Slow, Medium, Fast

When Sang Sensei, said to me a few months ago, “Vincent, jo, ha, kyû, slow, medium, fast”, I did not understand. The words were abstract and only had meaning for me when I played video games. But after yesterday’s class, this phrase has tremendous significance.

In a life or death situation what would prevent you from going home? Is it skill, technique or just simply practice? After a certain point, skill, technique and practice become equalized and do not provide an advantage to one individual or another; then does it only comes down to reaction time? Or is it something more.

Last night’s class demonstrated this very clearly. The primary lesson was to face your opponent and draw. The first one to nukiuchi wins. It’s simple and fair enough. First Sempai Ron and I tried to out draw Sensei. For me it was very enlightening. When practicing with Sensei, I only saw his noto the first few times before I reacted. By and large his technique is so much more efficient and effortless than mine; it was no contest. Then Sempai Ron and I tried it. I won maybe twice out of twenty tries because of luck. Then Sensei explained why he was able to read us and beat us to the draw: jo ha kyû.

Even though we have evolved from cave men & women, hunter-gathers, to modern society we are still wired to react, as if we are still the predator or the prey. When facing an opponent we are at our highest levels of alertness. Any threatening movements from the opponent send a signal of immediate danger. Emotions like fear or anxiety take over and we react as quickly and forcefully as possible. But what signals immediate danger? Large, strong movements send that signal. So how can we move in a manner that circumvents how we are naturally wired? Move slowly. Slow, methodical movements do not raise a flag. Move with medium speed. This will cause the opponent to increase their focus on your movement but not your intent. Move fast. By the time, your opponent realizes what transpired its too late. This is practical application of jo ha kyû.

I thought to myself that this concept must be more universal. So I ran through the tenants of Byakkokan: the three dragonflies. In Toyama Ryu Kata Ippon mae, Nihon mae and Sambon mae, the first technique is to nukiuchi, then finish off the opponent. So using jo ha kyû is important from the perspective of bunkai. But it is double important to make your kata look polished. By making the first movements slowly, you can maintain your balance easier and you are more accurate because less power is being used. Then accelerating through the technique forces you to use the correct form. With tameshigiri the same rules apply because it’s the same thing. You are cutting an imaginary opponent; not just the tatami. Finally gekken, this is the most difficult because you are working with someone, not an inanimate object or something imagined. Your opponent reacts to your movements and is able to counter your technique. So you move slower, to catch them unaware, to setting up your technique. Then you accelerate through the technique to cut and win.

So nearly a year after practicing, the concept that escaped me the most, is the one I needed the most. More renshu.