ABOUT DEFENSE
de Sijo Vlad Piatră -> The Sento School's Universal Combat Matrix
The reality is there is no such a thing as pure defense! Trying to be defensive and hoping my opponent will stop and I will have the time to counter-attack is like playing at the lottery, trying to get rich.
In Sento we have a saying: “I have no guard, I have no defense”!
And it means just the opposite :), in the sense that I have a defensive guard in all the moves / attacks, not just an initial guard and passive defence.
The passive defense is a myth, for the simple fact that your adversary will keep attacking you until he puts you down. So if the passive defence doesn’t work, then what does?
Simple, active defensive, which means more or less Offensive-Defensive or protected attack.
In other words, we should build our defence when attacking and not the other way round.
And this is how we get to the most important aspect of the fight which although important in competitions, in reality it becomes extremely important! This core element is called the decision to start pressure on your opponent.
What does that mean? Simply is the decision to fight, to attack and to be prepared to attack. In theory, it is simple, but this decision needs to be taken in a split second, in other words it must be constantly practiced so that we should be prepared any time to access it.
We call it in Sento Forward Pressure and it is physically generated from the abdomen (hara) but it is also generated mentally.
The Forward Pressure Decision and the Offensive-Defense must be the basic factors on which is based the training of the martial practitioner or sentoka, as we call them.
Most of the practitioners have the tendency to lean backward on their defensive moves, or to go backwards. This means the lack of Forward Pressure Decision which must be acquired through training.
Also they usually wait passively for the partner’s attack instead of pushing forward, of course, with the help of the defensive technique, which is part of the attack.
Actually, on every moment of the fight, the elastic guard / defensive move should be present and part of the attack.
In other words, to isolate defense from the attack, there must be a homogenous whole; that’s why passive defense is an inefficient myth.
Moreover, the practitioner should be able to defend/intercept any attack launched by his partner during his own attack, what we call Attack within Attack.
Without it, the practitioner will always be surprised by his opponent’s attack, launched at the same time with his own attack, and it all ends with strikes performed at the same time in which one or both practitioners are hit.
The Defense, or the Elastic Guard, as we call it, along with the Forward Pressure, is the essential element in order to control the fight, either in the street or during championships.
We, in Sento clubs, make it an essential priority in all fighting distances in order to develop the complete fighter, that’s why we recommend it to you, too, Budo brothers!
I’ll be waiting for your opinions, questions, ideas, and any comments on my email address sentokan@yahoo.com or here on the blog.
OSS!
Soke Vlad Piatră