Monday, November 12, 2012

Coercion

In an adversarial interaction like a duel it's a pretty sure bet that your opponent does not want to do what you want them to, and will in fact avoid doing what you want.
But ....the only way to truly control the game is to manipulate your opponent, so how do you practice making someone do what you want them to?

First, you have to understand who they are and what they want.
The 'what they want' part is quite easy .... they want to strike you down and win.
The 'who they are' is a bit trickier, but essential to find out, because this will tell you what they are willing to do to get 'what they want' ... and also what they cannot resist.
Learning what they want to avoid is also a useful exercise, for instance, losing status can sometimes be way more of a motivator that protecting self. Also certain qualities of movements can disturb more than others.

Learning these things about another person involves watching them and trying to trigger responses. These responses will vary from person to person, and higher skilled players will probably be less 'reactive' than the less skilled which in itself is useful information to have.

Sonny used to say that 'In training you are immortal'. So this is indeed where you have to take the time and learn this ability, because it takes time to watch, and learn to see what's going on, and it takes time to create realistic triggers that create usable responses in others.

Many of us don't know what we look like to our fellow players and opponents, and this fact is compounded by the fact that each of our opponents will see us differently.

You have to learn what THEY see, and you have to SEE what they do ....

Possibly the 2 most important skills you'll need.


1 comment:

Jake said...

Nice.

One of my boxing coaches used to emphasize the importance of being able to "read your man." Sounds like a similar skill set.