The Curated Collection #30
Mushin, The Science of Training and Performance
Mushin
I really resonated with this beautiful concept of Mushin- which roughly translates to: “no mind” which I first heard mentioned by Chris Bosh on the Tim Ferriss show.
To achieve this state of Mushin, the mind must be free from any conscious thought; free from anger, hesitation, doubt, fear and pride. Quoting a famous Zen Master Takoan Shoho:
“When the swordsman stands against his opponent, he is not to think of the opponent, nor of himself, nor of his enemy’s sword movements. He just stands there with his sword which, forgetful of all technique, is ready only to follow the dictates of the subconscious. The man has effaced himself as the wielder of the sword. When he strikes, it is not the man but the sword in the hand of the man’s subconscious that strikes.”
This is what I experience in competition. It’s an incredible feeling of being completely lost in the present moment, leaning on countless hours of training stored in the subconscious, free to play and react to the best of my abilities and show my art, my craft, my passion, my heart, my joy, and my spirit on the field of competition.
See also: Mushin: Peak Performance State for a deeper dive into the characters Mu (無) + Shin (心) and what they come to mean together.
I was very lucky to come across the blog Jump Science during my time competing at Princeton. There was lots of specific knowledge in it that has been very helpful to me. I revisited it again this week and it was again full of great reminders and passages:
“On the other hand, naturally strong athletes and those in sports that have a strength training culture often fall in love with it too much. Football is probably the biggest culprit here. Here's an example. Through Four Years' Training, College Football Players Gain Strength and Size. Research was conducted on over 150 football players over the course of seven years at Oklahoma State University. They found that the athletes generally did not improve speed or vertical jump over the course of their career. The article attributes it to genetic limitations with muscle fiber types. To be blunt, that's a bunch of BS. The lack of improvement was a result of ineffective training methods, particularly (I'm guessing based on the article) too much time spent in the weight room and too much focus on max strength. We do need to acknowledge that weight gain and strength may be greater priorities for college football players, but do we really think this team’s coaches were planning on not improving their players’ speed? OSU plays Big 12 football. The sport is big deal at the school. But even among the "experts", the professionals, the people with the top positions, etc in the field of sports training, few people truly know how to train advanced athletes to get even better. I saw the same problem at my own university. The football players' off season training was 90% lifting. And somehow that was supposed to produce increased speed on the field? If lifting is what you do, a lifter is what you become.”
A la the wisdom of Carl McGown/Steven Bain/Dad:
You get good at what you spend your time doing.
Don’t get me wrong, a key reason I am going into year seven of professional volleyball has been the countless hours of hard and smart work lifting in the weight room. The body has to be able to handle the grind of many (oftentimes consecutive) seasons. And I’ve had many amazing strength, conditioning, and performance coaches with me along the way. But it’s important to keep performance priorities in mind and in the proper order. I will be a physical beast again this year, and I know that will help me throughout the season, but I also know at the end of the day I have to weaponize my physicality and ultimately my job is to consistently play the best volleyball I can for my team. This requires a combination of many more sets of skills: mental, technical, spiritual, emotional, social, etc. in order for us to achieve our team goals together.
A closing thought from Farnam Street’s Shane Parish:
Ninety percent of success can be boiled down to consistently doing the obvious thing for an uncommonly long period of time without convincing yourself that you're smarter than you are.
In my craft, the obvious thing is continuing to master the fundamental skills of volleyball (in a game-like and specific way). Individually and with my team. Day in and day out.