One of my favorite books on fighting strategy is A Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi.  Many people in the martial arts, the military and in business have read this classic book.  It is a short read and yet, very powerful.

Musashi was known for his fighting skills as a samurai.  He carried two swords in battle and never lost.  For a samurai to lose was to die.  Though, the samurai accepted death as the ordinary person accepted a drink of water.  And in this way, they lived more than the ordinary person.

The ‘Attitude No Attitude’

Miyamoto Musashi described in the Water Book section of A Book of Five Rings of the ‘Attitude No Attitude.’  There are five attitudes according to him.  Each represents a position of the sword in order to make a certain cut.  While there are five he states that one should not focus on the attitudes, but only of the cut.

“With water as the basis, the spirit becomes like water. Water adopts the shape of its receptacle, it is sometimes a trickle and sometimes a wild sea.” ~Miyamoto Musashi

The grip, body, arm movements should be like water, flowing through the cuts without a tight grip throughout.  Only the pinky should hold the sword tight.  This way the cut is faster and battle over with faster as well.

In life, we tend to over-think and not do.  And when we do take action, thinking sometimes get in the way of the flow.  Training helps to overcome this, as long as the training is the right way and not the wrong way.

Restrictiveness is abound in society.  While rules were first set forth to keep order, that order has run amok.  In fitness, society seems to say that in order to get fit you have to do it a certain way.  Even in martial arts rules are there.  Bruce Lee decided to break free of rules and let each person find their own way after building a foundation.  I agree with building a foundation.  That is important in anything in life.

Though, there comes a time when rules should be broken when they stop the flow.  That is one of the reasons I love training in Parkour and natural movement.  It is about being freed from convention.  Jeet Kune Do, while having a foundation, is also free of rules throughout.  Finding your own way is the way.

Having an attitude no attitude is the way.  Don’t let your attitude get in the way of freely expressing yourself.  You can move or have inertia.  Let yourself move… Freely…. In your own way…. Being responsible as you do…

Cheers,

Bob Choat
America’s #1 Mind-Body Transformation Expert and author of Mind Your Own Fitness