Even in the sheath the
knife must be sharp.
Finnish Proverb
Your martial arts training must be kept sharp. It is one of the duties of the warrior to keep his skills ready at all times. Don’t neglect your training. It is easy to fall into the mental illusion that you may never really need to use your martial arts skills in “real life,” but as a warrior, you cannot think this way.
As the above proverb states, “Even in the sheath the knife must be kept sharp.” The same goes for your martial arts skills; even if you are not using them, and they are “just in the sheath,” they still must be sharp.
You don’t wait until you need your knife to clean it up and sharpen it. After you use it, you clean it, sharpen it and store it in good shape for the next time you need to use it. It must be ready when you need it, especially if it is needed in a self-defense situation. Thus the saying, even in the sheath the knife must be sharp. It is not being used in the sheath, but it is ready to be used.
In the same way, you don’t wait until you need your martial arts skills to make sure they are developed, sharp and ready to be used. You keep them sharp and ready to be used when you need them. Procrastination can be a deadly habit. If your skills are not ready to use at a moment’s notice, you could be in big trouble.
The warrior’s weapons are kept sheathed the majority of the time, but they still have to be kept sharp. You don’t want to find that you need to use your “knife” and when you take it out of the sheath, it is dull, rusted, and couldn’t cut hot butter. Think about this.
