Saturday 11 May 2019

Injuries and Walking with the Tengu.

Today's post is just an update post about where things are in my training.

In my first post of the year I wrote about an ongoing injury I have been trying to train through. It was an inflamed tendon in my leg that just wasn't healing. In fact, I ended my last two training sessions off the mat with an ice pack. So I reluctantly decided to take the first term of training off. I hadn't had an extended break from TSYR training for about eight years. It was the best thing I could have done. One term is about ten weeks and in this time I stopped all martial arts training (aikido included). I am now two weeks back into my training and my body is feeling strong and resilient and more importantly...pain free!

It is an important lesson for me. I have written about working around injuries in training before but I simply couldn't work around a leg injury - everything in budo requires your legs! It is also a lesson about getting older. I am over 40 and my body reminds me now and again that it needs treating with respect. I can't rip into activity like the twenty year old Dean used to do. I was also feeling a little jaded towards my training and the 10 weeks off kick-started my enthusiasm for budo. 

During my ten weeks away from the mat, my family spent 10 days in Japan (see previous post). To be immersed in a culture that my budo practice stems from affirmed a lot of things for me. This certainly rekindled my interest in my martial studies. I also discovered a new podcast to listen to. It is called Walking with the Tengu and you can have a listen for yourself here. This podcast is about exploring classical Chinese and Japanese texts for the modern martial artist. I have found these episodes to be engaging and thought provoking. The main text that is explored is a translation of "The Tengu's Discourse on the Martial Arts" by Issai Chozanshi. I own a copy of this book so it was interesting to hear another's opinion on the concepts written within. 

Ushiwakamaru (Minamoto no Yoshitsune) training with the tengu at Mt. Kurama.


So having been to Japan earlier this year and listening to podcasts on classical texts to and from work, my enthusiasm for my training has increased once more with a more resilient, reliable body to work with.