Photo courtesy of Cayusa
Zanshin is a state of mind that can be defined as something like quiet awareness, or connection that starts before physical contact and lasts afterward. Since we are talking about zanshin as a kind of connection (like an internet or telephone connection) you can consider a conflict as a sort of signal theory problem.
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Tori is trying to determine if uke is sending a message and if so, what is the meaning of that message. In signal theory, the basic idea is that the signal passing between the sender (uke) and the receiver (in this case, tori) is to some degree obscured by noise. The noise can be an attribute of the environment, the sender, or the receiver. Of these three noise sources, the receiver can only control his own noise. Tori can't control the noise in the environment or in the uke.
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One way to reduce the level of noise tori is injecting into the baseline is to do the same thing before and after every technique. Whenever you are exposed to the same thing over and over, your mind is good at filtering that out. As an example, you don't normally hear yourself breathing. On the other hand, if you do something random and different before and after each technique, then the randomness stands out in your mind and serves as noise (like trying to listen to yourself breathe while whistling).
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In a conflict, this noise can obscure important messages that might otherwise be obvious. Messages from uke like, "I am not going to fall that way" or "Here I come again!"
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So, an aspect of zanshin (the stuff between the techniques) is doing the same thing before and after each technique in order to reduce the noise in the baseline so you can stay connected to uke.
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Patrick Parker, is a Christian, husband, father, judo and aikido teacher, Program Director for a Cardiac Rehab, and a Ph.D. Contact: mokurendojo@gmail.com or phone 601.248.7282
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