In my journey through nearly two decades of martial arts training I had several good instructors but one really great one. When we sparred he preached focus even when a punch or kick was headed your direction with potential impact.

His own personal focus was almost un-real because you could see it in his face. If you punched or kicked his focus was totally unchanged. He used the absolute minimum effort to avoid contact and that was frequently his opening to throw a technique back.

He taught us to not focus on the punch or kick headed your way but on your own strategy in the battle. He always said you simply had to avoid the punch by one quarter of an inch and that was as good as one foot. The evasive effort to avoid a contact by one quarter of an inch was way less and it helped you not loose focus with your own strategy.

Those insights served me well and over time my own Zanshin improved. I could see how well it worked when I had the opportunity to spar a lesser experienced student. It would sometimes even become a strategy to disrupt the focus of my opponent.

Over time my Zanshin seemed to transition into other areas of my life. I discovered I unconsciously began to prioritize tasks so I was focusing on the truly important and urgent tasks and not worrying about things that did not contribute to my immediate goal.

I am certainly not an expert and there are times Zanshin escapes me but when it works hard things seem almost effortless.

I am very thankful to this instructor for the impact he had on my life. At the beginning of the journey I thought I would learn how to defend myself in a fight. In the end the Zanshin has been much more valuable than being able to punch or kick.