Often times during pre-fight interviews one can hear fighters state how they are not concerned with what the opponent is doing and rather want to focus on themselves. Upon closer examination this strategy, born out of the most intense situation a mortal can find himself in, seems to also be a valuable approach to everyday life. It might not seem as too much of a problem to focus on anticipation, yet fighting as the most extreme scenario shows that when taken to the extreme, strong attachment to anticipations can backfire hard. If there is attachment to what the opponent might do and then he doesn't do it, one may be lost. Thinking about what he may do takes the place of looking at what he is doing and as BJJ world-champion Saulo Ribeiro once said: "If you think, you're late. If you're late, you muscle. If you muscle, you're tired. If you're tired, you die. You die when you tap, we die everyday."
This issue of thinking about what might happen rather than looking at what is happening, is illustrated expertly by Fjodor Dostoyevsky in his masterpiece Notes From Underground. Called 'a masterstroke of psychology' by Friedrich Nietzsche, the book depicts a protagonist who is completely caught up in his own world. Written from his perspective, it does not seem obvious in the beginning, yet after a while a certain pattern can be recognized which is applicable to all sorts of situations:
1. Over the years the protagonist seems to have adopted a very poor opinion of himself.
2. He regards everything happening around him as directed towards him and because of his low self esteem he interprets it in a negative way. (Everybody glancing at him is 'looking at him in disgust'.)
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| The master himself: Dostoyevsky |
2. He regards everything happening around him as directed towards him and because of his low self esteem he interprets it in a negative way. (Everybody glancing at him is 'looking at him in disgust'.)
3. He starts to judge and eventually hate the people around him, as he feels like they dislike him. This makes the most sense to him because he dislikes himself.
4. For him it seems glaringly obvious that they all hate him, hence he doesn't even interact with them in order to find out whether that is in fact true. He just keeps thinking and thinking, interpreting every little thing as ill-intended and mean-spirited.
5. Caught in his head his hatred grows day by day until he cannot take it anymore and unleashes it onto the people around him by e.g. insulting them.
6. The others, not knowing where this is coming from, obviously respond negatively to him insulting them.
7. From their behaviour he concludes that he was right and that they in fact hate him. This is a vicious circle. Further, he has successfully created his own reality.
Rooted in a personal problem, in this case a low self-esteem, a person can get caught up in projecting this issue or feeling onto the world so much that it eventually changes the factual world. That then, is precisely the point at which the vicious circle can continue, as the individual feels his original belief to be confirmed. This isn't supposed to imply that reality is completely malleable and that as long as you have positive thoughts your reality will be a fairytale. It can however, happen that we delude ourselves from reality at times which is one of the big downsides of having such a developed brain.
There are two big issues in this. Firstly, the projection of personal issues onto the world and secondly, being blind towards what's actually happening and instead thinking about what may be happening. Both can turn out to be even worse problems when dealing with a combat situation. If you really doubt yourself it can easily happen that you start to think that everybody else doubts you as well. Then you feel like you shouldn't be able to achieve X, e.g. a win, anyways, because you feel that everybody doubts you as much as you do. Finally then, when the possibility to get it (X) arises, you may not be able to give it your all and are left confirmed in your doubt. As we can see this pattern can occur in many different situations. Maybe then, looking for a way to deal with this might be a good idea.
From Tesshu's writings:
This may sound great in theory, but the reality is that most of us, obviously me included, may not be able to constantly live in a state like this (which also might not be too desireable anyways). Since I am not looking to inquire into concepts of enlightenment here, but rather discuss certain ideas that might be helpful, this, as so often, is a matter of finding the right balance. Thinking too much about what the opponent might be doing could leave us in a similar state as Dostoyevsky's protagonist and not thinking about the opponent at all might also backfire at some point.
Now, let's go back to the beginning of this text and the last part of Saulo Ribeiro's quote: ". . . You die when you tap, we die everyday." In this context this hints at how we may strive for this state of pure flow and being immersed in the moment, but time after time we get caught again by our overly analytical thinking and die (tap out). Therefore, the key might not be extinction of this human trait, but awareness of it. Awareness of our tendency to worry and sometimes get lost in beliefs about the future and even the present at times. This is one of the great gifts of martial arts training. Quoting the words inscribed into the temple of Apollo in Delphi: Know Thyself! (here maybe in the sense of 'be aware')
Finally, I am not trying to claim that I have figured out any of these concepts completely (since that would probably render me enlightened..which is definitely not the case), but I still find them to be so fascinating that I feel compelled to think and write about them and ideally experience them one day, at least a little.
4. For him it seems glaringly obvious that they all hate him, hence he doesn't even interact with them in order to find out whether that is in fact true. He just keeps thinking and thinking, interpreting every little thing as ill-intended and mean-spirited.
5. Caught in his head his hatred grows day by day until he cannot take it anymore and unleashes it onto the people around him by e.g. insulting them.
6. The others, not knowing where this is coming from, obviously respond negatively to him insulting them.
7. From their behaviour he concludes that he was right and that they in fact hate him. This is a vicious circle. Further, he has successfully created his own reality.
Rooted in a personal problem, in this case a low self-esteem, a person can get caught up in projecting this issue or feeling onto the world so much that it eventually changes the factual world. That then, is precisely the point at which the vicious circle can continue, as the individual feels his original belief to be confirmed. This isn't supposed to imply that reality is completely malleable and that as long as you have positive thoughts your reality will be a fairytale. It can however, happen that we delude ourselves from reality at times which is one of the big downsides of having such a developed brain.
There are two big issues in this. Firstly, the projection of personal issues onto the world and secondly, being blind towards what's actually happening and instead thinking about what may be happening. Both can turn out to be even worse problems when dealing with a combat situation. If you really doubt yourself it can easily happen that you start to think that everybody else doubts you as well. Then you feel like you shouldn't be able to achieve X, e.g. a win, anyways, because you feel that everybody doubts you as much as you do. Finally then, when the possibility to get it (X) arises, you may not be able to give it your all and are left confirmed in your doubt. As we can see this pattern can occur in many different situations. Maybe then, looking for a way to deal with this might be a good idea.
"There is no opponent."This is what John Kavanagh, coach of SBGi, told Paddy Holohan who was subject to a change of opponent only 6 days prior to the fight. The idea is that if you focus too much on what may happen you might get caught up in some form of the mentioned vicious circle. This idea however, regarding the hundreds of generations of warriors confronted with similar issues, is part of a very old concept. The idea of no-self (from Sanskrit 'anatman') is deeply rooted in Buddhism. These ideas are part of a holistic approach to life and hence also influence the way one approaches fighting and the martial arts in general. For Yamaoka Tesshu, a famous sword- and Zen-master of the eighteen hundreds, the doctrine of no-self is applied to his perception of martial arts with the 'concept' of no-sword and finally the state of no-enemy.
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| Yamaoka Tesshu |
From Tesshu's writings:
"As I recalled my previous notions of skillfulness and ineptness, fighting and no fighting, I realized that those dichotomies have nothing to do with the opponent; all those things are creations of one's mind. If there is self, there is an enemy; if there is no self, there is no enemy."Going along with the Buddhist doctrine of no-self, there in fact is no self and with that no opponent. This goes back to the idea of 'voidness' (shunyata) which constitutes that all beings are void of an inherent and independently existing self. The self exists only by 'making it up' with words and thoughts. The same goes for the enemy. Fundamentally, without naming and thinking, none of these things exist. It's only an enemy, when you call it 'enemy'. This, of course, does not mean that there is no danger, or no possibility of physical damage. Not at all. Rather, this may be helpful by taking away the worry and anxiety of thinking about what the opponent might do or be doing, since, in a way, there is no opponent. There is only reaction to what is happening in the given moment which is now.
This may sound great in theory, but the reality is that most of us, obviously me included, may not be able to constantly live in a state like this (which also might not be too desireable anyways). Since I am not looking to inquire into concepts of enlightenment here, but rather discuss certain ideas that might be helpful, this, as so often, is a matter of finding the right balance. Thinking too much about what the opponent might be doing could leave us in a similar state as Dostoyevsky's protagonist and not thinking about the opponent at all might also backfire at some point.
Now, let's go back to the beginning of this text and the last part of Saulo Ribeiro's quote: ". . . You die when you tap, we die everyday." In this context this hints at how we may strive for this state of pure flow and being immersed in the moment, but time after time we get caught again by our overly analytical thinking and die (tap out). Therefore, the key might not be extinction of this human trait, but awareness of it. Awareness of our tendency to worry and sometimes get lost in beliefs about the future and even the present at times. This is one of the great gifts of martial arts training. Quoting the words inscribed into the temple of Apollo in Delphi: Know Thyself! (here maybe in the sense of 'be aware')
Finally, I am not trying to claim that I have figured out any of these concepts completely (since that would probably render me enlightened..which is definitely not the case), but I still find them to be so fascinating that I feel compelled to think and write about them and ideally experience them one day, at least a little.
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