Zanshin – the Mind
of a Warrior
By David Stainko
By practicing martial arts every person will experience different states of his/her mind. The reason behind this is that everything starts in our mind, and martial arts are no exception.
Although martial arts trainees go through different states of mind while practicing them, we will explain 4 main states so that the readers can understand their significance. Shoshin, Fudoshin, Mushin and Zanshin are 4 powerful states of mind that have a special place in martial arts and, as such, have long since been recognized by various martial arts experts.
Unfortunately, these states of mind are incorrectly or partially explained in today's literature. Old masters who are acquainted with these states of mind do not mention them often, and sports psychologists do not give them too much attention because the used terms are not entirely clear.
Although they are part of basic knowledge when in comes to martial arts, oftentimes a big mess is made when we try to explain those 4 states and the terms that surround them.
The confusion often starts while trying to directly translate Japanese words that denote these states. We now have terms in Japanese (or Chinese) that do not reveal much themself so different explanations are given for these states of mind.
But let's start from the beginning.