Samurai Lessons 1: Giving Advice

I read a lot about old edo and love the way of the samurai. I'm going to start posting interesting entries I find every once in a while. So the following is from Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai.

"To give a person one's opinion and correct his faults is an important thing. It is compassionate and comes first in matters of service. But the way of doing so is extremely difficult. To discover the good and bad points of a person is an easy thing, and to give an opinion concerning them is easy, too. For the most part, people think that they are being kind by saying the things that others find distasteful or difficult to say. But if it is not received well, they think that there is nothing more to be done. This is completely worthless. It is the same as bringing shame to a person by slandering him. It is nothing more than getting it off one's chest.

To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not. One must become close with him and make sure that he continually trusts one's word. Approaching subjects that are dear to him, seek the best way to speak and to be well understood. Judge the occasion, and determine whether it is better by letter or t the time of leave-taking. Praise his good points and use every device to encourage him, perhaps by talking about one's own faults without touching on his, but so that they will occur to him. Have him receive this in the way that a man would drink water when his throat is dry, and it will be an opinion that will correct faults.

This is extremely difficult. If a person's fault is a habit of some years prior, by and large it won't be remedied. I have had this experience myself. To be intimate with all one's comrades, correcting each other's faults, and being of one mind to be of use to the master is the great compassion of a retainer. by bringing shame to a person, how could one expect to make him a better person"

I read this the day after I was criticized at work on something I had done. It was done in a way which made me angry and not want to correct my behavior. This entry really struck home and made me think. It makes sense and I will try to use it in the future.

Battling the Ironman

How often is it one gets to battle their mentor? Last night I battled mine. I've had the appointment in my books for a week and was training hard. I really wanted to show Russ up. I came up with several new moves over that week. I think in my mind I let myself get to hype but it only pushed me harder.

On to the battle. For some time I've been messing with Russ and Geo that I have a lot of stamina, so any time we battle each other I suggest 10 rounds. They always make fun of me that I don't even have 10 rounds of stuff. Well Russ and I battled for 15 rounds. He decided we would go till I stopped. After 15 rounds....20 minutes.... of battling, I collapsed after crashing my final round. I couldn't get up. Russ told me after he was conserving energy the whole battle cause he knew I would tire out. Well, I'm not switching strategies! I'm just going to have to get more stamina and be able to go 100 rounds!!!!

I think I could have done better. After seeing the footage, I was really impressed on how my tops were coming along. Even after a week of training, I've fixed my arms up nicely. But I think the thing I need to work on the most is my footwork. I pulled out a lot of stuff I never did before, and it looked really cool in the footage, but I think I need to fix my overall posture in my footwork. I always look a little slumped forward. So since I've been training power and tops a lot lately, I need to shift a little more energy towards my footwork so I can clean that up.

Watching the footage shows me how much I need to get ready for Bboy Ho Down in December. I'm really excited to be entering the 2 on 2s with Geo. Since this is going to be one of my first prepared appearances at a big jam, I really want to show off. I only have a little less than three months to prepare. In that time I really want to get windmills. I also have to clean up my footwork. I noticed all my actions aren't crisp. I have a decent flow, but I need to cut my actions so everyone can see what I'm doing clearly. I think I'm on the right track though.

Just gotta keep my nose to the grindstone and keep training my ass off.

Oh ya, and don't sleep on Halfstep! He'll be coming for you soon!!!