So, what does Musashi mean by the “weapons” element of his
statement that to train the sword we have to understand war, weapons, and men?
Perhaps this is the most straightforward of the three
variables to combat; at least it’s the most familiar – it’s what martial arts
traditionally focus on. For Musashi it meant the kinds of weapons that the
Samurai was likely to use or to face: swords, bows, spears, knives, guns,
sickles, flails, staffs, and the like. What does it mean for us, here and now?
Again, I want to disaggregate things slightly; to go into
more detail. First, weapons – in the case of modern civilian combatives – is not
simply the physical tools of punching and kicking. We have lots of “weapons” at
our disposal. How we look (our appearance), how we carry ourselves (our
deportment), how we speak or use our voice, can all be effective “weapons” for
avoiding, forestalling, diffusing, or winning a physical confrontation. If we
look like a “hard target,” or we remain calm and confident if tested out by a
would-be assailant, then we have employed a “weapon” at our disposal. These
things need to be worked on and practiced by the vast majority of people. How
we walk, address others, clothe our bodies, and the like are crucial elements
of the combative spectrum to own for ourselves. Perhaps they would be better labelled
as “tools” in modern parlance.
Other tools include running, of course. The goal of
self-protection is to get home safe and sound, free of legal hassles or any
other post-event stuff, at the end of the day. The goal isn’t to knock some guy
out, or (worse still) to kill somebody with our deadly secret ninja
dragon-beak-to-the-wisdom-tooth strike. Such ends are erroneous, misguided.
They may be a means to achieving the goal of getting home safe (though there’s
more effective ways than the dragon-beak strike), but they’re not ends in
themselves. Therefore, we have no business hanging around in a physical
confrontation any longer than we absolutely have to (in the cases of security,
police, or military operatives this clause of absolutely have to may be different to the civilian exit point).
Running is therefore a major tool, and it needs to be practiced. I know of so
many martial artists who run. They do it for cardio. Good. But do they do it as
though they’re being chased? Do they run as though their very life depended on
it? Few I’ve met do. The vast majority plod the streets or treadmill, perhaps
looking for a better time. Run differently: choose your course or end-point.
Get there as quickly as possible. Imagine someone chasing you – 5 of them armed
with knives and bats. Take whatever short cuts you can. Hide in places for a
minute or so. Sprint in the open, jog when you’re in an area that’s hidden from
view. It’ll put a whole new inflection on things!
Like all things, running, using our body-language, making
our image congruent, using our voice are skills.
We develop these attributes by practice. If we don’t practice, we won’t have
the skills when it comes to the crunch. I want to be as combatively efficient as
possible, so the whole spectrum needs practicing. I’m not so good at running
these days – back, knee, ankle, and age put pay to that – so I have to rely on
other things. But for those still in one piece, practice running. It won’t be
something that simply happens under the stress of a violent attack. We never
rise to our expectations, we always fall to our lowest level.
An anecdote to ram the point home. A relative of mine once
said that all this martial arts or self-defence stuff was just BS. All he’d do,
and all he’d told his 16 year old daughter to do is run away. Everything else
was just money-making crap that didn’t work. There are a few obvious problems
with this approach – do you know where
you’re running to? Can you actually outrun your assailant? Can your daughter
actually run in those platform shoes she’s got on? – but I leave these aside. I
simply stood up and “woofed” him just like we do on a FAST course. I got closer
to him and told him what a jerk he was, and that he’d just insulted me. He
continued the argument by firing back; I had spiked his adrenaline and he was
angry now. The rest of the room was quiet. I let him carry on for a few seconds
and then pointed my finger in a gun shape and said “pow!” and smiled. He didn’t
see the significance at first and got more angry. I simply said, ‘why aren’t you
running?’ He, like everyone else had either frozen in place, or (in his case)
started to fight (if only verbally). He didn’t take flight despite his earlier
claims. Why didn’t he? Well, probably because his sentiment wasn’t genuine, but
most likely because he’d NEVER practiced
running away from that sort of situation.
Part two next...
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