The eight basic sword forms are a set that provide a frame work that can be translated for empty hand. In this regard, the sword forms are concepts that inform the empty hand techniques, specifically shihonage.
Form 1. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, step back – bone lock Form 2. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, step forward – bone lock Form 3. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, tenkan Form 4. Gyakuhanmi katatedori, drawing/lead tenkan Form 5. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, back foot moves 90 degrees back, front foot follows – hands lock at point of contact – uke elbow pronates in Form 6. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, back foot moves 90 degrees forward (cross body), front foot follows – same hand lock Form 7. Aihanmi katatedori, palm up, thumb over, tenkan Form 8. ‘Basic’ Gyakuhanmi katatedori – present palm up – front leg starts 90 degrees – palm vertical
As I grow older, I worry that my vision will continue to degrade. During my last eye exam, my optometrist asked me my age, 50, I answered. “Ah, your eyes will continue to go to shit until about 65 and then it will level out.” Candid, but not reassuring.
Eyesight is very important to me and mine isn’t great. It also impedes my combat-efficacity.
I took my boys to Threat Dynamics to do some interactive simulated shooting and live-fire range time. Threat Dynamics has a 300-degree interactive environment that forces you to engage random targets which can appear all around you. There are auditory signals that clue you in on where they will appear, but you have to orient, observe and react before they disappear. Despite me having far more training and familiarity with handguns, both my boys scored better than I did. My reaction time was as good and my accuracy better than theirs, but my perceptual speed was worse. The targets I found and saw, I hit, but I didn’t see as many as they did.
JKD segments and classifies types of speed. Perceptual speed is crucial to your reactionary time. In order to react to a threat, you first need to observe the threat, then orient on it in order to decide what to do and act accordingly (OODA). What range time reminds me is that I have a challenge with both perceptual acuity as well as orientation (the time it takes to recognize a threat). I also noticed this when hunting sage rats – I wasn’t nearly as quick to spot the varmints as the other hunters – and I don’t think it was simply my lack of experience.
Perceptual speed is probably the single most important type of speed for survival. And arguably it is a deep part of our genetic inheritance. In The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well (2009), Lynne Isbell cogently argues that our visual acuity results from the need to quickly identify predatory threats, specifically snakes. The hypothesis she develops is that predatory pressure from snakes selected for threat detection, thus snakes were responsible for the development of primate vision which is now our most developed sensory interface and results in the disproportionately large size of the pulvinar region of the brain.[1]
Fortunately for me, perceptual speed in monomachy is not focused on visual identification as much as it is on the detection of motion and intuiting threatening range – seeing furtive movements and understanding combat distance.
In weapons training, I have focused on teaching the points along the continuum of motion to recognize as cues that merit a response. Recognizing those moments requires rote repetition to be sure – practice and more practice to ingrain the pattern and see the openings. But rote repetition needs refinement to learn to see the tsuki (openings). We have focused on finding these moments along the descending arc of the opponent’s sword because those brief time intervals are when possibility expands to counter-cuts, stop hits and disarms.
Learning to see those moments is the focus of training as soon as the pattern (kumitachi) is ingrained. Move beyond the rote and learn to identify opportunities created by the logic-chain.
Once you have learned to see openings, the next step is learning to anticipate them by reading the intention of your opponent.
Human eyes differ from great apes by having sclera – the white surrounding the pupil. This allows us to read each other’s focus – and we watch each other intently, recursive attention: We watch the other’s eyes to see what holds their attention. What do they want? If I know what they want I can predict their behavior. This is a critical social skill to master and we do it reflexively.
And as students of the martial arts, we need to exploit reflexive behavior in others while training/controlling our own. By watching the focal point of your opponent, you can anticipate their target. Hence the corollary strategy of hiding your eyes.
Eye-protection during training, yes, but the habit is deeper – much harder to read his intention. Disguise your intentions.
Misdirection is another key skill to develop – learn to look both no where (mushin no shin) and intensively at false targets. By shifting your gaze you can lead an opponent. And you lead by moving your pupil and that movement is transmitted by the contrast of the sclera showing providing the background, the field of movement.
The level of concentration is paramount in weapons training. The physical exertion isn’t as important as the mental focus. Each cut should be a kill-stroke, therefore each cut needs intense visual focus. You see what you aim at.[2] This concentration can be disguised and then used for misdirection.
Play with misdirection. You can do this in everyday conversations to practice. In the course of normal conversation, quickly shift your focus on something behind your interlocutor and watch their reaction. Do they break their focus to follow yours? It’s a game to develop the skill.
The things you do everyday are not mundane – they are of paramount importance! Statistically you repeat these actions the most. So integrate your training into these actions.
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[1] Inquiry continues to both validate and disprove her hypothesis but I look to two salient facts: Ophidiophobia (phobia of snakes) is one of the most common and intense phobias among the general population and intriguingly, ayahuasca celebrants report snakes as the most common vision. One also could expand the thesis to account for dragons, which are an amalgam of predators of primates: snake, cat, and raptor.
[2] The negative side of this is tunnel vision – focus on the single problem in front of you to the dangerous exclusion of all other input. Once you master the ability to focus on your target, you need to move to the next level of breaking tunnel vision – see the entirety (the Gestalt) of the situation.
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Scientifically study human perception and Kant’s inquiry of the ding an sich dissolves in the acid test of biology and pragmatics. The very possibility of a thing in itself, not mediated through perception by the senses or conceptualization, can be dismissed entirely. Human perception and reality is comprised of ‘affordances.’ In his Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979), Gibson develops the argument that our perception is mediated at a deep level by biological demands. Thus, we do not see a “cliff” but rather a ‘place to fall from’ and we do not see “rock” but a ‘thing that can be thrown.’ This has profound implications. Gone is the Kantian imperative that people are not means to an end, since every object is perceived as nothing more than a tool (a thing that helps us to get to achieve our goal) or an obstacle (a negative impediment to our progress). Consider being at a party with friends and acquaintances. A fire erupts and one time ‘acquaintances’ and ‘friends’ become concrete obstacles that limit your access to the exit. We are built to see the world at a level of resolution to bifurcate our perceptual classification into tools and obstacles (threats). Layer Darwinian selection on this concept of affordances and one must acknowledge that this classification system is a selected survival mechanism. Inspiration >here<
Sing, Goddess, Achilles’ rage, Black and murderous, that cost the Greeks Incalculable pain, pitched countless souls Of heroes into Hades’ dark, And left their bodies to rot as feasts For dogs and birds, as Zeus’ will was done. Begin with the clash between Agamemnon– The Greek warlord–and godlike Achilles.
So opens the Illiad. Homer focuses our attention on the combatants: this is an epic struggle between two Greeks, Achilles against Agamemnon, even if the bulk of the verses are about the gristly combat of Greek against Trojan.
Achilles retreats to his tent and refuses to enter into combat because Agamemnon took honor from him (Briseis). We moderns need to understand that this isn’t just a personal insult leading to a sulking response (even if Achilles was in fact a petulant teen-ager).[1]
Achilles’ rage results from the loss of honor, not personal pride, but his standing. His standing amongst his fellow kings is diminished by Agamemnon. In a positional culture where your worth is determined by the honors others bestow upon you, this public taking by Agamemnon is a direct insult and an overt power play.
Achilles withdraws from combat (elite competition par excellence) to show everyone precisely how necessary he is to Greek success. He is the greatest warrior and he will prove it with the pain of his absence and triumphantly with his dominating return.
The ancient Greeks were competitors bar none. They fought with everyone and defined the world competitively to demonstrate arête – excellence. Ancient Greek education (paideia) sought to teach the ideals of moral (and practical) excellence and the Greeks split the world in a binary manner – you either shared the ideals of paideia or you didn’t. Arête was an ideal to achieve and the binding concept which demands contest. The Greeks awarded prizes for excellence and competed in everything. They were the first “best of…” list makers. In Book 23 of the Iliad, right after Achilles kills Hector, the Greeks return to camp, blood splattered but victorious, to honor Patroklos with a funeral pyre and games of competition. They nominate judges and name prizes to be awarded the winners of each contest; the best charioteer, the best boxer, the best wrestler, spear fighter, etc., all of whom struggle (at grave personal risk) to prove their excellence.
The Greeks perfected this elite contest and all the quarrelsome city-states sent their very best to compete before the gods at the Sanctuary of Zeus in Elis. That site, Achaia Olympia, gives us the name for the Olympics.
The Olympics celebrate the pinnacle of human achievement, show us the limits of what the human body and spirit can achieve, and provide exemplars of what we should all strive for – that binding and galvanizing sense of paideia.
How far we have fallen. What a travesty these once-great games have become! I am aghast to see the talking heads laud Simone Biles for walking away in the middle of competition. The media is calling her brave? That is linguistic corruption—doublespeak at its best. That is the very opposite of the definition of bravery. This coddle-culture that celebrates weakness has infected the very ideals of elite athletic performance.
Why do we fall down?
The ancients would not have understood this inversion. For them, failure was instruction, pain was proof of striving, and competition itself was sacred.
Indeed! A lesson learned in childhood
Imagine other elites using the same failure-logic. “Sorry general, but Seal Team 6 is having a mental health day…” Ludicrous! It’s absurd, and it reveals how far the contagion of fragility has spread. We are discussing the best in the world who have trained mercilessly for years, dedicated their entire lives to show us the tested limits of human physical achievement. For the media to focus on and celebrate Simone’s failure of will is a travesty and diminishes the accomplishments of the other athletes.
Achilles walked away from the battle to provide a context that would force everyone to know with visceral pain that he was the greatest of all time. Simone – you ain’t no GOAT – you gave up. You just taught the next generation of elite athletes that it is okay to quit – in the middle of the Olympics! Quit before you get there so that people who can handle the pressure get to show what they are capable of.
I know if this post were widely read I would be chastised by all those who believe mental health issues should be given more prominence because they are real health problems. Yes, I know mental health issues are real. But that isn’t the point. The point is that while mental health issues deserve compassion and treatment, they should not be confused with heroism. They need to be addressed privately, not celebrated publicly as examples of courage.
And most importantly, it has no place in conversations about elite performance. By definition, the elite are those who perform under conditions that would break ordinary people.
The Greeks understood this truth instinctively: excellence demands cost, honor requires endurance, and civilization is built by those who refuse to quit.
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[1] Ruth Benedict popularized the shame vs guilt cultural description in her The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. The terminology is broad-stroke and sociological refinements like Emmanuel Todd‘s shift the focus, but remain essentially an analysis of how individual psychology is culturally constrained. A more recent global survey was just published (Sept. 2021) by the National Bureau of Economic Research: Herding, Warfare, and a Culture of Honor. It is a global survey of Shame societies:
According to the widely known ‘culture of honor’ hypothesis from social psychology, traditional herding practices are believed to have generated a value system that is conducive to revenge-taking and violence. We test this idea at a global scale using a combination of ethnographic records, historical folklore information, global data on contemporary conflict events, and large-scale surveys. The data show systematic links between traditional herding practices and a culture of honor. First, the culture of pre-industrial societies that relied on animal herding emphasizes violence, punishment, and revenge-taking. Second, contemporary ethnolinguistic groups that historically subsisted more strongly on herding have more frequent and severe conflict today. Third, the contemporary descendants of herders report being more willing to take revenge and punish unfair behavior in the globally representative Global Preferences Survey. In all, the evidence supports the idea that this form of economic subsistence generated a functional psychology that has persisted until today and plays a role in shaping conflict across the globe.
Protective Arts 