The fundamental premise for practicing physical activity as “Do” (道, the Way)

How can we develop physical capacities that we can keep cultivating even in advanced age? What conditions are necessary to do so? It is said this is possible in kendō, but is it truly something universal that could be realized in other areas of physical activity as well? For example, could a similar performance be achieved in unarmed martial arts?

There will surely be people who, faced with such questions, dismiss the idea from the outset as impossible. Especially among those who train seriously every day with their bodies—such as practitioners of unarmed martial arts—the negative answer will be accompanied by a conviction grounded in experience.

However, what we absolutely must understand as a fundamental premise here is that we are no longer reasoning within the boundaries of existing rules and methods. It is obvious that an elderly person cannot compete on equal terms in a bare-handed match where the tremendous physical power of youth collides—and in reality I have seen many examples. In other words, it is already clear that trying to discover another potential physical capacity while remaining within the conceptual frames of existing martial arts or other physical activities is essentially impossible.

We must therefore recognize that what we wish to explore here unfolds outside existing rules and concepts. It is like moving from thinking about running as a 100-meter sprint to considering endurance running such as the 42.195 km marathon. If one believes that running means nothing more than a brief sprint, then one cannot even begin to think about how to run a marathon.

Even though both are “races of speed,” the methods necessarily change completely between 100 meters and 42.195 km. No one runs the 100 meters worrying about pacing; each step is trained to reach maximum speed without wasting a single movement. By contrast, in the marathon one aims to reach maximum speed only after ensuring a rate of energy expenditure that allows one to complete the race. That is, you must always be aware—envisioning and calculating the distance from where you are to the finish line—in order to determine the best way to run at every moment.

Obviously, this distance of 42.195 km in the marathon is a metaphor for the span of one’s life. It means we must proceed by observing our life—up to death—from a panoramic, objective perspective. This connects to the concept of practicing something as a “Way” (do, 道).

When you are still at the beginning and the road ahead is long, it is hard to see what lies before you. A training method that works well for three months may no longer work after a year. Even if, after a year, you are excited to have found the “best” method, after ten years there may be another change. This Way can only be walked once; you cannot go back or start over. And you have only one body. When practicing something as a Way, maintaining the body’s health is the minimum condition. To separate one’s awareness from the body and plunge blindly into a method is extremely dangerous.

To begin with, it is important to recognize that there is also a discipline called long-distance running.