This happend during a specialist course called Senshusei.
For ten months we trained approximately twenty-five hours a week.
The standard response to nearly everything was simple:
"Osu."
Sensei says jump.
Student jumps.
No questions.
No hesitation.
Just action.
During that period, Sensei stayed at my house one evening after a gathering. We stayed up late talking and socializing, and I didn't get to bed until around three in the morning.
Three hours later, Sensei woke up.
His allergies were acting up because of the cat, and he needed a ride home.
Meanwhile, I was upstairs completely dead to the world.
Three hours of sleep after a long week of training.
I was gone.
Downstairs, Sensei was talking with my girlfriends mother.
She asked him,
"Would you like me to go wake up John?"
Sensei smiled.
"No."
Then he said,
"Watch this."
He simply looked toward the ceiling and, in a completely normal voice, said:
"John."
Then a second time:
"John."
That was it.
No yelling.
No raised voice.
No effort.
The second time he said my name, I sat straight up in bed.
Within seconds I was on my feet, down the stairs, bowing and saying:
"Osu, Sensei."
The whole thing took less than ten seconds.
By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs, Sensei and my ex's mother were both grinning.
They couldn't believe how fast I had responded.
To me, it didn't feel strange.
It felt normal.
Years later I realized what I was seeing.
Thousands of repetitions had conditioned a response that bypassed thought entirely.
I didn't wake up and think about whether I wanted to get out of bed.
I didn't debate it.
I didn't negotiate with myself.
Sensei called.
I moved.
The decision had already been made earlier through training.
Looking back, I think that's one of the things martial arts taught me that had nothing to do with fighting
Sometimes awareness and action become so deeply ingrained that they happen before thought has a chance to interfere.