Make Your Tools

"One does not need buildings, money, power, or status to practice the art of peace (Aikido/Martial Arts). Heaven is right where you are standing, and that is the place to train."

-Morihei Ueshiba

"Attachments... are the greatest impediments to spiritual growth."

-Thich Nhat Hanh

So as many of you may know, I have moved from the United States to the small country of Israel. While one of my bags is mostly comprised of martial arts equipment, this is all safety and targets. I could not bring my Kendo armor, and certainly could not any of my nunchuka, shinai, knives, or bokken. Let alone bo staves and the like. All that had to be left behind.

I've practiced Kendo on and off for over a decade now. If I recall correctly, it's going on twelve years, and I have no expectation to stop being in form concerning practicing it.

Today combing through about 200 pieces of wood I finally came across a piece that is about the weight of a shinai (quite light for a bokken) and is the approximate length of a wakizashi.

Now this is not a shinai by any means, but it can become a makeshift bokken. I intend to get some cloth and wrap the hilt in such a way to turn it into a legitimate piece of training equipment. And this is what the heart of my post is speaking about; sometimes you have to make do.

You may not have training weights when you go somewhere new, but you will always have rocks you can till the ground and find, which may be even better and more useful for strength training than what you had.

When you start over somewhere that by no means giving up who you are, and what it is that you do. It just means adjusting. So you don't have a heavy bag; find a tree that can become one. So I don't have a bokken, I will now make one so I can keep practicing.

I didn't have a mirror to watch how I did my techniques, all I could do was look at my shadow in the near-noon sun and see if the Head, Stomach or Wrist cuts I were doing were straight. My shadow became the mirror that so many of us become used to, and take advantage of in our schools.

Not going to lie, its apparently impossible to take a photo of yourself doing a technique while
staying in perfect posture and position. But, this is what I mean when saying use your shadow as a mirror.

But someday your school may close, someday you may move. What, you then give up all that you did and learned?

I certainly can't, so I'm going to make do. You should consider how you can do this if you had to. Resourcefulness is something I take pride in as a martial artist. We always find a means.

"Make do with what you have; it is all you need."

For my blog on my travels in Israel: http://ajourneyinisrael.blogspot.co.il/