6 - The Preparatory Arts

Kosho Chronicles Issue #6

To the Reader

Every martial artist I have ever met wants to know what to do when the punch is coming. That is the wrong question. The right question is why you let it get that far.

Mitose began explaining the manuscript to me in a way that turned everything I thought I knew upside down. I had spent years training to react. He was about to show me that reaction was the problem.

The Teaching

Kosho Ryu should be preparatory first and reactionary second.

Everything we do, we must prepare for. Look at the way the body moves. Look at the way the body functions. Look at the way we get up in the morning. Everything is a practice. In everything, we prepare so that we can react, so that we can do.

Reactionary arts are secondary. They are the slower of the two. Unfortunately, many people who do martial arts today, all they want to do is react to things. But if they prepare way ahead of time, the fight never takes place. You have already won.