How do you educate heart and spirit?

The Japanese understanding of what constitutes as a good Judoka(Judo-competitor) is basically made up by 3 components: Heart/Spirit/Mind - Technique/Skill - Body. I believe that they have put heart first, skill second and bodily strength third and lastly to rank the 3 attributes among themselves. Most people can, if they eat well, sleep enough and have a good training-program, be competitive within their weight-category in terms of physique. Some people have the self-discipline, good guidance from competent sensei and the intuitive understanding of technique to master a few techniques at a competitive level. A few people have the heart to fight till the end and keep a cool and focused mind until the end of the very end of the fight. Why is it like that? How do you educate heart and spirit fit for Judo?





I have been asking myself this question many times. 
Kosei Inoue said in a interview at Bosei in Denmark when asked: 
" Do you have any special mental-program that you did in connection with competition?"
Inoue-Sensei answered:
" I did not have any special form of mental-training before competition, but you should know that everyone becomes nervous before a fight, it is only natural. At that time you have to believe in your own Judo and that you are strong enough."

 Kosei Inoue- Sensei is now a teacher at Tokai University in Japan, where I study. 
Today I understood how he could be so successful  without mental training. He learned by being a student at Tokai. 

Today Tokai University won the All Japan Team Championship after winning 4-3 in the final against Japan University and the team became legends as they won for the 5th consecutive time for the first time in the tournament´s 61 year old history! 
When I followed the team through the tournament I realized that they were not the strongest team in terms of bodily strength as some of their athletes even competed injured. Of course they were all skilled Judoka, but the likes of the Nishiyama-brothers and other worldclass-competitors where maybe more technically pro-efficient. So what did the Tokai-players possess? Namely the Tokai Spirit and heart. The will to fight to the very end of the end. It sounds like big cliché, but when they win every year, it becomes truth. 

So why? Sato-Sensei said it best when he said that this is done in the every-day struggle of the training(keiko). So we are starting monday morning again, training to win for the 6th consecutive time. I think a lot of the answer lies there. Where as the skill and the body can be trained and maintained, the heart and spirit have to be ceaselessly nurtured and cultivated. My judo-professor Hashimoto says that the ideal heart is like water, never settling, always flexible, ready to go with and around every challenge that life brings. In Judo, I think this flexible spirit lies at the core. 


It has been a long time since I have written anything. it took a piece of Judo-history to make me do it again. I hope I will be able to blog more in the future.