Physical Conditioning/Fitness

                                  

 

Boulder Colorado CU Campus

The Indian Peaks

Bob Jay, Sensei and Bob Webster / AKS Boulder 


   The body you have now is what you have to work with. Whether you are naturally athletic, or limited in your natural ability, what you do with what you have is up to you. This is true at any age.
A healthy diet, good sleeping habits, regular exercise, and other healthy choices are a natural consequence of the desire to be at your physical best, whether preparing for competition, or training to live like a warrior.

    Martial arts training complements, and is complemented by almost any sports or fitness regimen. Strength, flexibility, and endurance all benefit from the exercises and practice in the dojo. More important, as with any sport or challenge, the desire to improve is a strong motivator to practice good fitness habits.

    I was, at best, a mediocre athlete when I started practicing Jujutsu. I was also lazy, I smoked, and I had so strayed from any regular exercise regimen that only vanity, and habit, kept me doing a few basic calisthenics. My only cardio workouts were the occasional hikes at altitude that made me painfully aware of how unfit I was. I had met Joan, the love of my life, but we were apart while she studied her Junior year abroad in Bordeaux, and I was out of school, living aimlessly.

    The Jujutsu class was demanding enough that I quickly realized what wretched shape I was in. Moreover I was motivated not just to get through the class, but to become good at it. I’d grown up imagining Judo to be the acme of martial arts, though I knew next to nothing about it. Jujutsu was more what I had imagined Judo to be than Judo itself. (Back in the mid 20th century a shuto was still often referred to as a “judo chop”). Jujutsu warm-ups made me aware of my weakness and lack of flexibility. Falling (Ukemi) exercise, throwing and grappling quickly exposed my lack of endurance. I began a lax regimen of stretching and calisthenics, along with practicing, in pantomime, the footwork and techniques I was learning in class.

    And then I saw the demonstration that changed my life. Seeing Shihan Goody and his Yudansha demonstrate the possibilities, the beauty and elegance of the gentle art, I was inspired. I was invited to join the Jujutsu class in Denver while continuing our Boulder classes. Twice a week workouts and the desire to excel, for personal reasons, as well as the ego driven desire to impress my Sensei, pushed me to more organized workouts, calisthenics, and repetitions of the jujutsu drills and techniques I learned. I started running again. It killed me to build up to the first mile. I tried to quit smoking, and succeeded, again and again.

    When Joan returned from France we got engaged. Her brother had a Siberian Husky, Frosty, who ran on his vet’s sled dog team. In the winter we became handlers as he raced the team with the Rocky Mountain Sled Dog Club . Darrel Norgren, the vet, asked me if I would like to run a four dog team in a short race, four or five miles. Sure, why not, how hard can it be. The dogs do all the work! Wrong! With four dogs in Colorado snow at 8,000 feet I spent precious little time on the runners. If I wanted to finish, let alone compete, I had to run uphills, kick on the level, and slow the sled without using the brake on downhills. Four miles was not a short race! But we finished competitive. I was hooked. Joan and I acquired our lead dog from a breeding with her brother’s Siberian, and with Tasha and Frosty and three or four borrowed dogs we started training our own team.

    In the course of earning my black belt in Jujutsu, I ran sled dogs in the winter, raced from spring through fall with the Rocky Mountain Road Runners, trained in Tang Soo Do (karate), trained and rock climbed with one of Boulder’s best, Tom Fender, my eventual Uke, competed in Judo and Karate tournaments, and married the most supportive and patient woman in the world, Joan.

    To anyone who would like to study Jujutsu but find you are too busy with other sports or activities, I would suggest that Jujutsu will help you to improve at any sport, athletic endeavor or activity. Besides benefitting you physically and enhancing your safety, Jujutsu teaches control of mind and body, control that can be seen in the confidence and power you bring to sports, as well as other aspects of your life.

A MAN WHO HAS ATTAINED MASTERY OF AN ART REVEALS IT IN THE HIS EVERY ACTION.

Mind Control III

                                                      Influencing others.

    As teachers, parents, and mentors we want to influence the minds of our students so that they choose wisely and excel at what they choose to do. In an autocratic society like feudal Japan proper behavior was demanded, and strictly enforced by reward and punishment. In many of our relationships in a more democratic society, when we are in a position of authority, the judicious application of the reward/punishment model can compel a desired behavior. However to encourage self determination, inspire responsible decision making, and motivate our students or children to excel we should respect their social equality.

    A dojo is an autocratic environment. For reasons of safety, efficient instruction, instilling respect, and tradition, rules for conduct and etiquette are taken seriously. Progress is rewarded, mistaken behavior is discouraged. In some cases physical punishment is applied, however even in traditional schools, like the American Budo College, this is usually as a logical consequence of the behavior. 
    Shihan Goody exacted discipline. He could be, and was, autocratic and intimidating. However he taught with extraordinary empathy. He led by example, a life of honor, and service, and remarkable achievement. He taught brilliantly, demanding but always encouraging. He let his students at all levels and ages, know that he expected a lot of them. From youth judo students to ranking black belts we all worked hard to live up to his expectations. All students were treated with respect, as fellow warriors, regardless of rank.

                                                                                                                                 

Walter F. Doris, Sensei, Jujutsu Go Dan, ABC,

with Ron Small, Sensei WMJS, at Small's Falls (ca 1995)

    Shihan Goody and Sensei Doris taught me many lessons for Empowering students to develop their potential, among them:
    Empathy, teach with the needs of the students, not the teacher, foremost in your mind.
    Example, follow and teach the Way. Be a good example.
    Encourage, not just with praise, but the encouragement that allows self discovery.
    Expectations, what you expect is usually what you experience. Alter a man's expectations and you change his life.
    In later years I learned about the Pygmalion effect, or principle. The way in which people view you influences your behavior. The way in which you view people, the expectations you have of them, influence their behavior. Call someone a warrior and he or she will behave like a warror. The negative corollary is proverbial. "Call a man a thief and he will steal."
        

    It is a axiom of Saimen Jutsu that to influence another person's mind you must first control your own. To face a belligerent enemy without showing anger or fear is disarming thing. In formal training we would practice receiving attacks with quiet mind, and defending dispassionately, until each attack and defense became a meditation. Even the posture we take in facing a potential attack, the ready stance (fudo dachi), facing forward with feet shoulder width apart, knees and arms slightly bent, seeks to dissuade hostility, neither provoking nor inviting aggression while subtly preparing for a sudden attack.
    It is hard to overstate the importance of meditation in preparing mentally for a potential confrontation. Learning to calm the mind by regularly practicing zazen, whether using visualization, or mantra, or simply breathing with deliberate awareness, you develop a pathway that, with a mental picture, or silent chant, or a deep breath can slow your racing heart and focus your thoughts even in a crisis.

    It's much harder to attack someone who's neither angry nor afraid, but simply willing to hear the reason for the hostility. Most confrontations would be defused if only one person would avoid escalating. If an attack does occur the stance, and the state of quiet readiness, make practiced avoidance a spontaneous reaction.
    The way you face an adversary influences his behavior. His perception of what you expect will depend more on body language and manner than words. Knowing that you have the skills to defend yourself, and the practice to manage your emotions, you can be calm, and walk away from most fights without any violence. A fight is over when you can safely walk away.

   If a situation escalates and you find yourself having to defend against an attack, nothing about your posture betrays your fighting skill, while everything from your eye contact to your lack of anger or fear create doubts and hesitation in would be bullies or assailants. The kiai (warrior's shout) can disrupt an attack and freeze the attacker while amplifying your counter-attack.

                  Your greatest weapon is your enemy's mind - Buddha

 

    Shihan demonstrated and taught both aspects of mind control. I saw him encourage and calm competitors at tournaments, teach advanced classes demonstrating jaw dropping excellence of technique, and teach Judo to the kids classes, along with lessons of life . His ability to place suggestions in minds of his (willing) top competitors and teachers, suggestions that strengthened them, was like hypnosis without the induction process.
    As for controlling the mind of potential enemies, Shihan was like the proverbial sword, so sharp that when placed in the autumn stream, leaves floating in the water would turn aside from it. None dared to be his enemy. Or so it seemed to me.

    Benevolence, wishing well even for one who would be your enemy, is one of the cornerstones of Bushido. Meditation has been, for me, key to experiencing Benevolence, a feeling of empathy toward others, not just friends, but enemies. My meditation sessions with an Indian Guru, Acarya Nityananda, led me to feel a compassion for others I'd only intellectualized before.

    Though they may wound your feelings, these three you have only to forgive, the breeze that scatters your flowers, the cloud that hides your moon, and the man who tries to pick a quarrel with you - Inazo Nitobe  Bushido, the soul of Japan. 

   "If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each man's life sorrows and suffering enough to disarm all hostility." Longfellow