Zanshin and the Burpee

Last night Dave, my CrossFit Sensei, had us do 75 burpees for time with a 12 minute cutoff. He gave us a pep talk before in which he said because it was a simple own-body weight exercise, basically drop to the floor, do a pushup, hop up and clap hands over your head, there was absolutely no excuse for not maintaining continuous movement. Don't stop. Keep going. Don't hold back. All out. That is, zanshin.

It reminded me of lessons from three of my main karate influences, my Japanese teachers. I had the gift of learning the basics of shotokan from Shunsaku Koga, a graduate student in sports medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the late 1970s, now living in Japan with his fine family. We still communicate, thankfully. I remember during kumite drills Koga-san would assail his much larger opponents and literally explode through. The club of about 60 of us formed a circle for full speed free sparring on Friday nights. I still see the image of Koga after launching one of his utterly fearless but controlled attacks and rocket-propelled punches to the upper lip, which would have killed the target had it landed full force two or three inches further than allowed. The attack began, followed through and ended in a flash, a blink. His whole body would quake as the glass shattering kiai erupted. He was behind his opponent having gone through all blocks and evasions. It scared the crap out of me and I was sitting on the floor. The look on the face of his opponent is also unforgettable. Looked like a facial prayer. Thank you God for sparring me. From those days I saw zanshin in action. Go forward no matter what.

I heard the word itself in Sugiyama Sensei's Chicago dojo. He defined it in those hot, humid summer clinics in the 1980s and 1990s as mental determination, mental follow-through before, during, and after an attack. Koga-san. I imitated what I had seen Koga do in the Madison dojo and tried to apply what I was experiencing in Chicago. My kiai got louder. My techniques got focused. Confidence replaced fear.

Nishiyama Sensei taught follow-through too. I was always shocked at what he saw that I missed in people's kumite and kata. When two karateka performed the same kata side by side I always thought the more athletic kata was better. But Nishiyama looked for more. He looked for evidence of zanshin. Like in the duel scene between the samurai and villager Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. After that fight, the villager is still standing, dead, while the samurai stands behind him, calm, ready, balancing between mindfulness and mindlessness.

Thank you Koga-san. Thank you Sugiyama Sensei. Thank you Nishiyama Sensei. Dave Sensei, domo arigato senor roboto.

I did the 75 burpees in 6 minutes and 59 seconds.