Recently, I was reading an article on how to improve stalking in wilderness environments. The author emphasized not just the importance of masking one’s physical presence through scent reduction, appearance, and movement, but also wrote about, “camouflaging the mind.” Essentially, this is the concealment of one’s intent during any stalk; important since animals can tune in that intent, in turn, tuning us in.
It’s no different in training. Concealing one’s intent/intention during training is essential to be successful in Budo. Intention is tied to ego, pride, selfishness, and desires; unless we can control these aspects, we unwittingly place limitations on our ability. History is rife with those whose wills were broken by enemies exploiting their weaknesses.
To begin, we can let go of the attachment toward completing technique in training. Once we remove ourselves from the want and need to perform any technical goal, we can focus on simply maintaining kamae - maintaining our safety - and allow events to unfold as they must, making certain they occur justly with only the barest minimum of involvement. Learning to ensure outcomes are a direct consequence of our opponent’s recklessness, grants us a high level of survivability.
In this way we sever any communication we might unconsciously have with our opponent in crucial moments. When an opponent has no information to base an attack or defense upon, they are left with aggression driven by conjecture, a lot like driving at night without headlights. The concealment of our intent not only masks any response, but works toward stripping away our physical signature, further cultivating our ability to move ambiguously, spontaneously, and ultimately “invisible.”
Or you could just throw a smoke bomb or something.
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