Some ideas for a brief writing come up on a regular basis, almost like it's screaming "write me, write me". Then you have to work to remember if you ever wrote about it before. This can become especially problematic when you've been doing a blog for the last 15 or 20 years and you're over a couple of hundred writings and you are simply not really in the mood to go back and read everything to see if you touched the topic before. Such is the topic of Tokui no Waza which very roughly translates as "Favorite Technique" which came up a few days ago so we'll address it but from a different standpoint, perhaps not normally seen or considered.
When we are in a real fight, the kind you write home about (or maybe not if it goes badly) and you are fully adrenalized and functioning out of your subconscious mind, there is no conscious thought process per se that is possible. You fight how you train as they say and automatic reflexes take over in what is the normal fight, flight, or freeze syndrome. You are in action and unable to stop, pause, and consider what comes next. You just have to act and the idea that you can pick and choose what you want like in a slow practice at the dojo (right jab then the arm bar then move then hip throw then ... ) just isn't possible. You need only one set of fast automatic reactions to survive.
So, you end up doing what you know or aka, your Tokui no Waza or Favorite Technique because it is what is most deeply ingrained in you subconscious. But the question arises; is it the best choice or is it your preferred choice because you just like it even if it's not the best all around. Do you like it because it's all you know or is the easiest, like a boxer who always falls back on a right cross because he's right handed and it's all he ever practices, even though it may not fit the next opponent.
Many martial artists consider Tokui no Waza to be the technique they like the best or that is easier but this is a mistaken notion. It is actually the technique(s) your Subconscious Mind knows the best. Remember, we're talking here about an attack event so fast and furious that you simply don't have time to pause and mentally go, "now lets see, should I pick this favorite techniques or this favorite technique or maybe this one". You have to move and move fast and the subconscious intuitive reflexes are always, always faster to make a decision than the conscious mind is. It has to be automatic otherwise you are literally facing the attackers subconscious (mind) that is faster then your conscious (mind).
So how to reach this mark, this auto-pilot (in a sense). Simple but not simple ...... train, train hard and often, train correctly. Embed the basic principles that all the more advanced material is based on. Learn the entire ryu understanding that (the entire ryu) is or was specifically designed to provide the most likely answers for most if not all circumstances of the encounter, and by training you embed and internalize what becomes eventually, your true Tokui no Waza that your subconscious mind picks for you in that moment. The true Tokui no Waza arises from the intuitive understanding of the ryu itself (and the work you put into it) and not the bias of your personal opinion or your conscious mind. it just happens and only your intuitive processes make it so.
And, you'll most likely find should the need ever arise that the Tokui no Waza that your subconscious picks is one of the simplest movements in the entire system simply because it has the lowest possibility of failure; unlike the more complicated techniques.