Strategy and Tactics for Combat

[Charles David]

One of the wonderful tactics that ALL of the Instructors use in spreading knowledge about the Shaolin Arts is to act as inspiring examples of how these arts can help us to become wise and compassionate.

With Shaolin Spirit,
Sidai,

[Darryl]

Sparring at the Sequence level

Well, I'm back. My guests are home, my belly is happy and my fingers are typing.

"would you mind telling us what three questions you are referring to?"

There are three questions in my post, but I never said that they were all mine

1) Was Anthony's quote "can anyone spot the tactics that I'm using in this post?"
2) who has spotted any of the Instructors using Strategies and Tactics in their writings
3) who can name which Strategy or Tactic were they using?

In other words, I took up a poise position (via my words) which had an opening. Charles Sidai spotted the opening but refused to take it, suspecting a trap. He instead chose a different tact, to test my guard. The guard didn't move, so he now has the choice - continue with Safety First, or attack the existing opening (with an option to Press).

Once this opening display is out of the way, I'll highlight why we can all benefit from a deeper understanding of Strategy and Tactics.

[Charles David]

Changing the stance

Darryl Siheng,

Thank you for starting this thread and for giving us the opportunity to discuss this important topic.

I see clearly that the tactic I attempted in my initial response will not serve to further the discussion. I apologise for any misunderstandings I may have created, and eagerly look forward to a fruitful discussion.


With Shaolin Salute,
Sidai

[Grimlock]

I'll bite

Before I give my opinion on which strategies Sifu Anthony used in his post, I have a question about the 36 strategies. To constitute use of a strategy, does the strategy have to be implemented in full?

For instance, I see an element of Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea in Sifu Anthony's post. Things were escalating (for lack of a better word) a bit between Sifu Andrew and Sifu Stier, and Sifu Anthony's post showed him to be extremely relaxed and also extend this effect to everyone else in the thread. This is a key component of Fool the Emperor to Cross the Sea, but could it still be considered a use of that strategy if the intent is not to relax the enemy in order to pounce on him later?

I also see elements of a redirection strategy, but I haven't looked at the strategies enough to say which one. It could be Openly Repair the Walkway, Secretly March to Chencang, where Sifu Anthony's obvious purpose is calming things down and getting the discussion back on track, but at the same time, he is subtlely disagreeing with Sifu Stier and implying that strategies and tactics are in everything we do.

It's tough because for those of us not very familiar with the strategies, many of them seem to overlap quite a bit.

Finally, I'd say, as evidenced by this post, that Sifu Anthony has unwittingly used the strategy of Tossing Jade to Attrack Bricks!

[Darryl]

Touche

Thank you for starting this thread

Still in poise

[Charles David]

Lazy Monkey

Do not move unless the opponent moves.