Give Up?

A couple weekends ago, I attended the 3rd Southeast Bujinkan Taikai. The instructors all did a great job, and there were plenty of things to take away for further training. The title and subject of this post is what one of the instructors, Jeff Walker, taught on. (Incidentally, it was the same idea he taught on at the Midwest Taikai, which I attended back in August. So glad I got to see it twice!)

What he had us doing was giving up. No, really, that was his section. The punch/sword/whatever is coming, and you just give up.

Not truly giving up, of course. I mean, you are, but you're not. They have to believe you're giving up, that you're not in the fight anymore, and for them to believe something like that, you have to believe it yourself. That's what's so intriguing (and difficult) about kyojitsu. It's a true lie - it's true for as long as you need it to be, and then it turns out to be a lie.

So, with this giving up concept, the point was to believe - and make the opponent believe - that you've given up on the fight. You are resigned to your death. Just that part proved to be incredibly difficult to wrap my head around. I can't speak for others, but I know I'm always in the active mindset of countering, parrying, attacking, torquing, etc. Giving up is inactive, and requires me to turn off what my mind and body really want to do. It only lasts for a few seconds, but flipping that switch off for even that long is like fighting myself. (Obviously there's a lot of practice needed here.)

Once that switch is turned off and the attack is coming in, you flip it back on and get out of the way. It's not turned on full blast, though. Keeping with the light switch analogy, it's like turning on a dimmer at minimum luminosity: you have the intent and will to live back on, but you're still keeping a low profile. For the person attacking, it's like falling into a black hole. Someone is there, and then simply not, with no hint that they shouldn't still be there.

Playing with intent and kyojitsu has always been challenging and fun, and this "giving up" definitely raises the bar. Believing one of your own deceptions is hard enough when it simply redirects intent. Turning it off? That's tough. And definitely something I'll be toying with for a long while.