Always be ready to release your mind.
What does this mean? Some people released all control of their mind a long time ago, but we’re not referring to the mindless or the druggie or the alky or the person who could care less! We are talking to those who train properly.
There are alot of people who would come up with different explainations of what this phrase means but I’ll give it a shot.
Don’t think, just do! Yes train to the point that you don’t think, you respond, react, do. You can’t realize true speed till you eliminate the need to think. Some people think too much. Thinking in a confrontation will get you hurt. Police officers are taught to respond in only a couple ways to a situation. They train till they have an automatic response. Any question why people that don’t respond properly to a cops commands don’t like the outcome? Wrong response will get the trained response and they aren’t trained to get hurt, they are trained to get compliance.
If you take thinking out of it you get speed. i.e. Typing, texting. On a computer I usually don’t look at the keys and I can type respectably fast. If I do a lot of work on the computer for a few days in a row I start getting fast. That’s cause I don’t have to think about where the keys are.
When I start teaching a new student in Shotokan karate I often tell them that they may not get any faster physically but they will get much faster because they will not have to think about what they are doing. They will have a response when someone grabs them or tries to hit them because it’s burnt into their hard drive.
Another corresponding saying is a Japanese philosophy, Mind like water. If your mind is still, like a still pond, then when there is a disturbance, like a pebble thrown into that pond it is immediately evident. If you still your thoughts you are ready for any stimuli.
Always be ready to release your mind. Stop thinking and start doing.
Written by:
Sensei Perry Culver 6th dan in Shotokan Karate and 1st dan in Syu Sin Do.
Chief Instructor at Culver Karate Club in Connellsville, PA 724-626-KICK (5425)
