The timing of one attack is related to distance. This relationbship between timing and distance and the psychological sensations that go along with distance are what we call Ma-ai or "The Measure".

This last week we were practicing one attack with daggers, this time using the stabbing grip. This practice is the most similar to one attack that I used to do in karate. The attacks come in fast and directly and as we faced each other we all started getting some pretty solid cases of the flinchies. It reminded me of an important nuance to one attack that I want to describe here.

In one attack the rules are simple. One person attacks the other defends. The attack is designated but it is uncontrolled in the sense that you are really trying to hit your opponent. The defenders job is to not get hit anddeliver a counter attack. The counter attack is delivered with control, the logic being that if you do the defensive job properly your opponent will be vulnerable and so its reasonable to hold your attack in their defenslessness.

The person receiving the attack assumes a ready posture of some sort. The attacker sets the distance. If they are too close the defender is admonished to hit them. This is good and straightforward. Its a good place to start this very important practice. But here is the nuance. The defender is not allowed to adjust the distance backwards. They have to endure the attackers distance even if every fiber in their body says that the opponent, the attacker is too close.

Here is the nuance. Ma the measure, is not range. Its not just about whether or not you can reach your opponent as they step into the distance. That is too mechanical and contrived if that is all it is. Its actually about that sense of danger that rocks you back onto your heels if an opponent enters into a range where you feel threatened. The questions that we want to ask and answer are about whether or not that sensation of danger is accurate or not. Our bodies often have a sense that our minds do not have in these things...Another way to make this point is to remember that the mind body and spirit are truly one.

One way to find the measure of your opponent might be to jockey back and forth with each person able to adjust as in free sparring until the measure is settle upon. The problem here is that people will often be numb to the sensation of danger in favour of the lust to attack your opponent. This is one of the reasons we practice one attack.

So what is the better more advanced way to respond to the measure...to the sensation of danger in one attaack if the defender is not free to adjust the distance by steppign back (which you CAN do in free sparring)? What we did in karate was to attack! It wasnt about the range. It was about listending to the sensations in your own body about the presence of danger!

One attack presses the ma. This means that one attack occurs on the inside edge of the measure. What determines that inside edge is whether or not you can escape from that place if the other opponent attacks. So in one attack when you feel the sensation of the opponent threatening you, enough so that sometimes you rock back onto your heels, then perhaps that is the time to take the initiative away from your opponent. If the attacker gets so close to their opponent that the opponent feels compelled to attack and then is struck by that defensive pre-emptiive attack then you were inside the measure. if the defender is too flinchy and they wrest the initiative from the attacker too soon, at too far a distance, then the attacker will easily escape and perhaps even counter himself. This is what is was like in karate.

In karate when we did one attack the defender felt ferocious. Like a beast poised to strike. If you get to close to such a beast they WILL attack. Its that psychological game that we are trying to understand here. How close can I get to my opponent before they presume to take control, presume to defend, to take the initiative away from me? If you let your opponent do that you have lost.

This nuance changes things. If you practice one attack in this way, it changes from a fairly easy to understand mechanical range more into the psychological chess game that it is supposed to be. How close can I actually get to this opponent in front of me before they are compelled to defend? If I feel the inklings of danger that rapidly grow to this crazy sensation of being rocked back onto my heels I need to USE THAT SENSATION to protect myself by transforming the sensation into a forward facing energy of pre-emptive attack.

To be sure, there is merit in standing your ground when you feel the sensation to rock back. Often we are incorrect and we judge ourselves to harshly in this...our psyches want to run when we can in fact defend. So try this as well. Test your bodies sensations and discover a deeper undersatanding of your capacities as you study this thing called Ma.