Distancing and Reactionary Gap
Tuesday, 21. September 2010
One of the most important practices of martial engagement is that of distancing, or “Ma ai” in Japanese. Anything used in an engagement has an optimal distance to be used from ranging from Grappling, Knees and Elbows (Extremely close to close), Hands and feet (Close to mid ranged), and varying weaponry (Anywhere from close to long ranged.)
Typically the ideal spacing is the one that the tool can be used to strike effectively and still retain as much distance as possible. Too far away and the attack will miss entirely, leaving the attacker very vulnerable to a counter. Too close and you are failing to utilize the characteristics of whatever tool you intend to use, the tools reach. Being able to strike your opponent due to reach and have them unable to counter without some serious movement is an ideal situation to be in.
Beyond striking with the ideal surfaces of the body or weapon, there is another practical reason to maintain proper distancing. The human body can only respond to external stimulus so quickly (an incoming punch, kick or weapon.) This is know as the “reactionary gap” and for most people is somewhere around .25 to .30 seconds. This gap will preserve you or get you killed as quickly as anything.
In the case of a percussive engagement, striking and checking (Blocking) is going to most likely occur at the same time. This is a necessary trade off due to the length of limbs.. and due to the reactionary gap, you are most likely going to get hit unless you can end an engagement as soon as it starts. Getting hit with fists and feet is OK though (a necessary evil perhaps,) they are mostly survive-able as long as one doesn’t take too much of a beating.
When a weapon is brought into play however; the game changes dramatically. One well placed strike is either lethal or debilitating enough to lead to one’s demise. Even a poorly placed strike can have similar effects depending on pain tolerance and the strikes location. In this case maintaining the proper distance means you’ll ideally be able to connect with minimal exposure to yourself (The attacker has the same gap as the defender) or be able respond and counter, ending the engagement in your favor.
Mae is something that some people are far better at than others (I’m probably in the middle of the group.) but fortunately it is a refine-able talent with practice. Knowing your distances will definitely save you some pain, and it might just save your life.
faustusnotes Says:
In kickboxing we maintain what my teacher called an “eye gap,” in which you are actually slightly out of punching reach. This forces your opponent to open their attack with either a kick (slow, easily read) or a movement into range. Instead of having to focus attention on the fast-moving hand, you can look first for a cue in the form of a body movement.
Of course this means that when you attack you need to close the gap too, so reactive attacks are a very important part of the style.
When I did Jeet Kune Do the philosophy was the opposite, to always be touching your opponent so you could respond to their strikes with block-strike combinations. But these are inherently weaker than the powerful strikes of kickboxing, and as far as I know Wing Chun kung fu, for example, has no effective defence against a thai kick except to get out of the way. And it’s worth noting that a single kick can be deadly, not because it is itself dangerous, but because all you need to do to kill someone is wind them – once they’re winded, they’re yours (it’s like going to 0 HP in D&D!).
I don’t remember stick-fighting rules on distance so much, but they aimed to replicate machete fighting and were much more focussed on reactive attacks, generally the first one being a strike to the hand or arm from outside of range. Phillipino Knife fighting depends entirely on this tactic, and it’s so so so ugly… basically it seems to me that the only way to survive these encounters is not to start them!
Grey Says:
You’re essentially maintaining the same gap for percussion, it’s just an issue of when you close there is most likely going to be hits on both sides due to that gap unless you’re flat out overpowering the guy. It’s interesting that the more you look at a variety of styles the more they become the same in similar situations. Lots of styles use the JKD touch distancing, even if you’re feeling the opponent out with jabs you’re using a similiar methodology to keep distance.
The Kung fu systems tend to be a huge amalgamtion of styles, so it would be difficult for me to say what they do and don’t do. At a certain point they all reach somewhat of a commonality in what happens, it just depends on where you start in the plethora of techniques. As for the kicks, being winded is nasty. Good hits to the femoral and common perennial are probably just as bad and usually more availible tho
Knife fighting is gory stuff. Depending on the philosophy it’s either cut them first or take the cut in a nonlethal fashion and finish them. Either way your odds of going for stitches are pretty high. Coupled with the fact that most knife attacks are a suprise and.. not a good situation at all.