Don't Get Hit

Often I would go train with Sonny and we would start to flow.
"What's my focus for today"? I'd ask.
"Don't get hit"! Was more often than not the answer.

VCKE, or to give it it's full title - Visayan Style Corto Kadena and Larga Mano Eskrima - is a dueling art, and the assumption is that you want to live through the exchange as there is no 'win' if you die.
Of course, the same assumption holds true for most altercations, this wish to survive, but doing so becomes alot trickier when using bladed weapons especially when they know you are coming and are also armed ...
(Note: In feudal Japan if you died, but took your opponent with you, it was classed as a win, but in our system, this is a last resort, sitting right above 'you die, they get away' in the spectrum of wished for outcomes).
As it turns out, if you care nothing for your self preservation, it's really quite easy to strike the opponent, but if you DO care about your self preservation, though it's still fairly easy to get the hit, the 'NOT getting hit' part turns out to be most tricky indeed .... and this is where the 'art' comes in.