Strange Experience

cathal · Black Belt

I was practicing my kata, I know about 15 off by heart. I was in my backyard, its the beginning of spring so I wanted to be outside for a while. You know how it feels I guess--cooped up during the winter and finally you can be outside. So I decided to do all of the kata I know outside, and get some fresh air and feel the earth on my feet. So, after a while you know that when you get tired, you relax and your technique tends to get faster, because you aren't tensing your muscles, etc. Well after I had done all 15 I was getting a little tired. So I decided to see if I could do them all again, but in a different order, facing different directions, and so on.

Well then the strangest thing happened. I was thinking about the bunkai of the technqiues the first time around, but this second time I decided to not think about anything at all. Usually I'll think about bunkai, or whatever, but I decided not to do anything. Just do the techniques. After a while I was nearing exhaustion but I was stubborn and wanted to finish all 15. So nearing the end I felt diffrent, strange maybe. I don't know the word...it didn't feel like I was doing the techniques anymore. It felt like they were happening, not me. Maybe through me? Not me doing them, but they existed all the same, and were performing themselves. When I was done I sat down to perform mokso, like we always do in the dojo before and after training...it felt different too. I wasn't tired anymore, I didn't feel any pain and I wasn't short on breath. Yet I knew that I did feel those things, but it didn't matter somehow because I didn't actually do all the training myself.

Has anyone else experienced this before? Is this a good experience or a bad one? Could it be classified as such? Did I just get a little delussional because of the lack of water and too much trianing? You know, like an hallucination due to physical stress? Or was it something else? If it was something else then why am I a little afraid to try again?
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The best victory is when the opponent surrenders
of its own accord before there are any actual
hostilities...It is best to win without fighting.
- Sun-tzu

BJJShotoshe · Orange Belt

Mushin... thats what they call it... mind-no mind. Means that even if you are thinking about something completely different or in the same your body is able to perform it. Kind of like once you know how to ride a bike, you never forget. Also the other part of Mushin. Being able to perform the kata in your head without having to get up and do it physically.
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shodan - Shotokan
Blue Belt - Jiu-Jitsu
Whoever appeals to the law against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care the themself without that law is both. For wounded man shall say to his assailant, if I live I will kill you, If I die you are forgiven-- such is the rule of Honor.

sparmaster · White Belt

Happens to me in keyboarding class all the time.
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shitokai-student · White Belt

i feel it is a great expeerience an one tyo be repeated. it symbolises your concies and unconcies mind being together as one with your hara, or center, i would most deffinetly try to repeat the expierce (although with another team mate/coach in the area to ensure your safety)

Mark
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FIGHT HARDEST OF ALL.

scottnshelly · KF VIP

Could have just been muscle memory taking over when you got too tired to think about it. Or maybe one of those previously suggested possibilities.

1st KYU · Orange Belt

yeah i think something similar has happened to me. i agree it may be anyone of the suggestions above, but deffiently it is a GOOD thing.
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"Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battle field."

CloudDragon · Purple Belt

Medical science would equate it to a "Runners high", it is when you have used all of the immediate energy stores in your body and the brain releases endorphins to help you carry on. Is this a bad thing, no. As long as you don't do it every day. I see it as a type of reward for pushing yourself.

As far as it being Mushin, sure, it could be that. I personally feel that it shouldn't take extended training to achieve Mushin, but for many people it is their first experience with it. So either way, it was a good thing.
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markusan · Orange Belt

Another interpretation is that it is the result of sustained one pointed concentration. Instead of your mind constantly reflecting on itself as well as the activity it just focuses on the activity. It is an excellent condition. It is what we all hope for by training, to be able to train and fight with no ego consciousness, just 100 percent absorbed in the activity.
Instead of your mind thinking "this is me training" it thinks "training" or instead of " this is me fighting you" where it is distracted by ego and fear, it just thinks "fighting". Instead of doing the activity you are being the activity. It is the state of no-mind.
We practice meditation for the same result.
The problem you may encounter now is that if you try hard to replicate that state you will add something else for your mind to think about, another mind state to eliminate before you can get back to no-mind. The answer is to just train. Remenmber...that's how you did it last time.

ninjanurse · KF Sensei

Sounds like you were "In the zone"! Definitely a great feeling.

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Heidi-A student of the arts
Tae Kwon Do,Shotokan,JuJitsu,TaiJi

Belasko · Orange Belt

Only times that I have achieved that is during competition and testing. I can remember at my 1st Dan test the entire room was filled, but as soon as I began my form I noticed nothing else in the room. It was as though it was empty. The next thing I know the form is complete and I felt no fatigue until the test was completely over with. I have to attribute this state as complete focus. Or as ninjanurse said, being "in the zone"
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