For the first time in Shindenkan history, Kimu Sensei held the incredibly controversial POMW TLUS. A Theme Based Leadership Development seminar which deals with the development of firearms history with a direct link to martial arts training and realism in today's Denmark.

In this article I will outline why, in my eyes, this is the most ground-breaking leadership training in Shindenkan to date.

Why? - Yes, first of all because it asked questions like: "Are firearms part of our reality?". "Are firearms something we have to deal with". "Will firearms be our children's future reality". "How should we deal with it?".

Yes, how should we really deal with it. As Minouchi Sensei says, we can choose 3 different paths!

We can talk non-committally about it as one extreme, we can go to war because it is our job as the other extreme... Or we can study it - seek to understand both the professional and the human perspective and ask questions about ourselves and our perception – learning from others' experiences and understanding – with the genuine and traditional approach of the East.

In Shindenkan we want to constantly increase our level of competence and we ARE a multi-track martial arts system and we therefore need to know what we are talking about.

Therefore, as the fundamental part of POMW, Kimu Sensei has reviewed the entire development of weapons over time and, not least, what has been controlling the development of weapons - this served on a silver platter to us participants.

The important thing here is not so much the history and development itself, as the link directly to us and our level of clarification!

Clarification
Are you settled with life and death? Are you clear about the difference between being far from or close to an opponent. Are you clear that it is never the weapon that kills but the person behind the weapon who makes an active choice and pulls the trigger?

As participants, we were confronted with the following dilemma: "If you were to defend yourself against someone holding a gun and your opponent dropped his gun, would you pick it up to save yourself?"

30 % replied that they would!! But that also means that 70 % chose to die!!

"If you had to defend yourself and your family against someone holding a gun and your opponent dropped his gun, would you pick it up to save your family?"

"Do you feel confronted?". The question came from Kimu Sensei and the reactions of my fellow POMW participants were very different, some were very emotionally affected and there were others who were indifferent. But there were two statements in particular that speak of honesty and contradict indifference

1. "I am not necessarily clear - whether I really want to be clear..."

2. "You only know what needs to be done - when you are in it and then it might be too late".

BUT - You have to pick up the gun to have a choice, - you can't stand back passively or paralyzed.

Kimu Sensei's message was also: The only constant is the development of man - this is Do Michi - The Way, and it is precisely man who has a will to make a choice - pull the trigger or not pull the trigger!

Kimu Sensei also said here, as he has so often said to me: "It is better to be clear before you are in the situation".

Kimu Sensei was challenged on his own shooting and why his shooting had become so good in such a short time and that it was at the same time an underlining of Menuchi Sensei's theory.

And to that Kimu Sensei answered briefly: "I have no ego".

Multi-track martial arts
What do we learn in a multi-track martial arts system that strives towards martial arts. We learn that we need to develop both our professional and human skills - why?

Yes, in our teaching - i.e. in our training of the technical combat skills, we have learned that the understanding of martial arts can be divided into unarmed and armed combat and again at short or long distance.

But what about human learning or the learning of life? In Shindenkan we learn to take responsibility for ourselves and then to become a leader of ourselves and finally to become a leader of others with clear values.

So what is the essence?
Are firearms part of our reality - the answer is yes. Does a multi-track combat system have to deal with this schism – the answer is yes.

We HAVE to develop both our professional and human skills, because this is part of our development and enables us to make conscious choices.

· A martial arts master is 100 % determined to be killed every time he trains.

· A martial arts master is 100 % determined to kill every time he trains.

· This means that there is an ultimate consequence – death! Or ultimate charity – Life.

POMW is a tool that helps us understand what 100 % clarity is - based on reality!

This is what I mean
I think that POMW clearly has its justification because POMW confronts our perception of ourselves as martial artists - and as people, with all the contradictions we contain.

"I am a pacifist and practice martial arts to be a better person and need distance" or "I have a job where I work alone at night, so I need to be able to defend myself and need realism".

And regardless of whether one sympathizes with one statement or the other, it is crucial that we constantly seek to develop ourselves - through training, through studying and understanding history and human development, and through understanding the present and technologies.

We come from outside and in – we are confronted with distance, we are confronted with realism and finally we stand on the bridge, the entrance to ourselves.

Is this part of my reality - yes I have answered that, but is this part of your reality?

What do you answer?