----Original Message Follows---- From: David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> To: Dragaera List <dragaera at dragaera.info> Subject: Question on "Pressing" Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 19:29:45 -0800 (PST) TECKLA, Chapter 10: "He was pressing you, Vladimir. If he had continued, he would have had the initiative and your balance would have been not right." "Pressing me?" "Each time he shifted his feet, he would end with his weight more forward. It is a trick some of these elfs use. I think they don't know they are doing it." It occurred to me that this "trick" might very well be known to exist in the real world, and it is my hope that those on this list who actually study and practice the martial arts might comment on its factuality or lack thereof. It seems to me that it would be something that could occur any time an extremely tall fencer was facing someone much smaller. Any thoughts? It is certainly a fact that one who is pressing an opponent tends to a great degree to keep his balance forward---it's standard psychological and mechanical physics that someone who is defending will be retreating in some way, and someone who is attacking will also be advancing. The only exception, as far as I know, is a successful defense, where the defender stands his ground and uses the forward balance against the opponent--ie, in Jitsu/Aikido/Tai Chi where we use the weight and force of the attacker's attack to throw him to the ground--we supplement that forward balance in a (hopefully) surprising way, so that the attack ends up throwing the attacker off balance, instead, as was (sub)consciously intended, throwing the defender off balance. This "surprise" is what wins the fight. *shrugs* I don't know if that helps, but if you allow an attacker to "press" you into retreating defense, you *will* eventually be forced to meet an attack that is entirely on his terms--and it probably won't sit very well with you. Jon _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/features&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.msn.com%2f%3fpage%3dmisc%2fspecialoffers%26pgmarket%3den-ca