Playing the attacker
Adam in
the Garden of Eden,
happy and content until God shows him the tree of Knowledge and says,
"Don't eat this."
Now Adam is no longer free.
There is one rule he can break, he must break, to prove his freedom,
even if it destroys him.
(Chuck Palahniuk)
Attacker
The attacker's role is to initiate the assault and give you something
to work with.
Playing the attacker skilfully is not easy.
Typically it takes many years of experience to become a realistic, challenging
attacker.
Most students mess it up through non-commitment, cooperation, non-cooperation
and thoughtlessness.
Playing the attacker (beginners)
Your concern must be how to play the attacker with realism.
You need to be earnest and accurate.
Do not stop until you have been countered effectively.
Brutality is unnecessary. And dangerous. If you cause an injury, saying sorry
will not appease anyone.
You should avoid being silly/awkward. People are often tempted to make life hard
for the defender.
This is not appropriate when working with a beginner.
Playing
Although the attacker needs to emulate a real life assailant, you need to play
the part without falling into bad habits yourself.
If you attack using tension and ignore the tai chi principles, then you are
training an external art.
The key word is 'play'.
Make contact when you strike but do not try to inflict injury.
Odd habits
Martial arts people develop some odd habits from various classes.
An earnest attacker will not hesitate if they think that you can be struck,
grappled, beaten down.
They will not employ a stylised, familiar attack. The attack will be quick,
brutal and ruthless.
It will be spontaneous, nasty and disconcerting.
A real assailant is more likely to employ a 'blitz attack' mentality than hold
back.
A person who holds back is unlikely to be an attacker.
Shen
When playing the attacker, act like you are the attacker. Be assertive.
Consider your body language and facial expression.
Step-in with vigour.
Standing aloof and not committing is a waste of everyone's time.
You also run the risk of injury if you try that approach on a seasoned person.
Holding back from commitment means that you are training a bad habit.
Tai chi may use yielding extensively but it also requires you to step-in and
strike decisively whenever the opportunity presents itself.
You must be capable of stepping-in without hesitation or fear.
Fear
When attacking, do not anticipate the counter. Just attack.
No panic. No stiffness.
Do not seek to preserve your sense of security.
Dithering and seeking to spare yourself will only backfire in real life combat.
Commit your body weight and intent. Try punches, kicks and grapples with vigour.
Unrelenting
Only stop if you are compromised. Avoid being silly but make the defender work
hard.
Seek out holes and errors and punch there.
The greater the attacker you are, the better the defender will be.
Beginners: attacker
The attacker must be earnest enough to trigger your nervous
system and make you work, however, they must not be unduly awkward.
A beginner needs time to grasp the basics.
The attacker needs to launch an
earnest, accurate attack, with a view to making physical contact. However, the
attacker must not tense-up or fight-back/be uncooperative/contentious.
This final point may seem odd,
until you consider that inexperienced students are not training realistic self
defence.
They are only studying the foundation material.
Beginners:
fighting back whilst attacking
There is a difference between fighting back and being cooperative.
Neither extreme is useful to the inexperienced student.
We require an attacker who will attack you aggressively and unrelentingly,
without actively trying to stop the defender from responding.
In truth, inexperienced students have enough to think about without the attacker
being deliberately awkward.
Beginners:
cooperative attacker
Cooperative attackers are time wasters.
They attack feebly and give the defender a false sense of their own abilities.
The attacker must give the defender something to work with.
If the defender is using strength to counter the attack, or applying more than 4
ounces of pressure, the attacker should not be compliant.
Beginners:
uncooperative attacker
If the attacker is uncooperative and it becomes a brawl/fight, neither student
will learn anything.
The defender needs time to deal with an attack without losing composure/becoming
tense.
The attacker needs to lose their innate tension, learn to commit a threatening,
meaningful attack and they also need to feel the effect of the defender's
actions.
If all they are thinking about is thwarting the defender, they are not feeling
anything.
Experienced: attacker
The experienced level attacker is not cooperative. They will mess you up in any
way they can.
If you have a poor grasp of the basic skills, and cannot adapt to the ongoing
changes, you will struggle.
The non-cooperative attacker is unrelenting. They will exploit the gaps and
deficiencies in your training.
Any mistakes will be exposed immediately.
Unlike the previous attacker, the experienced attacker is mean, edgy and
accurate.
They have good rhythm, timing and speed. They will put you under pressure.
It will feel like an assault and you will be hard pressed not to make mistakes.
Similarly, the defender has a far more impressive range of counters at their
disposal than the beginner had.
This kind of training is essential for self defence. A genuine attacker will
never be compliant.
They will press home every advantage and use any means at their disposal to
defeat you.
Expect knives, baseball bats and improvised weaponry.
Expect multiple opponents.
Experienced: shadow
The attacker will be a tai chi person with similar skills to your own.
They will have an arsenal of tai chi abilities to employ against you and they
will not cooperate with anything you do.
Their role is to defeat you, irrespective of what you do.
This kind of scenario will tax you to the extreme and is very good for your self
defence training.
It should be akin to combatting your own shadow.
Page created 5 August 1999