60 recorded sword fights many to the death. More importantly Musashi was a huge proponent of proper training with the right attitude or mindset. I think he knew what the Hell he was talking about! Just sayin…
“You can only fight the way you practice”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
You see, there is a school of thought…
A way of thinking…
That somehow if a person has never been in a “real fight” before that they are incapable of defending themselves if they are faced with a dangerous situation.
There is also a school of thought that unless you’ve been in a real fight by someone else’s subjective standard of what constitutes a real fight that you cannot fight.
That you cannot “bring it” if you had to. That there’s some sort of magic to having been in a real fight before as if you are now imbued with the invincible power of “Excalibur”.
That if you’ve never been in a real fight that you don’t have the “creds” to know what you’re talking about.
Notice they almost never say whether they got their asses kicked in? Hmm… I mean why should anyone listen to these folks if in every street fight they had all they did was lose? Whatever advice they have to offer it didn’t do them any good. You get my point.
This line of thinking is so false I don’t even know where to begin but what I will attempt to do here as I try to tie together some of my pervious posts some final Mindsetting that I think it is important if you are to take the final leap of faith to begin to conquer irrational fear.
I also want to deconstruct this notion (if not destroy it) because I feel it is one of the major obstacles that stands in the way of many people in learning to overcome their greatest fear and that is having to deal with a life threatening situation of violent confrontation and not having the confidence that they can face it with honor.
If you missed my previous posts you can find them here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/overcoming-fear-part-1
here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/overcoming-fear-part-ii
here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/overcoming-fear-part-iii
here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/overcoming-fear-part-iv
and here: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/blog/overcoming-fear-part-v
“The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
As I stated in Overcoming Fear Part V, people take up a martial art for various of reasons not just how to protect themselves or their families, but also to learn how to overcome their fears.
Again, for some, it’s just enough to know what to do if someone attacks them when going about their daily lives. For others, whose occupations place them in harm’s way they’re there to learn skills necessary to protect themselves or others, to have their “edge”.
Whatever the reason we all arrive at the same place because we all have the same fear that when faced with our moment of truth. When your life or that of your loved ones is on the line failure is not an option.
Quantico, VA December 8, 1988
“Ladies and Gentlemen Distinguished guest, we’re here today to celebrate the commissioning the 139th Officer Candidate Class. Young men and women I want to congratulate you on your accomplishment, on your achievement. You young men and women are now going to have to take on the greatest challenge of your lives, leading Marines, and for many of you this will be the defining moment of your lives. Many people have tried to achieve what you have achieved, most have failed and some just gave up and will have to live with that for the rest of their lives. You are getting ready to go on the greatest adventure of your lives and will see things and do more than most could hope to experience in two life times. Some of you are going to die wearing that uniform, but this is the nature of things, warriors understand that. Once again congratulations! With that said, please raise your right hand and repeat after me.”
-Major General Claude W. Reinke, USMC (ret)
Even though he was a Colonel at the time I figured I’d give him his due for the final rank he reached. I would cross paths with MajGen Reinke years later but I remember that speech at our graduation from OCS like it was yesterday. Some things in life leave an indelible mark on you that you never forget.
We were young and came from all walks of life but what we all shared together from that moment on was that we were Marines and would remain so for life. Marines are not born, they are made and while there has to be some underlying level of as I like to call it that “thing”, that makes a person want to join a profession that deliberately by its nature places you in harm’s way.
In the end we all somehow arrive at the same place in the same third world cesspool countries facing the same threats. In the end the enemy doesn’t distinguish between rank, color or ethnicity. You are his enemy and he hates you all equally and wants to kill every one of you. As I saw inscribe on a wall just outside one of our bases in Afghanistan where someone had written in big bold black letters, “There is someone out there who wants to kill you, are you going to give them a chance?” Just an acknowledgement of the fact that this was war and your enemy had only one objective. The question was, were you going to stand for it?
A Propensity for Violence
“Killing is the same for those who know how to kill and those who don’t and there’s no need for much refinement of it.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
One thing the Corps has taught me is that whoever you are, whatever type of person you may be, whatever your background if you don’t have that “thing”. You’re going to have every opportunity to develop it on some level. You may not fully get there but one thing is for certain it wouldn’t be for a lack of training.
Don’t get me wrong I do believe there is in certain people an innate nature, a “propensity for violence” to quickly escalate to violence and that you either have or you don’t. There are a number of factors that contribute to this which I believe is mostly due to your upbringing and the environment you grew up in. But I also believe that through proper Mindsetting you can narrow the gap for most people between inaction and action, between being “paralyzed” by fear or “spurred into action” by it. It is this gap which probably makes up the vast majority of people that seek out a martial art that I want to focus on.
“From one thing, know ten thousand things”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Again, I want to really hammer this point because this notion that in order to be able to fight you have to have been in a real fight is not logical. If true that one has to be in a real fight to know how to fight, then how does anyone learn anything? The point is there’s a first time for everything and fighting is no different.
You get no argument from me that every young man needs to know what it’s like to get punched in the face. Why? To remove the mystery that if you get hit in the face that somehow you can’t withstand it or that you’re going to just fall over and die.
Think about this for those who don’t know, in a tradition that goes back well over 100 years The United States Naval Academy, United States Military Academy (West Point) and The United States Air Force Academy “all require boxing for first year students”. Why? For the very reasons I just stated above. Too overcome any irrational fear they may have about getting struck in the face.
Also, I’m not saying there aren’t things that are not learned from having such an experience but the notion that you have to be in a fight to learn how to fight doesn’t pass the smell test with me otherwise how is it the US military trains folks from all walks of life as I’ve stated in previous posts who have gone off to war and fought with great success? That’s like saying in order to fight a war you first have to go to war to know how to fight a war. What? As Sun Tzu said in my previous post, “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”
"No man is so brave that he is not started by the unexpected."
-Julius Caesar
Think of the D-Day landing...
Up until that point in history the Unites States along with our allies had never done anything like that on such as large scale not only our history, but in the history of the world. Where do you go to get experience like that? As my first Battalion Commander LtCol Bob Faucet use to say, "Train your Marines right up the the edge, and not beyond it." He was a hardcore Vietnam Vet with multiple tours as a young officer. When officers in other units carried only a pistol he required all of his officers carry a rifle during training at all times. Me personally and my buddy Lt McClain? We carried both.
The point is all you can do is train to the best of your abilities and from there just go for it with total and utter ruthlessness and reckless abandon. If you recall in Overcoming Fear Part's IV and V, I discussed the importance of "training to the edge of danger".
Training as if your life depends on it in all that you do is important because at least on a physiological level without such an "experience" I believe that it is extremely difficult to develop the proper Mindset and ability to control all of the physiological responses our bodies go through when under duress.
Some folks call this type of training "pressure testing" a technique I am totally in favor of if done right. Unfortunately most of what I've seen out there in the martial arts is based on the most unrealistic scenarios so if anything they are more than likely training people to develop a false sense of security. They're basically setting their students up for failure. There's a difference between training and being stupid. Training knife defense with fake knives is useful, training knife defense with real knives "is stupid". Again, do you have to cut someone to know that a knife can cut? Skilled Warriors understand this, to the idiot, the fool, the moron, the fakers such things are beyond their understanding. They're just not smart enough to know...
Discerning Good from Evil
“Know your enemy, know his sword.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
In any battle there are always new lessons to be learned because there are always unknowns (i.e., the fog of war) and let's face it the enemy gets a vote, which is why you need to “know your enemy’s sword” as best you can beforehand, because the battle field is not the place to figure out how to use your rifle or what either you or your enemy are capable of. A fight for your life at home or outside of it is not the place to try to figure out how to use your pistol or your hands. These things need to be settled in your mind beforehand. Thus why we train! To me any other way of thinking is utter nonsense and comes from the mouths of no nothings.
“When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”
-Mark 2:17 King James Version (KJV)
Just as well person doesn’t seek out a doctor but only those who are sick. In the same way people who probably think they can fight, people who know they have “that thing” for the most part may not feel the need to seek out a martial art. The point I’m making is the vast majority of people who seek out a martial art for various reasons are searching for something. Looking for their edge, looking to the people they entrust with training them to close any gaps or deficiencies in both their physical abilities as well as their mindsets. They are the sick and are seeking out a physician looking for the cure to what ails them.
I recall reading somewhere a so called self-defense expert, I forgot which one there are so many these days. Make a statement along the lines of, “If you happen to run into a prison trained monster, there’s really not much you can do so you might as well not even try…” or words to that effect.
Whaaaaat?
I don’t even know where to begin with that one but here are a few questions: 1) How do you know who those people are?; 2) Unless you’re going to offer some solutions, why would you say that to people? and; 3) If that’s your attitude, then why do you teach at all? I mean if that’s “your attitude” why bother?
Unbelievable!
But you know what, I’ve read similar things in articles along this line of thinking from a number of people over the years. This is nothing more than people trying to either gin up business by instilling fear in people for the sake of instilling fear or basically covering for the fact that they do not have an honest answer on how to train for such things. I mean isn't training to deal with such "monsters" to at least have a chance against them the whole point of learning to fight the first place? They are afraid and want their students to be afraid like them. This is the spirit of irrational fear.
If you study a martial art and your instructor has this attitude you need to run from them if you have to. These people are a curse among us and dishonor the martial arts in general and are unworthy of their students.
While you shouldn’t as an instructor make false promises by telling people if they learn the “secret inverted monkey foot technique” that they will be unbeatable. And true you need to let people know there is evil out there, which is why they need to have their awareness up. You also need to instill the “Spirit of Victory” in them if they are to have a chance in a real confrontation because the alternative is not good.
It’s like football, I don’t care if you’re playing the best team the country, if you want to have any chance at winning the game you’ve got to play to win with everything you’ve got and leave it all on the field. This is what I mean by the “Spirit of Victory”. This Spirit of Victory leaves it “all on the field”, all the blood on the front of you.
Improvise, Overcome, Adapt, Win
“We’re not telling you to ignore pain you just need to find a way to work past it, to work around it.”
-Gen John Kelly, USMC (ret)
When I was as 2nd Lieutenant going through Infantry Officers Course one of the things that then Maj John Kelly (he's the current White House Chief of Staff) who ran the school at the time. Use to always reinforce was the understanding that we were human and we all had limitations. That pain and fatigue was a part of the package in war and you needed to learn not to necessarily to ignore it but find a way to work through it or around it, and he made sure everyone of us had an opportunity to experience it. In the same way we were trained, you as well need to learn how to work through your fears, fear of pain, fear of injury, fear of death. It is something every young man destined for the battle field has to learn to do. As one of my instructors stated when a Lieutenant asked, "Can a person truly learn to overcome the fear of going off to battle?" he responded, "You better"!
During Infantry Officer Course (IOC) when I went through the first day consisted of a 5 mile forced march to a weapons range for an all-day shoot with Russian weapons which was awesome. Then at the end of the day we had to run 10 miles up and down the hills of Quantico, with all of our gear, weapon, pack, helmet, flack-jacket and whatever else they told you to put in the pack to ensure the ruck was of sufficient weight (it was like 50-lbs) and it just got worse from there throughout the program (as an aside today your average Marine or Soldier is carrying between 80-lbs to 100-lbs in combat, so much for progress). At IOC you were you were guaranteed to stay wet, cold, hot depending on the time of year and miserable for the entire course. You were treated to sleep deprivation, one meal a day for your resupply, you had to make your own water with those awful water filters, trench foot, possible hypothermia, endless marches, lots of Pugil Sticks, Boxing, Hand-to-Hand Combat, more live fire training than any Marine could dream of... and getting yelled at every day.
I visited the program from time-to-time usually to get the latest training manuals or feedback for some of the work we were doing to support units that were deployed, and from what I’ve seen the program is “way harder” than when I went through.
I don't miss that shit...
Speaking of getting yelled at, I remember a few years before I retired giving a briefing at the Pentagon, to Brigadier General Herman Claridy.
After I introduced myself I said, “Morning Sir, LtCol Ridenhour I’ll be briefing you on this program…”
He then stopped me and said, “Ridenhour, where do I know that name from?”
So I said, “Sir you were one of my instructors at IOC and you chewed me and Will Randal’s asses out for screwing up the counter-mech ambush out at David’s Crossroads.”
At this point everyone in the room is laughing.
He said, “I did not… well even if I did I don’t remember it…”
Which I said, “Well Sir of course you don’t remember it wasn’t your ass getting chewed out…”
He started to laugh and then said, "Well, I guess you're right..."
Ah…good times…
The great Vince Lombardi (also a former US Army Officer) use to have an expression that, “Fatigue makes a coward of us all”. This is because fatigue is debilitating, fatigue hurts, fatigue is pain. Humans generally shy away from pain and we generally associate violence with pain because generally it’s present when you are involved with it so we shy away from it.
We generally don’t want a confrontation because we may get hurt or worse. Understandable, but once involved in a confrontation win lose or draw once you realize that getting punched in the face isn’t the worst possible thing in the world it becomes less fearful. Most of us who have been in fights growing up didn’t fight because we wanted to we fought because it was a matter of survival. It was simple either fight back or become a perpetual victim. We adapted to the circumstances and proceeded from there.
As a side note, I personally believe that this so called “bullying” phenomena is the result of milquetoast school districts and their stupid administrators that punish good kids for defending themselves. So in effect most of these kids become more afraid of getting in trouble with the school for protecting themselves than they are of the bullies. They basically teach kids to be afraid and obedient. So guess what? Kids become afraid of the school or authority as well as the bullies thus victimized twice. This is like blaming the rape victim for getting raped.
“If you do not control the enemy, the enemy will control you”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
The reason I'm going to elaborate a little more on this issue is because I believe that much of the irrational fear people have starts at an early age and for many they carry this well into their adult lives. This dynamic by the way doesn't just end with childhood, I also believe this happens in the work place, at church, you name it, in the form of a lot of "passive aggressive" or "aberrant" behavior.
When I was a kid my father was having none of it, he not only encouraged that I fought back he demanded it! My father’s attitude was simple, either you get them or I’ll get you. Good on him… Trust me you punch enough people in the face and others get the message, “Do not fuck with me”!
My father in his prime was 6’3” and jacked like a body builder. He lifted no weights, he was just a farm boy from North Carolina, like all my relatives on my father’s side he was just a genetic freak. Even my aunts were jacked. They were the kind of people that even their jaw muscles were developed and you could see them flexing every time they chewed their food.
I remember one time (there were others), I think I was like in the 5th grade, my father cursed out one of my male teachers who kept me after school for fighting in class, “so bad” I thought the guy was going to pass out from fear. My father used so many curse words he almost turned the school purple. Samuel L. Jackson would have been proud of his use of the “m------f” expression. My father’s attitude was as long as I wasn’t starting trouble he didn’t care. Well, except for that time he had to pay for a window ; -)
I have clients who have young children and often they want to discuss this issue with me, I always tell them, 1) Let your child know they have every right to protect themselves and you will always have their back; 2) Just because they’re in school doesn’t mean they give up their right to self-protection. As I use to tell my own Son who had to put foot to ass quite a few times himself to the detriment of those whose faces he opened up, “literally”. As long as you’re not being the bully you’ll never get in trouble with me; 3) When you as the parent have the obligatory meeting robbing you of time off of your life with the stupid administrators put them on the spot. Let them know where you stand with your child and then ask them, where in the Hell was the adult supervision when these other kids were picking on your child? Oh yeah almost forgot and; 4) Do not be afraid to drop hints of possible legal action if it happens again.
Remember, they’re still your kid not theirs so screw them and their stupid polices or their feelings. If you don’t have your kids back, they will carry this fear around for a long time perhaps even for life. Children need to become warriors and have the confidence that their sword can prevail. They also need to know that you are willing as a parent to take up the sword and smite anyone who messes with them. You need to back their sword, if you don’t protect them who will?
My point is school is for learning and as parents you have an expectation that your child is going to be safe and that there is some modicum of adult supervision, discipline and safety. I can tell you many of our schools especially in our inner cities are literally like one step above our juvenile detention centers. It’s sad that many of our schools appear to have more razor wire on them than the "Bronx House of Detention".
Our schools are "cauldrons of fear" and damage in many cases people for life to include even some teachers. I have friends who left the teaching profession or certain schools for fear for their safety. They are nothing more than state funded babysitting services. It’s a sad dynamic where there is plenty of blame to go around too include a lot of bad parenting going on. How do you think these bad kids become like this? Believe me it isn’t about poverty because you see some of this behavior even in affluent school districts (what you think these school shootings happen in a vacuum?). As the preacher in my church use to say whenever a parent would blame their child’s bad behavior on ADHD, or some other nonsense he would correct them and tell them, no their child actually suffered from “ADP”, “A Discipline Problem”!
I could go on and on about the vicious cycle between school administrators who are afraid of getting sued; both good and bad teachers afraid of losing their jobs for disciplining bad kids; bad kids who pick on other kids because of the lack of parenting they receive and bogus rules that punish the victim; bad parents who want to blame the school for everything. Wash, rinse, repeat…
I coached high school football for a few years so I’ve seen this dynamic up close, like I said plenty of blame to go around. I've observed first hand how things can quickly devolve into "Lord of the Flies".
The truth is if you want to fix our schools you have to fix some parents first. Easy to fire teachers and administrators but you can’t fire the parents and if you remove the kids, which has to happen no matter what, you only make them someone else’s problem. Just my two cents…
Anyway, for people like myself who grew up in public housing fighting was a perfectly acceptable behavior and method to resolve problems. So for me as well as many of the people I grew up with it was a natural assumption that everyone at one point in their lives had fought at some point.
It really wasn’t until I went away to college that I would be in an environment where the majority of the men had never been in a fight before of any kind. For those who didn’t grow up in such an environment the notion of fighting, especially over some of the petty reasons my college roommate (who was from Jersey City) and I would talk about made absolutely no sense to them. They perceived such things as not only an unnecessary risk but extremely dangerous. Like I said in previous posts, “when you’re in the bowl with all of the other nuts you don’t think you’re a nut”.
This distinction I feel is important because without such a cultural experience in such an environment these things are alien to you. This is where I feel training and specifically training in Guided Chaos can help bridge this gap in peoples psyche.
I had an interesting conversation recently with a fellow instructor and one thing he said to me that I never really thought of and that is he believe ones of the reasons why people in Guided Chaos seem to get over the fear of getting hit a lot sooner than in other forms of training is because “we are always hitting each other”. Obviously we’re not striking to kill each other but we hit each other all-of-the-time, and with just enough force for people to feel and respect the effects of the strikes if for nothing else but to learn to appreciate it and avoid taking a strike directly. You may get hit but it is usually a graze or you’re able to shrug it off because you learn real fast how to move out of the way.
It’s funny but when I think back to my earlier training with Grandmaster Carron and how he had the unique ability to hit you with just enough force to bring you to “the edge of unconsciousness” yet would never injure you. No shit! He could do this. Sometimes I use to feel like Wyle E. Coyote getting an anvil dropped on me. When Grandmaster Perkins hits you, it’s like getting hit by a car. If you’ve ever been in a car accident before you know that “jolting” feeling you get? Yeah it’s like that. One minute you’re minding your own business loving life, the next thing you know you’re in sort of a daze checking to make sure all of the equipment in your body is still there and functioning. Like I said too funny…
For the remainder of this Blog Post I’m going to offer some pithy sayings as well as provide some commentary to hopefully put them in perspective as they relate to helping focus your mind to overcome fear. They are not in any specific order just some musings from the sword master.
“In strategy it is necessary to treat training as part of normal life with your spirit unchanging.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
As stated previously in all that you do you need to fuse this attitude with your everyday routine. Being a warrior is a matter of mind and spirit but in order to cultivate this spirit you need to put this way of thinking into practice daily until it just becomes who you are. We are what we repeatedly do.
“Nobody is strong and nobody is weak if he conceives of the body, from the head to the sole of the foot, as a unity in which a living mind circulates everywhere equally.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Complete Book of Five Rings
This saying is the essence of the Guided Chaos principle of “Body Unity” and needs to be cultivated in all of your training. In all that you do in training you want to learn to fight as much as possible with your whole body, your whole being. This is one of the hallmarks of all good martial artist regardless of fighting system. They have mastered through trial and error the ability to bring their whole being to the fight. This is why in Guided Chaos there is so much emphasis on developing "Body Unity".
“You may abandon your own body but you must preserve your honor.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
Whenever I do some Mindsetting one of the things I like to always impress on people is that sometimes no matter what, you just have to fight and that’s all there is to it. You can be doing everything right and still find yourself where you have to bust skulls. Along these lines a story I like to tell is about a recent incident that happened in our area a few years back. A Lawyer from our area, Dustin Friedman was murdered during a carjacking in front of his wife. The killers were later caught and sentenced to prison for the murder. While the details of why they shot him were not clear my guess is it wasn’t about the car and probably had more to do with him wanting to protect is wife. I’m just speculating here but that fact that there was a struggle and he was pistol whipped first before being shot tells me he tried to fight these guys off.
Again I’m just speculating but whatever it was, a strange glance, the tone of their voices or the way the men looked at them he probably thought they would harm his wife in some manner. That’s what I would assume.
To me this guys a hero because in fighting back he probably caused the shooter and the other men to panic and after shooting him they just took the car and sped off. I’m also willing to bet he didn’t just go down easy after he was shot which may be another reason they panicked and just took off. He gave his life for her and she's probably alive because of his actions. Good on him!
As I've said in other posts, when you stand for something greater than yourself you don't have to look for courage, "courage" finds you!
Like I said I don’t know all of the details but I’m giving this guy the benefit of the doubt. Others may disagree, but then again in such a situation you just don’t know and there are no easy answers here but I’ll tell you what. Me personally, if I thought they were going to abduct and rape my wife? Well they’re just going to have to kill me, it's really that simple to me. Like most husbands I’d rather die than "do nothing" and have to live with the knowledge of allowing my wife to be victimized. Anyway, you can read about the case here.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2018/01/18/3-men-face-sentencing-in-deadly-short-hills-mall-carjacking/
“The important thing in strategy is to suppress the enemy's useful actions but allow his useless actions”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
This is the epitome of the expression Grandmaster Perkins implies when he states that he throws a monkey wrench into what the other person is doing. It doesn’t matter what they are trying to do or how fast they are trying to do it. If you can get ahead of their movement and disrupt their action by causing them to have to change and adapt to your movement you can place them at a distinct disadvantage. Going back to previous Blog Posts remember the enemy is human and is bound by the same laws of physics as you and I and can only move but so fast. Each time you change your body position you change to parameters of the fight. Never make it easy for the bad guy to get a bead on you. Trip him up, make him guess, foul up his plans. There’s no such thing as a fair fight, fair fights are for losers and suckers.
“When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy... attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last… The primary thing when you take a sword in your hands is your intention to cut the enemy, whatever the means. Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike or touch the enemy's cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement. It is essential to attain this. If you think only of hitting, springing, striking or touching the enemy, you will not be able actually to cut him.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
When you strike you must strike with utter ruthless intention. You must move with all deliberateness at "supernatural speed" to end it as quickly as possible. Hesitation is doubt, “doubt” is fear getting in the way. Give him your fear, strike with impunity and make him fear you. Remember the bad guys don’t want to get hurt either. Once you are committed to the battle, you want to bring the fight right to the enemy and not the other way around. As we like to say in Guided Chaos when people ask how to deal with “this” or “that”, “Don’t let it happen in the first place… get there first and be done with it!”
“Efficiency and smooth progress, prudence in all matters, recognizing true courage, recognizing different levels of morale, instilling confidence, and realizing what can and cannot be reasonably expected—such are the matters on the mind of the master carpenter. The principle of martial arts is like this.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
In combat there only is “what is” within the moment, the “now”. There are no perfect situations and as Carl von Clausewitz states, “No plan survives initial contact…” Mike Tyson sums it up more practically when he stated, “Everybody’s got a plan until they get hit in the face…” The point is “perfection” in such matters while a noble goal in training, is not necessary to succeed in battle. First of all, it is “unknowable”, which once again brings me back to why I poo-poo on the notion that a person has to have been in a real fight before in order to know how to fight. Every battle brings new lessons and even in victory there is something to be learned because there are always things that can be improved upon and there usually are mistakes.
“Whatever the Way, the master of strategy does not appear fast.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
There is a timing to everything especially in combat. In the military we’re always using terms like “time, space, logistics” or my favorite “battle space geometry”. When moving Grandmaster Perkins often describes his movement as moving with his whole body within his "Sphere of Influence". He explains that there are spheres within spheres or what I like to refer to as “The Quantum Sphere” where the movement within these spheres becomes so refined that it creates the appearance as if he’s moving either in slow motion or not at all. Grandmaster Carron moved like this as well.
I believe this ability is more akin to the term I used above as battle space geometry however, I believe this ability to move in this fashion is relative to the person you’re dealing with. I say this because often when one of our students has had to apply their skills for real they say it’s as if the person either stood there for it or they walked right into their strike. I believe this is also because “they” (the student) is moving in such an efficient manner that it throws off the timing of the other person.
There’s some other phenomena that I believe takes place that is beyond the scope of what I want to cover here. It also may explain why they don’t recall being scared at the time.
“Perceive that which cannot be seen with the eye.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
As students have herd me say a number of times, “If you can’t see it with your mind you can’t see it with your eyes.” Meaning if you can’t envision it you could be looking right at something that may be a danger to you and not be aware of the level of danger you’re in until it’s too late. It’s impossible to see everything but a big part of overcoming fear is “awareness” and just by being aware gives you more time to react and as I’ve experienced myself numerous times less apprehensive. This is where I always tell people when in doubt always trust your gut instinct. If it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t. whether training to strike, move out of the way or adjusting your body posture it starts with an aware mind. Not a hyper vigilant or fearful mind but an aware mind.
“To become the enemy, see yourself as the enemy of the enemy”
― Miyamoto Musashi, A Book of Five Rings
Too many people focus on what the enemy can do to them. Too many people worry about the bad guys and for my money I think at times whether in the military, law enforcement or in the martial arts we sometimes give the enemy too much credit. Yes, I agree that you should never underestimate your enemy/attacker. But I also believe you can “psych yourself out” by overly worrying about what your enemy can do and not enough on what you will do to him.
I’ll tell you a story and my students have heard this a thousand times. So anyway, I’m sitting in the diner one day with Grandmaster Perkins when his uncle Bob calls. His uncle was a WWII Marine Vet of the Pacific. So when he tells his uncle that he’s just sitting there talking with me, his uncle tells him he wants to speak with me.
Mind you this guy has seen it all and at the time he was I believe 80 years old and he was in the hospital at the time. So he says to me,
“Hello Colonel, I just wanted to talk to you because my nephew has told me so much about you. I just wanted to tell you that when you look at the enemy you must think of him as prey. You have to look at him as if he is to be hunted and killed, remember think of him as prey…”
Now, he could have told me anything, you know live a good clean Christian life, honor your family, don’t eat yellow snow etc. instead he tells me, “you must look at your enemy as prey…”
That’s what I’m talking about!
I am so all about that plan and that way of thinking. You see the disgraceful spirit of fear overly worries about the bad guys. The Spirit of Victory keeps the bad guys up at night, makes them worry, because it looks at them as “prey”.
“You should not have a favorite weapon. To become over-familiar with one weapon is as much a fault as not knowing it sufficiently well.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Holy Cow! If I had a dime for every time someone asks me what my favorite weapon is or what is the best weapon to have or gun, or caliber to have, knife to have etc. I could buy a small island. Although I am partial to my folding Kukri, I try to avoid this mentality. To me it’s a trap that only serves to close off your mind. If you have to fight for your life you shouldn’t care whether the weapon you may have to use is a gun, knife, broken bottle or an ashtray. It's like these guys I’ve run across in the military who go out and buy like some $500 custom made Randal Knife but then when you ask them to do something with it they’re like, “No way man! do you know how much this cost?”
To me as far as knives are concerned if I can’t dig in the dirt with it, pry open a crate of ammo and it can still hold a decent edge I don’t need it. If you’re serious about learning how to fight above all understand that at the end of the day, it’s not the weapon it’s you.
When I was a kid, I guess I was like in the fourth grade, my mother had this crazy notion that me learning how to play the violin was a good idea. Both me and my music teacher Mr. Marcassoni begged to differ. Anyway, he use to always say to us whenever we complained that, “It is a poor musician who blames his instrument…” I also remember me and Tony Alanzo, getting kicked out of music class for sword fighting with the bow. I just thought it was a better use for it until my father had to pay for the bow.
I remember once when my Son was about I’d say 12 or 13 years old he asked me, “Pop what’s the best weapon?” I then cleared my throat summoning up some Yoda-like wisdom and touched him on the top of the head and said, “Right here, this is the weapon everything else is just a tool…” As we say in the Marine Corps, it’s not the dope on the scope but the dope behind the rifle.
Alexander the Great had a great saying about this he would state, "The most well made tools are worthless in the hands of those unskilled in their use..."
Remember, a weapon I don’t care if it’s the back of the toilet seat is but an extension of your body and your being. This is where your mind needs to be. This is how you must think, thinking any other way diminishes you to think otherwise becomes nothing more than a psychological crutch.
As you can imagine I drive my wife nuts when we go to restaurants because she always catches me scoping things out (practicing what I preach). One time we were out and after a few moments she said, “Fifteen… there are fifteen weapons on this table now stop doing that.”
Although I think I only counted ten, apparently she was on her game as well.
I was all about it…
“In the strategy of my school, keep your body and mind straight and make your opponent go through contortions and twist about. The essence is to defeat him in the moment when, in his mind, he is pivoting and twisting. You should examine this well.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Complete Book of Five Rings
One day I’m going to write a second part to the “Fighting in the Future” Blog Post I did some time back and talk about how Grandmaster Perkins, has the ability to throw you off and make you walk into strikes. I don’t care who you are when working with him you can only describe the experience as always feeling “awkward”. However, in your training never neglect the importance of deception through movement or what the Grandmaster calls “slight of mind” or “slight of body”.
It is the ability to move in such a way whereas like the matador in the bull fight you already throw the bulls movement off as soon as you began to move becoming unavailable yet unavoidable. When they move, you move and if you even think they’re going to move on you, move and get there first. This is a very unique skill and in my mind where you want to take your skills. The ability to get ahead of another person’s movement should not be underestimated. In my mind it is the decisive edge you want to attain. Think of the confidence you would have knowing how to neutralize an attacker’s initial movements? Think of fear you could overcome and harness with such an edge?
Final Thoughts
- Fear is normal, fear is a part of being human and is natural we all have it the question is what you do with it or about it?
- Rational Fear preserves you Irrational Fear works against you, drains you
- Courage is not the absence of fear but what you do when you’re afraid
- No one is so brave that the unexpected does not startle them
- You can only die but once but to live in dread of it is to die over and over
- Cultivate the Spirit of Victory and think of your enemy as prey and focus on being the hunter not the hunted
- We are all human and the enemy doesn’t want to be injured any more than you do. Do not give him too much credit, respect him but do not fear him he is not a "god"
- You can only move but so fast and so can your attacker, he is bound by the same physical laws as you and I are and can be cut down just as swiftly
- Bring the fight to the enemy make him deal with you and control the battle and do not let it control you
- Remember the way you train is the way you fight so train to fight for real, train to the edge and not beyond it
- Focus both your mind and body on doing what you can do within your own body and fight with your whole being
- Train as if your life depends on it at all times even in "play", because some day it just might
- Strike first and do not hesitate if you have to go into action
- When you train always think how hard do you want to strike, how balanced would you want to be, how elusive would you want to be, how fast, how coordinated?
- Do not leave this earth with your weapons still unsheathed, let all of the blood be on the front of you and leave it all on the field of battle
- Preserve your honor even at the cost of your life, better to die a warriors death than live in shame and regret
Well that’s it for this probably the last installment on Overcoming Fear. I hope you enjoyed reading these blog posts as much as I enjoyed writing them and I hope they were of use to you.
As always I leave you with a final quote to ponder.
“There is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to get better, stronger, richer, quicker, or smarter. Everything is within. Everything exists. Seek nothing outside of yourself.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings
Thank you,
LtCol Al Ridenhour
Senior Master Instructor
GUIDED CHAOS
For more go to: https://protectyourself.mykajabi.com/
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