油断は禁物
Yudanhakinmotsu!
Be ready!
The best warriors are ready for anything. General James Mattis once said, “Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.” His assertion might seem crazy, but it makes perfect sense to a martial artist. In the old days, it was hard to determine friend from foe and there were a lot of formalities within the samurai world. So, a samurai had to always be polite but also think of every person as a frenemy and have a backup plan to fight them if need be. General Mattis’ assertion is about having a readiness mindset just in case something happens. A warrior is supposed to be able to size up their opponent in an instant. They have to be able to quickly ascertain their opponent’s strengths, weaknesses, style of fighting or any other pertinent detail which might be useful. This mindset is hard to cultivate on our own. However, there is a way to do it in the dojo by archetypes. An archetype is a typical example of a certain type of person. In training, we learn to build archetypes by watching people during the taiso (体操) or “warmup.” As we watch the other people in the warm up, we get a sense of their abilities and flexibilities or lack thereof. Later in class, we make a correlation between how they moved their bodies in the warmup and how they did the techniques. This correlation is what helps us to create archetypes. There will only be a few dozen or so archetypes just as in mythology there are only 12 different types of archetypes. Later on, when we see someone on the street, we can recognize their archetype and we use that as the basis to craft a plan to defeat them. Just as in all relationships, there are good archetypes and bad ones. Until we can determine who is who, we have to be polite but also be crafting a plan to deal with each person if necessary. Nobody knows what will happen next and that’s why the best warriors are ready for anything.
Today’s goal: Be polite, but also be ready.
Watch this brief video to better understand archetypes.