The Scarcity of Real Combative Training: Miyamoto Musashi and Misty the Cat
Steven J. Pearlman, Ph.D.
www.PraxisMartialArts.com
“To cut and to slash are two different things. Cutting, whatever form of cutting it is, is decisive, with a resolute spirit. Slashing is nothing more than touching the enemy. Even if you slash strongly, and even if the enemy dies instantly, it is slashing. When you cut, your spirit is resolved.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, Book of Five Rings
If there’s a hole in many modern martial arts’ approach to combative realism, and I assert there is one, it might take the form of Musashi’s point above. Musashi, in his enduring wisdom, illuminates what we could identify as the crux of combative training, and that crux does not necessarily hold any relationship to fighting full contact, training for the “street,” or training in modern vs. traditional ways.
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