The above clip from The Last Samurai shows a scene of untutored fighter(Tom Cruise) being schooled by a master. Physical combat is the ultimate adversarial process: the margin for error is extraordinarily slim and the penalty paid for mistakes is exceedingly high. The precision required is extraordinary and demands incredible focus; you have no time for carefully studied approaches.
The concept behind so many successful endeavors in life is training your body to respond in a specific fashion without requiring a deliberate and conscious thought. I find myself pretty comfortable couching that concept in terms of the sports I played. As a defensive back, I read my keys and then relied on my training to guide me to the play. In basketball I watched for guys breaking open and had to react in a split second to thread passing lanes. As a fielder in baseball I watched the ball off the bat and let my eyes and instincts take over to bring me to the ball.
A good example of this concept in practice in the game of football is vision as it relates to ball carriers. You hear analysts and coaches talk about it all over the place but rarely do you see a fully explained definition for precisely what vision is and how it’s mechanics work. I don’t claim to have a fully formed definition of what it is either; what I do believe is “too many mind” is utterly central to consistently making sound split second decisions under duress. There are academic lessons to be learned on the subject from tomes like Thinking, Fast and Slow, but there are always plenty of lessons to be found on the football field as well:
The above exchange is a common refrain. The reason guys like Priest Holmes made it look easy: no mind. They keep only the eminently relevant information in the foreground of their mind and react to the defense with the best of their ability. It doesn’t minimize the physical portion of the RB position but you won’t find many ‘elite’ RBs who haven’t become masters of the art of acting without conscious thought or as the above movie clip put it: no mind.