The samurai warriors of past in Japan were a special and rare breed. They would protect their clan and fight to the death, always keeping their honor in tact. The word “samurai” actually means to serve. When not fighting battles, Japanese samurai would spend most of their time honing their fighting skills with and without their swords. The samurai were aware that brute physical strength could be overcome by technique and mental toughness, and so trained to perfect their martial form and their minds. They did this through countless repetitions and meditation. By doing so, the samurai developed “haragei” or mental concentration. They could then direct all of their mental and physical abilities to defeating their opponent in battle.

The repetitious movements the samurai practiced were called “kata”. They did the kata slowly at first to perfect the movement and then later they did it faster for speed and accuracy. Most of the practice time for samurai consisted of kata and a sword-drilling method called “suburi”. This involved the samurai swinging the sword at an imaginary opponent over and over again. The young samurai first practiced swinging a real sword at an imaginary opponent so he could get the feel of it.

After mastering the movements, the budding samurai would spar against a real opponent with a wood sword, which the Japanese call “bokuto”. Eventually the samurai hopeful would spar with real iron or steel swords. Before a strike could be made, the samurai was expected to stop his sword before hitting his target. This was called “tsumeru” and was practiced for years. When ready, perhaps as a late teenager, the young samurai might be called into battle or asked to execute criminals.

Samurai never stop practicing their skills, so the older, more experienced warriors were usually the toughest to defeat. Today, the code of the samurai is something more remembered than something practiced in Japan or around the world. Movies like “The Last Samurai” paint a gruesome and inspirational image of what it meant to be a samurai. If we can even muster half the discipline in our lives that samurai warriors possessed, we will be very successful in anything we do.