Graham's Story
If I can't see it I don't believe it
Before I start let me give you a brief history of my journey in Martial Arts. I started training when I was 18. It’s difficult to believe that was 34 years ago.
The reason I started was that I was attacked on the way home from a dance, for absolutely no reason, by a gang of skinheads. I suppose it was their idea of a good night out but it left me having to go to hospital.
I started training in Wado Ryu style karate. In those days dojo etiquette was strictly enforced and the training was hard. In particular the sparring was at times brutal.
I was lucky enough however to train under some of the top Japanese Sensei including Suzuki Sensei (7th Dan) and Maeda Sensei (5th Dan) who was at that time the Japanese Karate Champion.
All gradings were conducted in Japanese and most were in London
also grades could only be conducted by Japanese Sensei.
I eventually reached 1st Kyu and took my Dan grade in Liverpool
at one of the twice yearly Dan gradeings.
The Dan grade took a whole day and at the end of it I had
failed. It was the first gradeing I had ever failed and,
following that, a mixture of dejection, injury and getting
married meant my previous 4 nights a week training regime became
more sporadic.
Eventually after a few years I had stopped training altogether.
Following a break of about two years I found a Wado club in
Mountbatten School in Romsey and started training again.
One evening I arrived for the class only to find that it had
closed and that it's training spot had been taken by a style
called Goshin Jutsu.
I decided to give it a try and, as they say, the rest is history. That was over 12 years ago and I have been training in Goshin Jutsu ever since.
Although I struggled with some of the physical aspects, as it was different in some ways from my previous training, my previous training had given me an excellent grounding and although I am still far from mastering a lot of techniques, I did manage to cope with the training.
My real difficulty, and this is where I get to the point, was with the mental aspects of the training.Let me state right now that I have always been one of life’s cynics, if I can’t see it, touch it, taste it or hear it then it does not exist. I am sure that some of you reading this can relate to my apprehension. Stand here with my eyes closed and try to “feel” an opponent’s intention ?. You can’t be serious. Not only do I feel stupid but I must look pretty stupid to.
So what has changed. I am still a person who does not just take things at face value but I have learnt to keep an open mind about what is possible.
We live in a culture that requires complete scientific evidence before we accept but if you look at the facts then there is every reason to believe that your mind can have a physical effect on your body.
Lets look at the facts. Most top athletes are pretty well
matched physically but what separates the winners from the rest.
How many times have you heard a sport commentator say he/she won
because they were the best mentally prepared. How many sports
teams now employ someone whose only role is as a motivator.
What all these people are basically saying is that your mind can
affect your physical performance. Even with years of study,
scientists still have no idea of the function of parts of the
brain. In my opinion it is just possible that these may at some
time in our evolution been responsible for senses that we no
longer use in the 21st Century. Given that we no longer face a
day to day struggle to stay alive and that our modern stress is
of a different nature then perhaps we all posses skills that we
have just forgotten how to use. That's not based on any
scientific fact that’s just my opinion.
Find it hard to believe that you can harness internal energy and make yourself “stronger”, well most of us have experience of thinking ourselves “weaker”.
Ever gone to work feeling perfectly ok and someone says “ You
alright ?, you don’t look very well”. If you are anything like
me you can start thinking well I do feel like a may be coming
down with something.
What about when you are thinking about taking that exam or your
driving test. Just thinking about that stressful situation can
affect you physically even though you are not actually facing
it.
So maybe you can also use your mental skills to improve your physical ability. I certainly don’t believe that I can shoot bolts of energy across the room into an opponent and I would have serious concerns about anyone who told me they could. I do however believe that I can harness internal energy to enhance my karate technique. I also believe that people do have an innate sense of when something is wrong or when someone means you harm. Its just a matter of trusting your instincts.
I also draw on my own personal experience. I am in my 50’s now and well past my physical prime so if it’s all just a matter of physical strength then my Karate should be getting weaker. That’s not however how I feel. In fact in many ways I feel my techniques have been getting stronger. Ok so I can’t kick as high or punch as fast as I could 25 years ago but I can still compete on the mat with Blackbelts half my age who should, on physical ability alone, be capable of beating me.
So my advice is just suspend disbelief for a while and work on the mental side of the art. It’s not an alternative to practising the physical skills it merely complements them. Just don’t expect miracles. Most change is incremental and it takes practise to improve. After all you didn’t expect to master maegeri or gyakazuki in your first lesson did you, so why should the mental skills be any different.
What have you got to lose. If it doesn’t work for you then you can just forget it. You never know until you try.
Graham Leigh
3rd Dan Goshin Jutsu
