situational awareness

DISPLAYS OF POWER

“Son, there are assholes everywhere” was my father‘s pithy rejoinder when I complained about some idiot or another – something I did frequently as a teenager. That reminder didn’t mean that assholes are the most common form of people, but that everyone had the capacity to be one. Hence my axiomatic approach – “trust butContinue reading “DISPLAYS OF POWER”

ZANSHIN AS THE PRESENTATION OF SELF

Zanshin 残心 is the relaxed state of awareness visibly displayed by the practitioner’s posture at the end of the technique. Often instructors hide behind foreign lexicon to slather a mystic veneer on the martial arts. I am a pragmatic American and for me the terms need a better explanation and translation. I crib the title fromContinue reading “ZANSHIN AS THE PRESENTATION OF SELF”

Recursive attention: we pay attention to what others pay attention to. Think of any accident. Crowds form in part because when one person stops to watch, that attracts more people – the size of the group paying attention to the event increases the percentage that others will also pay attention. Inextricably related to what attracts our attentionContinue reading “SITUATIONAL AWARENESS”