Push, Pull or Get Out of the Way by Jeremy M. Talbott

The legendary Bruce Lee is quoted as saying, "A good fight should be like a small play...but played seriously.  When the opponent expands, l contract. When he contracts, l expand. And when there is an opportunity... l do not hit...it hits all by itself."  It would seem that this would be very simple to achieve, but it is our natural instinct to meet force with force.  Many of us have heard the theory of Yin Yang principles as they apply to combat.  Life must have harmony and combat is no different.  If your opponent pushes, then you pull, if he pulls then you push.  Again, simple in concept, but difficult to execute.  Think about when you have a disagreement with a co-worker.  Do you allow the person to express their point of view without total interruption or you are quick to refute their point head on and don't allow the co-worker to finish?  For most, it is natural instinct to meet that force head on.  So how can one train one's self to go against natural instinct?

For starters you must keep in mind that harmony has to be met.  Without it, your chances of winning the combat, or anything else in that matter, will be diminished.  For the majority of us out there, when extreme stressful situations occur, regardless if it is in combat or if it is a problem at work, our body goes into a fight or flight mode.  This is when the our sympathetic nervous system kicks in causing our heart to be faster, our breathing to become more shallow, and our blood vessels in many parts our body begin to constrict.  When this occurs we can quickly become disoriented causing wrongful reactions to the situation.  Balance is no longer there.  One of the first things to do to achieve back the balance is to control the very essence of life; breathing.  Once you focus on your breathing to slow, down you calm your mind and begin to put your body back closer to a natural state.  Once that begins you can focus more clearly on the stress factor and decide which action to take.

Once harmony is met, the next step is to keep it maintained.  This is where you must figure which steps to take in order to maintain balance.  To do this you must use an I.P.D.E. method to assess your situation.  I.P.D.E. is a term I learned in driver's education which is very much easily applied in martial arts.  It stands for Intercept, Predict, Decide and Execute.  When you use the I.P.D.E. method keep in mind that this is not a method which you debate long term about your actions.  First you intercept the situation.  Is this life or death, being mugged in the streets, versus simple physical altercation, perhaps sparring at the gym, or is it someone just ranting, the disagreeing co-worker we talked about in the first paragraph?  For example purposes let's say the situation is a sparring session in the gym.  Now we move on to the next step, predict.  Is this person going to use a simple 1-2 combo followed up with a kick or will your opponent go in for a takedown, perhaps you can offset him by being the aggressor? Onto the next step, decide.  Simple enough decide on a course of action based on what you predict the opponent will do.  Let's say, for sake of argument, that you predict that the opponent is aggressive enough that he/she will be executing some combos.  We will also say that the opponent has got reach and weight on you.  With that in mind you need to decide the 3 courses of action.  First is Push.  Execute if the person is in a retreat mode or is in a less aggressive mode.  Second Pull.  Execute when the opponent's momentum is more aggressive and allow the momentum to proceed forward and react against it.  Lastly Get out of the way.  When the opponent is highly aggressive and has an oncoming barrage of punches and kicks sometimes the best way to block is not be there. Once you have predicted what is going to happen you move on to the last step, execute.  Once you arrive at your decision you must, without a doubt execute.  Do not be afraid of the choice you make, that will only cause hesitation and in return the harmony is no longer maintained.  One of my favorite quotes "Fear causes hesitation and hesitation will cause your worst fear to come true."

Once all of this has taken place the situation will now change and with it, you must change.  Remember to combine the I.P.D.E. method along with the thought of push, pull or get out of the way to maintain the harmony of the situation and you will be one step closer to achieving overall victory.