Martial arts

I've mentioned before that I spent a lot of time in my life learning martial arts, and while I do not actively practice it at the moment, it still enthralls me. There are a number of different martial arts that I would love to learn, especially Iaido (which I'll get to in a moment), but unfortunately these aren't things that you can just look up a youtube tutorial for and figure it out. You might be able to get some of the ideas down, but unless you have someone watching over you who knows what they're doing, you're probably going to be making some mistakes that may seem minimal, but could ruin the entire point of what you're trying to do.

A good example of that is punching. That sounds like a really straightforward, basic thing to do, but there are a lot of ways you can mess that up. The most obvious example I can give is where you put your thumb. Most people who have never thrown a punch before will instinctively wrap their fingers around their thumb, holding it on the inside of their fist. If you throw a solid punch like this, you will break your thumb. Instead, you want your thumb on the outside, resting over the middle section of your fingers.

This is a really basic thing that, if not directly pointed out to you, you can easily miss and pay the price for later. And as you get into more complex and, in my opinion, more interesting martial arts, these kinds of basic building blocks can be very easily missed without a live instructor.

That brings me to Iaido, which is one of if not the most interesting martial art that I know of. If you have ever seen an anime, a movie, or a comic with a lot of ninjas or samurais or some other kind of swordfighters, chances are you have seen that one incredibly fast swordsman. That one guy who always carries his sword around in its sheath in his hand, even as he enters combat, and strikes faster than the eye can see. Usually there's a big deal made out of him putting the sword back in its sheath, and just as he does whatever it was he was attacking just falls to pieces.

That is Iaido.

Iaido is sword fighting martial art where the idea is to strike quickly and accurately from a sheathed position, and end in a sheathed position. In the time that your sword was out, you struck at the most vulnerable area, so that by the time your sword is back in its sheath, your opponent is effectively defeated.In a branch off art called Iaijutso, that specifically means that your opponent is dead.

That is the coolest damn thing I have ever heard of.

But can you imagine how precise you have to be for that? And not only precise, but incredibly fast. Every single movement has to be dialed in, unwavering, and flawless. Your muscles have to be so attuned to the action that you could do it in your sleep. Even something so simple as how you put the sword back in its sheath. That is a vital step to the entire process, but it you get it wrong, not only is your entire attack going to be thrown off, you'll probably cut a finger or two off, if not your entire hand.

That is years and years of dedication and practice. Probably even just to the process of sheathing and unsheathing. Much less actually striking. Not only do you have to be precise as all hell, but you have to know exactly what you're aiming for. You have to know every weak point, every soft spot, and then you have to be able to see the very instant that an opportunity arises and have the reflexes to act on it before it is gone.

And that's only one of the arts that interests me.