Fighting Without Fighting, or Sun Tzu and Miyamoto Musashi in Eskrima

No traditional eskrima technique is comprised by just one strike.  Even in practice.  A technique may be taught in steps, but its application takes you through a series of motions where finality is spelled by taking the enemy to the ground, making sure he has no means of fighting back or is unwilling to.

The Japanese have a saying, “Ichi geki hissatsu.”  It means to finish one’s enemy with one strike; to kill with one blow.  It’s a maxim to keep in mind when one is training in his martial art, to strive to have the ability to end a fight with one strike.  But real-life encounters may not end with one strike; there could be need for second, third, or a countless number of strikes.

Although an opponent may desist after the first heavy blow, when he realizes that he also risks life and limb in your fight, this may not always be the case.  When engaged in a fight, some people will flee and some people will fight.  This is called the fight or flight response.

Sometimes, by our own aggressiveness to scare off an attacker, we push him to a point where he feels he has to fight.  Which is why it is always better to avoid a fight, than it is to be in one.  But this does not mean to avoid a fight when it's already coming your way.  If a fight comes for you, welcome it with open arms and send it on its way home, bleeding and broken if need be.

The idea should be to stop a fight before it happens.  Better yet, to win a fight before it happens.

Unless you plan on suicide, it is never a good idea to fight from a weak position.  When engaged, you should never be lured to fight from a weak position.  But what this weak position is depends on you.  On your resources, your skills, your weapons, your training.  Fight the way you know how to fight.  And take any real advantage that presents itself.  For practitioners of certain martial arts, they avoid being cornered or backed up against a wall.  This is a weak position for them.  For some traditional eskrimadors, however, this would not be as desperate a situation.  This way, they don’t have to guard their backs and can even use the walls behind or surrounding them to their advantage.

I'm not saying that eskrimadors welcome this scenario.  No one would want to be cornered or backed up against a wall.  But for an eskrima practitioner, it is much better to be cornered than to be surrounded.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and in a hundred battles you will never know defeat.  That’s Sun Tzu.  And what he says also applies to eskrima.

The legendary Japanese warrior Miyamoto Musashi, called a sword-saint because of his skill in swordfighting, once said his art was the art of fighting without fighting.  This was echoed by Bruce Lee in the movie Enter the Dragon, when he sent Parsons adrift on a boat.

The same principle should be echoed by all eskrimadors.  We should take our skill to a level where a fight need not take place, not out of cowardice but because it has already been won even before it is fought.