Opportunity and Means

I've been trying to write a blog post for while and it just gets messier and messier. Language is not the friend of physical description ... Anyway, I realized I already sort of wrote it: http://swordandcircle.blogspot.com/2013/09/this-is-for-you.htm

But perhaps it does need more ..

Within swordplay, as in all martial arts, you have a 'what', a 'how', and a 'when' and a 'why' that you need to learn.

An example of 'what' could be - A cut to the hand with a flicking back cut utilizing the back edge of the sword near the tip.

'How' would then be - Pull the tip back, either using the bending of the wrist, or moving of the arm/body to create a cutting action across the target.

'When' might be - A good time is when your blade is in a low position and the opponent's hand comes into range

And lastly 'Why' - Because their hand came into range and I was in a position to cut it, and hand cuts are very useful as targets.

The vast majority of martial arts answer these what/how/when/why pretty well, in fact most of their training methods are focused there.

But there are other, bigger, 'Whys', like

Why did this moment come about?
Why did the opponent let their hand come into range so you could cut it?
Why were you and your weapon in the right position to do it?
Why did you decide you could get away with it, as in, not get cut yourself in the process?

Should you care about these? Perhaps it's enough for you that the moment happens and you just take advantage of it?

Well, my opinion is that you should, because you are leaving things to chance very late in the game when you could be shifting the balance in your favor way earlier.

And how can that be a bad thing?