Exercise for lesson 4.
This is a good lecture. Most people do not understand the difference between tactics and strategy. I knew the difference ,but i had never thought to put them to words. If it were a battle, the strategy would be to take such and such hill to insure a good defensive fortification, the tactics would be the employment of the troops and their skills.
All of the tactics described are essential to good combat, not matter from the east or the west. Reading your opponent probably one of the most difficult things to master. It is easier when you are using a weapon. If the tip is held with drawn, it is impossible to thrust without moving it back into line so a thrust is an unlikely attack from that position. If they are holding their sword tip downward you dont have to worry about a descending cut. It is intuitive as much as it is logical thought. Thus feinting counters any reading your opponent was able to do.
Controlling the range of a fight is more than just maintaining distance. It is being able to move into and our of fight range at will. It is about closing in and grappling when you want to, not when your opponent wants to. Controlling the fight range is a conscious decision to engage or not at your discretion.
When considering avoid, evade or intercept, from a western mentality, the intercept is a superior technique and what a swordsman should desire. Once should never be purely on the defensive. In the german mentality a good offense is a good defense. It is the high art to counter cut rather than simply block or evade. Both of those actions are inferior because while saving you from death, does not injure your opponent either and he is hence free to harry you at his leisure. When one cuts in such a way that the blade not only displaces your opponents strike, but is also a dedicated strike of its own, you will have the advantage becasue they will not be able to stop it.
all things considered, we should look more closely at the strategy of the east vs the west.
