THE PARADIGM OF COMBAT

by Jonathan E. Kiser

What I've done is study the situations, environments, and survival landscape of virtually every real fight that I've personally experienced, as well the fights of others.  What rings true to each situation is that there are certain parameters that if followed you increase the certainty of survival.  The Paradigm of Combat essentially is a model based upon a "reverse engineering" concept.  What I've done is look at what goes wrong in combat and developed some safety measures to follow.  In addition, I've examined how fights are dominated and have worked those principles into the model as well.  Now this may seem all too complicated; but it isn't and in fact it is easier than remembering multiple movements or sequenced orders that will fall apart in the stress of real combat.  So, without further ado, I present to you the Paradigm of Combat:

1. Action beats Reaction from a critical distance (Danger Zone). 

This distance varies based upon whether the opponent is weilding a weapon or not.  However in a bare-knuckled fight (see The 10 Laws of Combat /Law 7) that this distance is the length of your attacker's lead limb to the center of your mass known as the Line of Gravity.  Why this works like it does is the 3-to-1 Principle:  All you have to do is move, compared to your opponent having to visually recognize the attack, send the signal to the brain or brain stem, and then he must actually react.  In this Danger Zone generally the first to draw will be the first to score.  I say, "generally" because there are exceptions to every rule (see The Laws of Combat/ Law 1).

2. Distance Regulation lends ReactionTiming and both are Allies of Defense.

What this implies is that if you can manage to put space between you and your attacker it will afford you the timing differential to deal with in-coming attacks and position yourself accordly to your opponent's actions or lack thereof.  The idea here is to stay just slightly out of reach but be close enough to close in on your opponent once he decided to attack you.  The idea here is that Reaction Beats Action from outside the Danger Zone.  Become aware of your personal Lines of Initiation (exactly when you should throw something without any more set-up or preparation) to exploit your opponent's sense of security.  Learn to refine your smoothness in your attacks and utilize feints and ruses to lure your opponent into your trap.   It is best to actually wait for his attack to fully use this Paradigm to your advantage.

3. Use Pressure, Proximity, and Positioning to negate your opponent's ability to counter.

Once your close in on your opponent use Pressure, Proximity, and Positioning to gain superiority over your opponent.  Basically, you shouldn't just stand there when your opponent rushes you, you should meet him with just the right amount of pressure to control his balance, you should increase your proximity to him to negate his ability to deliver hard strikes, and you should position yourself so to deliver your own counters.