The Moment of Choice

There are certain moments that are more useful to you than others, especially if you are fighting from a position of disadvantage - in other words, you are weaker, smaller, or perhaps outnumbered.

If you constantly resist against what is going on (literally force vs force) you can get exhausted pretty fast. Direct power will not win out against a stronger opposition ..... But timing might.

You have to choose your moment, but the moments before the right one cannot be approached passively. You must use them well, and you must avoid taking damage whilst you are creating your own. You must also know when you need not do anything and retain energy, when you are not in immediate danger, when there is a status quo, or when resisting is a path of diminishing returns.
You also need to know how you can deflect, shear, and slip, and how to cause motion to your advantage, both physically and psychologically.
There will always be some kind of movement, but it may be just shifting your center, or going limp. It may also involve doing something counter intuitive like falling into your opponent or opening yourself up more. Perhaps changing your emotional output, or the words you are using ....
The only way to understand these moments, and learn to do the smart thing, is to find them, dwell, experiment, and see what is possible. It's a weird world with no right answers and nothing guaranteed, and to practice, you have to put yourself in vulnerable situations, play outside your comfort zone, and not rely on what you already have. But the pay off is good - and often with a much higher chance of success ... at least compared to the 'almost zero' of the alternative path .....
If there are situations where you always seem to lose, then perhaps you are not being creative enough in your approach? If you always have difficulty with a particular opponent or a particular series of moves always ends in your demise, why?

How early can you change the script?

How late can you save the situation?

PS: If you are always putting yourself in situations/duels where you can win ... you will never learn this.