 Anger, hate, fear, anticipation, anxiety, frustration, impatience, resentment, tension. I think it's fair to say that the majority of us have experienced at least one, if not all of these things, especially this year. As natural as these feelings are, they can be toxic to not only our martial arts practice, but our everyday lives as well. So how do we stop these emotions from being a hindrance? By achieving motion. Today, we're going to talk about what that is and a few ways you can achieve it. And for those of you out there who are Kempoists or critics of Kempo, I'll have a special message for you at the end of the video. We talked about the concept of the four different Zen saints of mind a while back, which are Shoshin, the beginner's mind, Zanshin, remaining mind, Fudoshin, immovable mind, and Mushin, empty mind, which is what we'll be talking about today. We took a closer look at Shoshin in the previous episode, and you can find a link to that video in the description. And for those of you who believe that kata is useless, we will circle back around later in this video to show you why it might be more useful than you think. Mushin is actually abbreviated from Mushin Notion, and it translates to mind without mind. And personally, I think this may be the most challenging and quite possibly one of the most important states of mind to have. But in order to achieve it, we first have to break it down and understand it. The first thing to take into consideration is that while it means mind without mind, it does not mean that you should enter your head like a shell leaving the void, but rather achieve an estate without conscious thought. It might seem like splitting hairs, but it's a very important distinction. It is not a state of relaxation or submission, but rather being fully awake, incredibly aware, just not impeded by the burden of emotion or forced conscious interference. It is the ability to be fully aware of your environment and situation, completely unbiased, and letting your mind react on instinct instead of preconceived thought. This is applicable in so many different parts of life, but in the context of the martial arts, I believe this may be a crucial element in the ability to defend yourself or not. It is also not something you can just read about and learn intellectually. It can only be achieved through experience and being able to let your mind go. In a few minutes, we're going to talk about a few things that can help you achieve motion, or at least how to become more aware and more present and aware in any given context. It is so easy to let our minds get cluttered with noise or a barrage of thoughts that weigh on us every day. And it's no surprise that many people struggle to focus on a task with all that static going on. I'm going to give you a couple of examples of my own personal experiences and let me know if any of them seem familiar to you. In the early days of my training, we had a really big picture window in front of the school. I could be working on a technique or a kata or whatever, and suddenly a passerby stops by that window and peers inside. Suddenly, I found myself applying my energy differently. Louder key eyes or repeating motions that I knew I was good at or taking dramatic stances after each repetition. My mind would get flooded with a variety of thoughts. Are they looking for a new school? I have to represent this one. Or are they judging me? I have to work harder, or any variety of these thoughts. It's stupid and immature and completely novice, I know. But thankfully, I grew out of that. But as a young teen just beginning in the martial arts, it was very easy to be distracted by these types of thoughts. Even when I started teaching, I was 17 and helping out in classes. I hated teaching at first. And it had nothing to do with actually working with the kids or the teaching itself. But we had rows of chairs that were always full of parents watching. I felt the heat of that spotlight every damn day. And of course, those same doubts would creep in. Am I paying enough attention to the everyone? Am I explaining the drill clearly enough? Are they upset that I'm teaching their kid because I'm not yet a black belt? Do they agree with the lesson or are they going to pull their kid out of the school? Like I said, stupid thoughts and very distracting. I should have been focused on the lesson and the class and whether or not the kids were picking up the lesson. Maybe that's why my instructor put me in that position to get me acclimated to the pressure of teaching and making decisions in front of a crowd. And the funny thing is, I didn't realize that I felt this right away. Teaching made me uncomfortable but I finally realized why when about a year later the school moved to a new location and the parents were still able to watch classes but in another room through a window. That little bit of separation felt so much better and I was able to focus a little bit more. And that's the nature of being in the spotlight. It can blind you if you look at it. Instead, you have to see through the glares and focus on what's in front of you. This was something I had to learn to deal with over time. So what if somebody was watching from the outside? Why should I stop what I'm working on because they're standing there for three seconds? So what if the parents are sitting there? Most of them are probably lost in thought, happy for a time out, or genuinely interested in the lesson. And guess what? If they have a problem with what you're teaching, they'll tell you and you can deal with it then. We can only expand our comfort zone by stepping outside of it. Okay, so enough of that, I'm starting to sound preachy. But let me ask you this, how often do you practice chosen class or sparring and you have a partner in front of you just about to attack and your mind is just racing with all sorts of scenarios and all these great defense and combinations that you want to try out? I think we can all relate to that. And if it doesn't happen to you now, then I bet it did when you first started. And that's fine, that's a natural response, but it's inhibitive. When we get too wrapped up with the what ifs, we might not be ready for the what is. And that's motion. Being able to leave those thoughts outside the moment and be receptive and reactive to the immediate scenario. I don't care what art you're training, karate, Muay Thai, boxing, kenpo, kung fu, wrestling, you should be to the point of proficiency to where your techniques are second nature and you shouldn't have to think to execute them. So an experienced boxer that is fully in the moment, doesn't see an opponent wind up and throw a punch and then save himself. Okay, so he's throwing his punch. I should move my head out of the way and then counter punch. He just does it. The mind is engaged for your distraction. And as soon as the opponent moves, that second nature kicks in and reacts because you've worked on it so much. That is why repetition is super important and that is why resistance training is absolutely necessary to be good at self-defense. You can't possibly develop a natural reaction to a person fighting you, unless you spend time working on a person who's resisting you. This is why I feel drills like sticky hands are so beneficial. It's a constant feel of reading and reacting to your opponent's movements. It's always why BJJ and grappling are so good. An experienced grappler will be focused in the moment and when their opponent makes a move, intuition and confidence will kick in with the appropriate response. So if you're thinking too far ahead about the moves you're gonna do, you're not focused enough on the current moment. If you research motion at all, there's a particular saying and example that you'll find everywhere. And it's the expression Mizuno Kokoro, which means mind like water. They use the example of the moon's reflection on the body of water. If the water is turbulent, the image of the moon is distorted. But if the water is calm and still, then you can see it clearly. Being in the mental state of motion is like your mind being a still body of water. It's present and powerful, but you're not adding unnecessary ripples. So okay, how do we achieve this? I wish it was as simple as saying do this and you'll have motion. There are common measures such as meditation that can help. Learning to sit and focus on the task of breathing and not letting yourself get distracted by daily thoughts is a beneficial practice and it can translate to your training too. There is also the practice of developing something called splatter vision that can help greatly with your awareness. You may also hear it referred to as owl eyes or wide angle vision and the whole concept is to develop and utilize a greater part of your peripheral vision. I believe that in general, many people often neglect the benefit of having good peripheral vision. We are so focused on our everyday lives and things that are constantly shoved in our faces as well as putting up blinders when we want to ignore ads or any noise that we may encounter throughout the day. But by expanding and developing our peripheral vision, we can take in more of what's going on in our surroundings. Peripheral vision is especially beneficial to seeing or registering movement, where our central focus is adept at registering sharp detail. In the martial arts, having good peripheral vision can make the difference of detecting your opponent's shift or making a move without having your eyes having to dart all over the place. And it also means potentially detecting other dangers in this situation, such as another attacker or possibly an obstruction to an escape. I put a lot of stock into this concept and it's one of the things that I feel I have toned fairly well in my own training. Whenever I spar, my eyes are locked straight ahead, often locked on my opponent's eyes, but you better believe it, I'm absolutely watching both arms and legs. By being aware of peripheral movement, I can react without having to look directly at the attack. And whenever we did 201 sparring in class, I adjusted this slightly and would adjust my vision to more of the middle space between the attackers and making sure I could see both sets of legs just outside the edges of my peripheral. This allowed me to keep distance and calm until I detected motion and then I would react and use that person as an obstacle for the other one. There are exercises out there that help with this, but there's one really simple one that I really like and it's one that you can even do right now as you're watching this video. Look straight ahead and stretch your arms out directly to your sides that they're about 180 degrees apart. Now you're not going to see my hands because they're going off screen, but you can sit in your chair right now and do this. Once your hands are 180 degrees apart, start wiggling your fingers on both of your hands while keeping your eyes straight ahead and try to register the motion as you see both sets of fingers. Try to avoid bringing your arms into the vision if possible. Focus more on relaxing and trying to expand your awareness of the edges. You won't see your hands in sharp detail. Like we said, peripheral vision is about detecting motion, but sometimes seeing that motion makes all the difference. And by doing this drill, you know, by stretching your arms out and trying to see both hands at the same time, you're actually taking and registering more of your surroundings, engaging your mind more on the immediate situation and more activity and hopefully less on any distracting thoughts or feelings. So yes, I highly recommend looking more into splatter vision or owl eyes for sure. Okay, now where does Kata fall into this? I think Kata has a tremendous role to play in achieving motion. There are obvious benefits such as learning Bunkai and understanding the relationship of different moves and concepts. There is usually a lot of information deep within the forms. But Kata, I think, is a phenomenal training tool for subtle practice when you don't have the tactile feedback of a partner. With Kata, once you learn the steps and understand what you are doing and what each movement means, you can lose yourself inside of it. Find a quiet spot and just start going through your form. If you worked with it well enough to become fluent, then let go of the driver's wheel and let your brain go on autopilot. Focus on your breathing and immediate moments. Don't worry at this point about practical application, but rather developing a second nature of the flow and points of focus and timing move like water, smooth, natural, inhibited. In a way, I often use Kata as a form of meditation. Forms I've done for years sometimes feel good to just let go and flow through. And for those of you who feel that Kata is no good for real-life application, I agree and I disagree. The sequences in Kata aren't generally meant to take and drop into a real fight scenario. That's not what they're intended for. They convey ideas and relationships. However, that doesn't mean that you can't use it. Many Kata movements and sequences are actually derived from combat moves. And if it's a form that you are very well versed in, then you might be surprised of what you might resort to if the situation calls for it. A couple of years ago, I had some smart ass sneak up behind me and tried to give me a sucker shot to the kidney. I just caught his approach out of the corner of my eye and without even thinking about it, I stepped off the line of attack. I turned, I did a drop in elbow to deflect the punch. And then I pivoted to a fighting position, got my hands up ready and my knuckles were a few inches from his face. I didn't think about it. I just saw the moment, the movement and I just kind of reacted like that. My brain wasn't, it was engaged enough to react, but I didn't have to think about what I was going to do. It was a move combination from Kempo long form one. And I didn't decide to do the move. My mind just detected the motion and I reacted faster than I could have consciously made that choice. Motion is a hard practice for me. My mind is always going a thousand miles a minute, but in that particular moment, I got to experience it and it was a bit of an eye opening experience. So use that Kata as a training tool. Try not to think about the next move, but let go and let your passive mind do the driving. Use your peripheral vision to observe your surroundings while you do so. With enough practice, I think you can expand a lot of your mental awareness. So speaking of Kempo, here is a message to all you Kempoists out there. Kempo often has a bad rap of learning pre-choreographed motions that we are expected to memorize and execute in the right scenario. So anyone who says that you can't choreograph a real fight and a person isn't going to stand there all day while you hit them is absolutely correct. But that isn't what Kempo teaches or at least not what it's supposed to teach. Each technique is like a mini kata. There is serious bunkai to be applied and a ton of information to be extracted from each one. But as beginners, we learn the basics and we learn how they work together in combination via these techniques so that when a real situation happens, you can recognize specific positions and situations and just respond accordingly. So if you're in a sparring or a real confrontation, don't be thinking, oh, I'm gonna wait from the punch so I can pull off five swords. Instead, get out of your own head, focus on the person in front of you with that peripheral vision engage and react to what is thrown at you. If you overthink it, you'll get in your own way. If you've been practicing long enough, you should be able to react naturally. Those pre-choreographed techniques are not likely to work as they are written and that's something we're gonna get to more in a future episode, but with enough time and practice, you should be able to instantly recognize many positions and be able to just react based on what you feel. And that is why resistance training and sparring is so important. You can have all the confidence in the world in your technique until you try to get it to work on another person. You expand your skills and comfort zones by stepping outside of it. And if you're able to implement this into your own training, then you are well on your way to achieving motion. So I'm curious to know what your experience with motion might be or any tips that you can share to help others in sharpening their focus and blocking out the noise. Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next week.