Principle 10

Principle 10 - Move around your assailant, changing the angle of your attacks. Avoid being in a position where your assailants hips are facing/square to you (this is where they are strong). By changing the angle of an attackers assault you force them to “reset” their attacks creating time and space for yourself.

Whoever controls the movement of a fight controls the fight. Movement both creates opportunities for attack as well as denying the same for your assailant. Power comes when the hips and shoulders are pointed squarely at the target; this means you must prevent your attacker from “lining” you up in this way whilst at the same time creating situations that put them directly in your sights. Too often I watch people when they train or spar, just standing in front of their partner/opponent looking for some attacking opportunity to magically appear. If you are waiting for your opponent to simply make a mistake for you, you’ll probably not be in a position to exploit it when it happens i.e. you’ll be flat footed with your weight rooted. Your role is to create the mistakes you want your aggressor to make e.g. to get them to move in a certain direction, to get them as they move to load all of their weight on to a particular leg, to lean back to avoid a strike etc.To throw a person, you must first take their balance. Nobody willingly unbalances themselves – the human condition will do everything and anything to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

To throw somebody you have to overcome one of man’s most innate instincts: to stay upright. And yet people in training give up their balance and stability so easily. Next time you are working the hook and jab pads with a partner, watch how many times their back foot comes off the ground when they are throwing a rear strike. Their desire to hit the pad is so great that they over-extend themselves in doing so, with their head passing forward of both their hips, knees and feet. With their balance taken the simplest of throws, sweeps or reaps is possible. If a person’s attention can be shifted and directed, it is possible to move them in to positions that they know are not safe.

If control of range can be combined with lateral movement i.e. moving sideways, it is possible to attack a person from all angles and even take their back. Forcing a person to commit their weight to a movement freezes them in time. Lateral movements, accomplish this well, as a person if they wish to continue an attack must abort what they are doing and make a change of direction in order to line themselves up for their next attack. These are the moments to choose your attacks; as long as you have moved in a fashion that keeps your hips squared to your target.       

Sparring is a great opportunity (in whatever fashion it is conducted) to learn these things. Next time you train play with one thing, not staying directly in front of your opponent. Understand how your movement causes them to move and what attacking opportunities your movement provides you with. Maybe spend the initial moments of your partner work, using your movement to learn how your partner responds to you; then calculate the attacks you could make that would exploit these. Train to learn, and how to get better and expect to make mistakes along the way.