COUNTER ATTACKING pt.2.

Counter Attacking as a philosophy means that we not only expect but must in fact invite the Bad Guy to attack us

When writing about anything we always run into the power and the awkwardness of words, subtleties are missed simply because some people do not use words as well as others, defence mechanisms kick in, comments such as ‘that is just another way of saying blah, blah, blah’ or ‘thats just semantics’ prevent people from seeing the reality of what is in front of them, the simplicity.

In the last post I mentioned defending and attacking require different mindsets, that we cannot defend and attack at the same time, due to this fact Simultaneous Attack and Defence needs to be seen as a concept and not a method,.

Perhaps as a method for applying the philosophy of Counter Attack it has some value, if you are in an Attacking / Predatory mindset {using the Shield Arm, I will cover this later}, but by equal measure it has zero value if you are in a Defensive / Survivalist mindset.

Counter Attacking is a philosophy that once understood and abided by is outside of the win – loose matrix.

Getting back to the subtlety and awkwardness of words for a second, different things are ‘called’ different things because they ‘are’ different things.

If we are defending we are only defending, if we are attacking we are only attacking, if we are under attack and turn the tables on our attacker we are not defending we are {counter} attacking. 

Is the last statement subtle or awkward?

Or simple and clear?

Counter Attacking is turning the tables and attacking in return, Counter Attacking does not require defence, only that we are under attack.

Simultaneous Attack and Defence is a method we use only if we are being attacked to try to turn the tables and snatch some measure of control, it is always reactive, we are a victim of external circumstances and all the negative  implications that come along with that randomness, we are involved in someone else’s agenda, someone else plan, someone else event, and our own actions will be controlled by a Mindset that will be a product of that event and not necessarily of our own choosing.

Counter Attacking as a philosophy means that we not only expect but must in fact invite the Bad Guy to attack us so that we can then turn the tables and return the attack, we choose to allow the attacker the opening shot, if need be tempting them with clear openings and easy targets that they would find hard to pass up.

This is very much the difference between learning Wing Chun and learning how to use Wing Chun.

Having invited the attacker in, there is very little surprise in their actions and this allows us to respond, not react.  It is now our agenda, our plan, our event.

Something that should not be overlooked is that now that it is our event, it is our actions that drive our opponents Mindset and not their own.

Looking back to the three phases of a fight I mentioned in the previous post, the majority of the Wing Chun training I have been involved in and witnessed at various other schools is all about phase #1, and of course it is faultless if we find ourselves in this position.

To be in phase #1 requires that we are in control of the situation from the very beginning, something the Bad Guy will not want if this is an attack and not a fight, often we ourselves will sacrifice this position by being over involved in the pre violence theatre and missing the attack indicators.

The vast majority of violence we will face will be phase #2. 

More often than not we will of missed phase #1 completely,  we will need to force a separation and create the space for phase #2 to come into being, often we will not even be defending ourselves, just creating space any way we can.

Earlier in this piece I mentioned the Shield Arm, this will make more sense to people with a European background of my generation than others, as children we played with swords and shields as they were an important aspect of European History, from the Greek and Trojan wars through to Medieval times they were the weapons of choice for most armies, we covered it in High School, there were countless movies and popular legends and to top it off social conventions of the 1960s and 1970s thought it healthier for children to be Spartans or Knights than Gunslingers.

There was period in my teenage years that a group of fellow Martial Art friends and I were involved in some semi – serious play with swords and shields, we did research as well as we could and on occasions took instruction from one of the organisations that involved historical reenactments, great fun and very informative, when you play with sword and shield, or dirk and buckler it becomes crystal clear that weapon arts came before empty hand arts, but that is a post for another time.

In the Wing Chun Genesis Myth a stork is observed warding off the attacks of a snake by using its wing, not to counter attack but to absorb and redirect the attack, just as a soldier would use a shield, this action is called Bong Sau, the Wing Arm it could just as easily be called the Shield Arm.

Chi Sau teaches how to dampen force through the Wing Arm / Shield Arm, Chum Kiu teaches how to manoeuvre the shield to intercept the incoming strike before it manifests its potential force, decrease impact forces. 

When we shift in Chum Kiu we shift along the line of the incoming attack, not towards the attacker, we do this so as to shorten the length and as such decrease power of the swing as we counter attack with the free Striking Hand / Sword Arm.

Although there are a number of methods to apply a shield, what they all have in common is that the action is a relatively  passive one, the shield accepts the attack, it does not try to add any of its own force or actively redirect it, any redirection is a product of the shape of the Shield and the direction of the bodies movement upon contact.

The shield acts as a damper, or as I describe it to my guys a passive or inactive defence, by placing the shield in the path of the strike there is no longer any need to monitor the incoming strike and all of our concentration, focus and intention can be diverted to attacking open targets that cannot be defended because the attacker is involved in their own attack.

To be continued… pt. 3. HOW DO WE TRAIN THE SHIELD ARM?