至弱をもって至強に当たる
Shijaku wo motteshikyo ni ataru
Attack your enemy’s strength with your weaknesses
Martial artist never judge but instead try to understand zengokankei (前後関係) or “context.” There was once a 10 year old boy named John who lost his left arm in a car accident. After getting out of the hospital, John was depressed because he felt that he could never be like the other kids. To improve John’s self-confidence, his mother took him to a local judo dojo to learn from a very old venerable master named Sato Sensei. Day after day, John only practiced footwork and ippon seionage or “one arm shoulder throw.” After a few months, John would see other students learning different techniques and asked his sensei why he wasn’t learning other techniques. Sato Sensei only responded, “Just keep practicing.” After one year, Sato Sensei entered John into a tournament. John was very nervous, but his sensei assured him that he would do fine. In the first match after John calmed down, he performed a beautiful seionage and easily won his first match. Match after match John kept winning with seionage until he reached the final match. John’s opponent was the state champion who was a foot taller than him. It was a hard fought battle and they pushed and wrenched back and forth and it took every ounce of John’s footwork to keep from being thrown. At the very last minute, John managed to do a perfect seionage and win the tournament. Afterwards, John asked his sensei, “Do you think they let me win because they felt sorry for me because I only have one arm?” Sato Sensei said, “No. You won because you dedicated one year to mastering seionage and the only way to defend against it is by using the opposite arm.” Having only one arm was John’s disadvantage, but it ended up being his advantage in the end. Most times something is only strong or weak because we judge it that way. More importantly, we should be analyzing something’s strength based upon the context in which it is applied. Thus, the great equalizer isn’t really technique, ability or having both arms but the mindset by which we choose to see something.
Today’s goal: Think about what weakness can you use to your advantage.