#skill matters

[krasman]

The Eldar do say mankind have mastered the science of war, but not the art.

It would seem that here is a display of what artful war looks like.

My takeaways are thus;

Precision beats power. Timing beats speed. Reputation precedes greatness.

[howtofightwrite]

I don't know if you watch GOT, but how hard would it be to fight someone like the mountain hand-to-hand? (well, armed, like in the show). Does being big like him really makes for a better fighter?

Hand to hand is a bit different from armed, especially armored, but okay.The answer is pretty simple.

Start low.

Tall fighters, especially male fighters, have a rather serious issue that’s oftenoverlooked: their center of gravity. It’s higher up off the ground than theaverage person, and a great many men (like the Mountain) do not drop low enoughinto their stances to compensate. The taller they are, the lower they need togo to counterbalance their size. Attack their feet, or their legs. Attack theircenter. Whatever you need to destabilize them. A lot of tall fighters haveissues with their base. There are other flaws, but that’s often a big one.

Cutting the legs out from under of your enemy is a real tactic, or I shouldsay: cutting them down to size.

Stab him in the foot. (Yeah, no, real combat tactic.)

Here’s a question: you ever hear the story about David versus Goliath?Probably, most people know the story of the shepherd boy who defeated thegreatest, largest warrior in single combat with a sling.

The story is a parable, and a life lesson. It’s also a little morecomplicated than just brains over brawn. If you take anything from the story,the big one is going to be: never fight your enemy on their terms.Understand where their strengths are, where you’re strengths are, and changethe rules.

What a big fighter has going for them is the intimidation factor, and mindgames in combat are a huge deal. It’s not so much about physical prowess asmuch as what your enemy believes about your physical prowess. Or youbelieve about your opponent’s. What you believe will affect how you fight, howhard you fight, and how well you fight. Go into a fight believing you’re at adisadvantage or will lose and you’ll lose.

Assessing your enemy’s strengths for their weaknesses is the winningstrategy. If never addressed, big fighters will have a lot of flaws becausetheir opponents often cede them the field in their minds. This is especiallytrue when in training, and training is the foundation of skill. When peopletreat you like you’re invincible, you’ll start to believe you are. And that’show you get an over reliance on a natural advantage with no compensation forthe flaws it brings.

The problem is that many people treat size and body types like they’re allor nothing. For every advantage one has, there’s a disadvantage to go with it.A fighter with a heavy reliance on what nature has given them (size, strength,what have you) often neglects more crucial skills if never addressed. You canhave big fighters with exceptional levels of skill, but those are the oneswho’ve realized they can’t brute force their way through every problem. Whenthey don’t, their technique is sloppy.

Now, really, really, really big people often have to work doubly hard todevelop their coordination because fighting with a big, lanky body isdifficult.

The trick when you have (or feel like you have) the disadvantage is not tomeet the enemy on their terms. The best fighters figure out how to exploittheir opponent’s strengths in order to expose their weaknesses and fight withan advantage. The bad fighters are the ones who choose to fight at adisadvantage, who don’t prepare to face their enemy, and try to use the sametactics over and over. The smart ones change up, they are proactive, andunderstand the battlefield flows.

Ultimately, that’s what makes for the “best” fighter.

Fear is the biggest strength for someone who is massive in size, nottheir strength and not their bulk. When you are frightened, you becomereactive, you cease to actively think, and fail to problem solve. The momentyou are defeated in your mind, that is the moment you lose. It doesn’t matterhow many steps it takes in the real world after the fact, cede the field inyour mind and it’s over. Intimidation can win that fight before the battle everbegins, and the biggest kid on the playground is as natural as intimidationgets.

The Mountain isn’t great because of his skill, but the fact that he makeseveryone around him afraid. His personal ruthlessness and cruelty back up thatsize, and strengthens his ability to intimidate. When facing the Mountain,you’re faced with fear over the (very real) consequences of what he’ll do toyou.

He’s valuable because he’s frightening, not because he’s good at fighting.The good at fighting is the bonus that makes him more frightening.

Understanding the affect the mind has on combat is like 70% to victory.Understanding the assumptions made and why we make them is important to writingscenes with characters like this. If you put stock in the Mountain’s size,rather than the Mountain’s reputation then you miss where his strengthsactually lie and why people are afraid of him.

The Mountain’s reputation is as a ruthless killing machine who delights inrape, murder, and pillage. Torture is his specialty. He does not abide by thecode of chivalry or rules of knightly honor. He’s a sadist. For him, there’s nosuch thing as just warfare. He thirsts for blood and battle. He’s protected byone of the most powerful houses in the GOT universe, and he earns his pay astheir enforcer.

His size is just a plus. He could be just as terrifying at 5″4, and thenyou’d have the joy of underestimating him before he put a knife through youreye. If he was small, he’d be even more terrifying because there’d be morebodies. His size doesn’t change who he is under the hood, it’s just one moreattribute he’s utilizing to its fullest potential.

Stereotypes about tall and short people are just that. Stereotypes.

Every body type has its drawbacks, and their natural advantages can be madeto work against them. Tall fighters are more gangly, their center of gravity isfurther away from the earth, their weight puts additional stress on their joints(especially their knees), and if they never work at addressing their issuesthey can be slower to start. You can also have overweight/heavy weight martialartists like Sammo Hung,where there’s virtually no difference between them and a martial artist halftheir size. Skill can close the gap. Understanding of your own strengths andweaknesses also helps. Knowledge is power. Training yourself out of society’sinstilled biases is hard, but necessary. This is especially true if you perceiveyourself to be the underdog.

Not automatically assuming bigger equals better is the first step. Thesecond is realizing that the best warriors are not decided by outside metrics,but rather through an inward understanding of how to utilize their strengths andaddress their weaknesses.

On that note, I’ll leave you with a compilation of Cynthia Rothrock’s fight scenes. Cythnia Rothrock is a Hong Kong action star, a winner of world championships in the 80s, she has a wide variety of black belt level training in multiple martial arts, and is one of the most famous westerners to make it in the Hong Kong action scene.

Why end with this? Well, exposure to female movie martial artists runs the gamut between low to non-existent and that lack of exposure to different body types is where most misunderstandings about size come from.

-Michi

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[scuffeddeejays]

Wax Work - Oh Boy

It's time to share with you the last preview from our VA Street Cred, and it's from the producer Michael Wall aka Wax Worx. Vancouver borne and London based, Michael is the name behind Data Transmission and label boss of Shanghaied Records and his alias Wax Worx is one of house music's biggest rising stars at the moment. With releases on labels such as Coyu's Suara and Low Steppa's Simma, his music is being supported by names like Carl Cox, Eats Everything, Paco Osuna and Todd Terry, to name but a few.

Release date: 5 April 2018