Zen and the Art of Training

A bit off topic this one but I haven't posted for a while and these thoughts presented themselves.

I've had a very busy and pretty stressful time of late, mostly down to work but just because you're busy at work doesn't mean that all the other stuff - family, school, university - goes away.  And in this context, quite often, training comes at the bottom of the list.  Quite a few people I respect have written about this, the way that we view training as only being of benefit to ourselves and somehow selfish.  Therefore, when we've other obligations, training tends to take a backseat.  This is to ignore the fact that training often makes us better people, either immediately - I become more relaxed - or in the longer term - I am healthier and more able to deal with life's hurdles as well as play with my kids (and grandkids when they come along).  I'm not in to longevity for the sake of it, but I'll take a few extra years if there's some quality of life attached.  I've always been lucky in that my wife has always acknowledged the benefits that training has for me, not least it's role in promoting and maintaining positive mental health.  Because of this she will often point me towards training when she knows I'm having a particularly stressful time.

At the moment, finding the time & energy for training is tough but I'm trying to keep at least a base level of training going.  There is no other way if I really want to fight next year.

I've managed to maintain my regular training at Leicester Shoot and during my last session, after a particularly tiring and stressful day, I came to a realisation that there is a key lesson of Zen that can be found on the mat.  Especially with grappling, you really need to be 'fully there', on the mat, concentrating only on learning, drilling, feeling, trying, playing.  If your mind wanders away from a demonstration or from a drill, let alone from rolling, you won't get full benefit of the session.  I wouldn't goes so far as calling it a form of meditation, that's a phrase that's bandied around far too much.  I would say that it's important to maintain the focus on the moment that Zen teaches and places so much emphasis on.  I'd also say that the process of becoming distratcted and bringing your mind back to concentrate on what's being taught or trained is very much like the process of noticing thoughts and coming back to 'not thinking' that happens more often than not during zazen (meditation).  During my last session I really benefited from being on the mat, racing thoughts from the working day in my brain quieted in order to learn and be an effective training partner.  This, for me, is the Zen of training.

Caveat:  I should say that my Zen practice is no great shakes, and if you've read much of this blog you'll know that my fighting isn't either!