Planes and Space

I mentioned in a comment on the previous post about playing with a Capoeira Angola player, and how his entries and attack angles were incredibly hard to read because he could do with his legs what he could do with his arms and vice versa. Ultimately though, the angles themselves really were not that unusual, just the transitions (and hence the timing), and the fact I was not used to the head moving so much in relation to the rest of the body.

To quote Sonny - "If they are coming for you, let them come, they are coming anyway, do not keep them out".
What he meant by this was not about waiting, but about recognizing that if your opponent is aiming for you as a target, there are only so many attack angles they can throw and hit you ... so knowing this you can make sure you are not on that angle when they throw it.
This is obviously simplifying things somewhat, but the point is that for any strike angle, which really is a single plane for a cut or a slice, and a single line for a poke or a stab, ALL THE REST of the 3 dimensional space around that plane or line is safe for that time.
There is only one place that is unsafe - on that plane or line.
If you can learn to see the space around the cut, and see your opponent's attack as an indicator of where this space is, and how it moves .... where you have to go and what you have to do becomes more obvious.
Gifts and emptiness .....