Ernest Cadorin
Leveraging Discipline
2020/04/08Pandemic Self-Defence
It’s rare that I have to leave my house these days, but last week I had to go out to run a necessary errand. As I was carefully navigating the outside world, I realized that now more than ever, we need to bring our “dojo discipline” with us wherever we go. In other words, we need to take the exacting approach that we apply to our training (control of our movements, attention to detail, awareness), and apply it to the way we physically conduct ourselves when we are out in the community.
In the dojo, we are careful never to punch with a bent wrist or block with a protruding thumb. Similarly, when we are outdoors, we must be careful not to touch our faces or veer too close to other people. The same mental faculties govern all of these actions, and we need to make sure we are using them in both environments to keep ourselves in check.
When we return home, it’s best to wash or disinfect anything that might have come in contact with something external (either direct contact or indirect contact because our hands had to touch it before we could clean them). This requires a certain attention to detail on our part – the same attention to detail that we would demand of ourselves if we were learning the movements of a new kata.
Ultimately, what we need to do is leverage the discipline that we have developed through our training, and use it to keep ourselves healthy and safe. It’s all about attitude. Years ago, whenever a student in the dojo would block with their thumb sticking out, my teacher would say, “What’s stronger? That one little thumb, or your whole mind!”