Gaming and 残心 - Zanshin, a creative conversation.

I recently had a really good conversation with a friend of mine who is an avid gamer.  He is very creative and is very dedicated to his work.  Now when I say gamer, many of you may think video games.  My friend +Jim Sandoval maintains a blog on blogger that covers many different styles of games however he focuses on the lost art of narratives, which in turn is mainly played on pencil and paper with the occasion of some sort of dice rolling. Now as I begin my rambling, you may also be wondering how one of the most difficult concepts in Martial Arts has in common with gaming?  I was wondering the same when +Jim Sandoval approached me and wanted to do a little Q & A. 

+Jim Sandoval has been working on certain concepts to bring armed and unarmed combat to life in his game and has been studying Eastern Combat Philosophy.  Historically game systems never quite got combat right for the avid gamer/practitioner, like myself, and was left to confusion and frustration at the outcomes.  The nature of these games have recently (well for my circle of friends since the mid-late 1990s) began to focus on more realism and the creative narrative as rules and creative discipline have evolved from the introduction of basic Dungeons and Dragons box sets (modules - OG white box) that were released in 1974.

As a gamer...

• You would roll initiative (to establish combat order)
• Determine your attack
• Roll your dice
• Determine if you hit or miss
• If hit, then apply damage and effects
• Wash, rinse, then repeat.

As you can see above, this has been the basic order of operation (with some creative differences for different game systems) and there is really no room for realism.  Gamers today have also evolved from these types of simple systems and want more.  +Plus Ten to Awesome on G+ or http://plustentoawesome.blogspot.com/ is a good place to start if you are like me, a practitioner of Martial Arts and an avid gamer to see deeper of what a narrative gaming styles can evolve to be, rather than the dry dice rolling paper and pencil RPG.

As a Martial Artist (in a dojo or gym setting... very important... not everyone street fights)

• Will pay respects and bow before squaring off with his or her opponent.
• From the moment of acknowledgement or when "hajime" is announced you are already into Seme (pressuring your opponent).
• Your Seme will lead to adjusting your Ma-ai (distance from your opponent) and will respond on how your Ashi Sabaki (footwork) will kick-in.
• Depending on your Kamae (guard), you may or may not be able to take advantage of your opponents Suki (weakness in guard or open areas).
• If you are trained well enough, the above may be mute as your Mushin (no-mind) has kicked in from "Hajime!" and has become instinctual.
• Highly trained Martial Artists have already developed the "Kakugo" or resolve when it comes to combat and will use it to harness their spiritual (not religious) drive to translate it into executing their techniques.
• Techniqes exchanged will continue unless both opponents "reset" or the aggressor continues a relentless offensive wave of techniques.
• Either way, opponents will have to fight to see who's Zanshin is stronger to see who can control the fight to see who will emerge as victor.

The above is just a fraction of what might shoot through the brain of a Martial Artist if they were analyzing a combat situation. And to differentiate the fact, I mentioned that it was in a dojo or gym setting... real life scenarios are much different as they can lead to life or death/safety situations.

My discussions with +Jim Sandoval revolved around just the basics, focusing on two different Martial Arts (Kendo and Karate - one armed the other not), walking through the combat exchanges (offensive and defensive) and the difference between "action and reaction" or "active and reactive" styles and motions.  Furthermore, we had some deeper conversations about how "situational awareness" in a Western Combat Philosophy was similar to Zanshin, to where I added that Zanshin was "situational awareness with extreme focus" without allowing your focus to dissolve once your have acted.  Eastern Philosophy works off of kanji or Chinese characters a lot and this was important in describing Zanshin to +Jim Sandoval.

As many of us practitioners understand... Zanshin's literal translation is "where your heart/soul/spirit remains." Broken down in Japanese, the first character is "nokoru" or to remain and the second is "kokoro or shin" which is the spirit tied to one's mind. In practice, our Zanshin must be strong throughout executing our techniques and through combat so that we are in focus and aware (in tune) with our on-going situation until we are out of harms way.  Our Zanshin is never in a off position.  Think of it as a proximity alarm that triggers our instinctual training... our "no mind" to protect us from danger.

You may be asking.."how do we train our instincts or how do I develop my Zanshin?"  This, my friend, is  another topic that needs to be addressed when Zanshin can be explored and discussed in its natural form.  I'll put another post up for that specifically.  This post was specifically to show that our traditional training has permeated and has peaked interests in areas outside of the Martial Arts arena and with gaming, MMA, and other industries looking at Eastern philosophies, they will be looking for more explanation or an in depth conversation of how it translates into their world. #zanshin