Brute force doesn't sing
You can't force a melody
Trying to be strong
In martial arts, strong martial artists are able to throw powerful punches and kicks. If you use a sword, being able to make powerful cutting motions is the goal.
When I was young I wanted to try to become strong. I would put a great deal of effort into punching hard and kicking hard. When I took up iaidō I also put in a lot of effort into making powerful cuts. The problem is that whenever I tried too hard to be strong, I would end up looking weaker in the process.
I have heard these phrases over and over again in my years training in Japan.
力が入っている (chikara ga haitteiru) : To have too much strength/strain
無駄な力 (mudana chikara) : Wasteful strength
力任せ (chikara makase) : Relying on strength
It seems almost oxymoronic to say that one of my weaknesses is my strength. But it really is the case. If you have strength but use it incorrectly you end up weaker as a result.
Over years of training I have been relying on brute strength and pure effort less and I have become stronger as a result. But I recently saw a reflection of my younger self and I’ve been considering this a lot more recently.
Meeting my younger self
Recently a new student joined my iaidō group. He is in high school and so is starting martial arts at roughly the same time that I started getting serious about martial arts. He is very diligent and puts in a lot of effort when he trains. But he may suffer with the same problems I suffered from when I was young.
When I perform a downward cut my sword generally makes quite a loud wooshing sound called a 刃音 (ha oto : blade sound). It is not necessary for your sword to make this noise, but it is quite satisfying when it does.
A katana is generally a two handed weapon. I am now at the point where I can swing my sword one handed and still produce a blade sound on the swing. While warming up recently I noticed my new 後輩 (kohai : junior) watching me and then trying to imitate my movements. Unfortunately and frustratingly with less noisy results.
Making the blade sing
At my iaidō school, after running through the warm up and main techniques we have some time to do our own training. That can involve individually practicing techniques we want, making groups to train advanced techniques together, or simply training form.
My kohai was recently standing in front of a mirror, checking his form and swinging his sword as hard as he could to try to get his sword to make that woosh sound. I approached him and gave him the same kind of advice I had been getting over the years. To relax, focus on technique, and to not worry about trying to be strong. Speed and power will come when you get it right.
I demonstrated a cut and he commented about the noise my sword made, asking if it was something to do with the 樋 (hi : gutter) of my sword. (There was a slight difference in how far this gutter went on my sword vs his). So I gave him my sword and asked him to swing it.
When he swung my sword it made a kind of whistling sound but didn’t have the deep woosh that was produced when I swing it. I then tried swinging his sword and it made the deep woosh, but sounded a little different to my sword due to the differences in the blade. This was almost a demonstration of what the sword really sounds like when you are able to use it properly.
Train to make the tools feel light in your hands
After my demonstration I was asked what kind of training I do to get strong enough to do that. My answer was that it was about technique. When you perform a cut you need to let the weight of the sword do the work and guide it with your body. You close your fingers one by one about the 柄 (tsuka : hilt) to make it move and apply a grip at the end of the movement to stop the motion of the sword.
“So having strong muscles isn’t important?”
It’s not that having strong muscles isn’t important. It’s just that you shouldn’t rely on them. I frequently see beginners choking the hilt of a sword like it owes them money and then swinging it with all their might, only to look like they are being wielded by the sword rather than the other way around.
The goal should be to train until the sword feels light in your hands. Once it feels light, you don’t feel like you need to use strength to move it. Your strength is the foundation, your technique is the suggestion, and your sword then performs as it is meant to perform.
You can’t brute force a melody
I’m not a singer so forgive me if I’m off the mark with this. But I have been to karaoke quite a few times so I have at least the view of an enthusiastic amateur about this subject.
It is easy for someone to sing louder, but just singing louder generally make the music more pleasant. People who are able to sing well may be able to increase the volume in which they sing beautifully, but someone who cannot sing well cannot improve the quality of the noise they make by simply singing “harder.”
It takes a lot of effort in order to become a good singer. But the effort is not simply brute force. It is knowing when to put in effort and when to relax. When to be loud, when to be quiet. The ebb, and the flow.
A lot of things share this pattern.
You can’t be a good swordsman by swinging your sword as hard as you can over and over again. You can’t be a good karate practitioner by throwing punches as hard as you can. And you can’t be a good long distance runner if your training is simply running as hard as you can until you can’t run anymore.
Spending a long time working on a craft is the best way to become better at a craft. You can’t simply brute force it.
“One becomes a beginner after 1000 days of training. One becomes a master after 10,000 days of practice” - Mas Oyama.
Final thoughts and take home messages
When I was young I tried hard to be stronger. The older I get, the more I realized that effort alone cannot make you strong.
I sometimes see people making the same “mistakes” I made in my youth. I’ll do my best to guide them towards the understanding that I eventually came to, but that discovery is for each individual to make.
You should put effort into becoming strong but physical power can only take you so far. You should train until putting power feels effortless. Not to feel the power in your movements.
Finally, you can’t force yourself to sing better. Only louder. Think about that next time you go to karaoke.
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