Observational Skills or "Awareness"

I recently came across a video I found very informative if for no other reason it provided some fundamental information on makiwara training. The Shinken Dojo blog has a video on "Machiwara Undo." This discovery brought out the idea of awareness or observational skills because to really see or observe the nuances of what the karate-ka in the video is trying to convey you really need to pay attention and that means with your ears and eyes. 

I have watched it several times to discover new things not seen or observed before. This brings out the idea it gave me to use such analysis as a means to develop and strengthen your observational skills, your awareness. Both are required to achieve a level of skills we in martial arts will and do find critical in self-defense. 

We also can derive this as a means to sharpen our skills as teachers, sensei. It is imperative a good sensei have such awareness and observational skills when teaching practitioners. It is this that allows sensei to achieve strength in teaching a practitioner martial arts especially if it is about self-defense.

This is something a practitioner can carry out into the world especially if they have a need for self-defense be it due to where they live and work to where they work if they are professionals. The ability to "perceive" minute details that will tell you things about situations is a way to provide your mind-state information that will drive what actions you might or might not take. 

Look at "tells." Tells are those things you want to learn to perceive so that you can take appropriate actions thus beating out an adversary in the OODA loop. If you can practice such things as discovering details, very minute details, in video's such as this one on machiwara undo then you will be able to observe/perceive tells and other important things in your environment that will give you advantages.

This extends into every day life as well. Communications are important and imperative to social interactions that are beneficial to all parties. The ability to observe and perceive, an awareness of, others you encounter can provide you information on your inter-actions, i.e. so you can choose to act accordingly in a positive manner. These skills can benefit you at home, you society and at work. When they escalate to something more stressful the practice achieves a level of ability that will allow you to adjust and act properly.

Then take this into the realm of "shugyo" or austere training and practice where stresses and physical chemical effects further reduce your ability to perceive, observe and be aware you can still act according to the situation. In the end it is about practicing and to observe, perceive and be aware of what you view in videos such as this can be thought of as another method to develop, strengthen and achieve "awareness."

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