010 Cause and Effect

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War   Many courses teach that self defense (or fighting) is only to be used if you need it. One might argue that once you need self defense, it may already too late. My own interpretation of Sun Tzu is that you must prepare to take the mindset of a villain and strike with unrelenting force. Act quickly and efficiently to put down your enemy. Causality is the connection of an action (the cause) to a reaction (the effect) of any causal factors. To put it more simply, for every action there is a reaction. In relation to fighting, there is always a person in the cause state and another person in the effect state. Or another way of putting it, an action and reaction state. This can change at any moment in the fight. When an attacker throws a punch, he is then the cause and you are the effect. Even by reacting to the punch thrown, either redirecting it or taking the punch, you are still in a effect/reaction state. No one is immune to this. When something happens to you, you must react in one way or another.   “The best defense is attack.” — Italian Proverb   What is interesting about this law is that it’s easy to switch from being the effect to the cause. Let’s keep this in the context of self defense to stay on track. It’s really easy to get into metaphysical debates about this type of stuff which would be a entire side conversation. Feel free to email me or comment if you’d like to get deep about this. But for now, in terms of self defense, the instant you decide to do something, you are now the cause. You can chose not to fight back, and the effect of that is continuing to allow the attacker to attack you. Or, you can fight back, becoming the cause and putting the attacker into the effect mindset, forcing them to react to what you are doing.   “Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.”― Sun Tzu, The Art of War   Don’t misunderstand me by thinking that all an untrained person must do is take on the cause mindset and they will automatically win. That would be far from reality. However, if you can be efficient, dark, and strike with unrelenting force, you may very well have a chance. Let me explain “dark”. Sometimes this throws people off… Violence is dark. Causing harm to someone (even if they deserve it) is a violent thing to do. We need to accept that and be okay with the darkness required to be efficiently violent at the time we need it most. It’s not about how many fancy techniques you know. It’s about your willingness to be the cause and not the effect. I teach many people Krav Maga and self defense skills. I can tell who’s there for the techniques and the cool factor, and who’s there to become a warrior. The warriors are much more capable of surviving an attack. Even with fewer skills and techniques. One of the hardest parts of my job (which rings true for every self defense instructor) is to teach people to release the warrior that’s deep inside, to unleash our primal instincts on cue. Instructors can create drills, make people sweat, and feel confident. But what’s hardest to instil in a student is that they have the ability to be, as Sun Tzu puts it, “dark and impenetrable”.   “There’s only one basic principle of self-defense - you must apply the most effective weapon, as soon as possible, to the most vulnerable target.” — Bruce Lee   Here’s some ideas to help you better become the cause while training. Don’t always wait for your partner (who is playing the attacker role) to issue an attack which you then have to defend. This is creating habits to always be in the effect position. Try to instead attack them while they are preparing to attack you. As an example, one of the many issues with sparring is the very beginning, touching gloves (along with there being too many rules). It is taught that out of respect you much touch gloves, create space, and then start fightin