On Sun, Dec 07, 2003 at 07:29:45PM -0800, David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> wrote: > 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? Aside from the obvious psychological aspects (ie, looming over your opponent to intimidate him), there's a practice in fencing that's very similar and called (IIRC) exactly the same thing. When facing an opponent inclined to retreat, you use a series of abortive attacks to force them back against the boundaries of the strip. If they aren't aware of what you are doing, you can then make a full lunge and push them over the boundary in the course of their parry; even if they are aware of it, once they are up against the boundary their options are reduced, and by continuing to press you can force them into an attack on your timing (to which you, of course, have a prepared riposte). You can use the same technique to subtly change the distance of an engagement, if for some reason you want to get closer without letting on that you wanted to. I'm not sure how well it would work without some boundary (like, say, an alley wall) to force your opponent against. -- Matthew Hunter (matthew at infodancer.org) Public Key: http://matthew.infodancer.org/public_key.txt Homepage: http://matthew.infodancer.org/index.jsp Politics: http://www.triggerfinger.org/index.jsp