Who would win in a fight, the traditional samurai or the modern elite soldier? Most people would probably answer the modern elite soldier because they use firearms while the samurai use swords. But what if you gave a samurai the chance to learn how to use a firearm? Basically, that's kind of what the POMW project is all about.
The POMW project, Project Old Modern Warrior, set out to prove Minouchi Sensei's thesis that it is the man behind the weapon that made the biggest difference. And it is about man's clarification with himself.
In POMW Ia we were introduced to the theoretical part of the POMW course, and in that process our inner clarification was questioned. One of the questions we were asked was “If you were mugged and you could get hold of a gun, would you pick up the gun? And would you be ready to shoot the person who attacked you?”. Most of us answered that we would pick up the gun, but not a single one of us said we would use it. When the question was then changed to our family being attacked, most of us were suddenly ready to use the gun, and that shows something about our inner clarification. Because if we were actually in that situation we would probably all pick up the gun and use it, but when we just sat there and talked about it we could get on the moral high horse and say that it is wrong to shoot someone. And it was really something that set the mind in motion.
We spent some of the course learning about the history of guns, focusing on the history of firearms, looking at how and why guns have evolved the way they have. And of course it was very exciting to hear about, but what I thought was the most interesting was when we learned about the connection between pistols and martial arts, where positions in the military were compared to martial arts degrees, the development process of the POMW and how you could use the POMW to getting to know yourself, as well as the thought-provoking questions we were asked along the way that ensured that you at least had something to think about when you got home that day.
One of the things that really made me feel that signing up for POMW was worth it was when we heard about how the course was developed. A total of over DKK 2 million has been spent on the development of the POMW project. Kimu Sensei has been the central player in the development, having the role of extracting the essence of shooting so that it can be served to us on a golden platter through the POMW course. Kimu Sensei has learned from the best shooting instructors in the world, and has shot alongside winners of World Shooting Championships at their level. In total, Kimu Sensei has shot over 180,000 rounds during the development of the POMW project, and when you hear about the facts and statistics from the development of POMW and the previous courses, it gives great confidence that what we are learning is shooting at a very high level.
In connection with the connection between POMW and the martial art, we were told that it was a tool for getting to know oneself, and that it is a tool that can be used all the way to the densho degree Menkyo. When you're just told that, of course it's something where you think it's just something they say, because how could a shooting course be something that could be used up to such a high level in martial arts? But with all the thought-provoking questions that were asked along the way, I left with a lot to think about, and after that I could see for myself that there is a lot in the POMW course that I can use for something myself, and how it is a tool that can be used for such a long time.
