From: jchristian@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: rec.martial-arts
Subject: Re: Openings
Date: 24 Jan 93 22:26:31 EST
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <QfM7grL0Bwx2QsxH02@transarc.com>, Stephen_Y._Chan@transarc.com writes:
> 	We have 2 different viewpoints on the matter:
> 
> 	1) No matter how good the martial artist is, there are _always_
> openings which can be exploited by their opponent(s).
> 
> 	2) The _best_ martial artists do not give their opponents _any_
> openings to exploit. Either by timing, or positioning, the openings
> only occur when and where their opponent(s) cannot take advantage of them.
> 
> 	Stephen


I know a guy who catalogues every new move he learns into his PC.  So if you
ask him, "What should I do against a long-distance roundhouse to the jaw?" or
something like that, he can get into his PC and give you some options.

Personally, I think this is a dork tactic.

The question of the existance of openings seems a bit moot.  Of course there
are openings.  Otherwise, there would be some super-duper stance you could
attack/defend from without exposing any part of your body to danger.  There
would be some sort of super-duper attack you could throw, and so on.  Or you
could go to the above-mentioned guy's PC, flip through his files, and see if
you can find a combination that leaves you invulnerable.  It's doubtful, for a
couple of reasons.

(1)  There are only so many possible ways you can move from any given position. 
These possible motions may number in the hundreds in terms of their variations,
but that is still a finite number.  Factor into that number the variables of
time and distance, and the number of appropriate motions from any given
position is rapidly reduced (for the purpose of physical combat).  That
means we cannot defend all areas at once, which means some areas are going to
be open.

(2)  There are only so many perspectives from which you can predict the manner
in which your opponent will move.  If you know you are facing a judo
practitioner and you are familiar with judo, then you will probably have an
advantage in being able to predict the other person's movement tendencies.  The
same principle applies, if you know the other person pratices karate, aikido,
or whatever.  People have different perspectives about how to move their
bodies, and understanding that perspective is quite helpful in predicting what
they will tend to do or not do.  But I think that most serious MAs want to
expand their knowledge so that their perspective about how to move their bodies
covers a much larger field than for other people.

     It seems that not leaving an opening for an opponent depends upon your
knowledge of what your opponent considers an opening.  But if you don't know
your opponent's style, or if your opponent has a greater perspective of
movement than you realize, then your reactions in terms of defending vulnerable
areas are going to be somewhat sketchy.  This is not to say you'll be
unsuccessful in defending yourself, but it does leave a lot of room for error.

(3)  I don't believe you can attack without leaving yourself vulnerable. 
Someone else pointed out that an MA wouldn't attack, so there wouldn't be
anything to leave open.  In an ideal world, yes.  But if you come home from
work and see two guys beating the snot out of your son, chances are you aren't
going to stand there and wait for them to turn on you.  My guess is that most
people are going to take the initiative and try to whale on the two thugs.  But
in doing so, you are attacking, and you leave yourself vulnerable.
                                                       
Someone else wrote that the two questions aren't really relevant because
they're the same point being made twice.  Maybe, but I tend to disagree.  There
are always openings, and your opponent is always free to exploit them (that's
why they're openings).  Whether or not your opponent is capable of exploiting
them is another matter.  I don't think you can predict whether or not your
opponent is capable of exploiting an opening you leave them.  An opening is an
opening, and anything can happen in a fight.

Besides, from a spiritual standpoint, I don't think it matters what's open. 
Fighting from a physical viewpoint can be very limiting.  I'm goofy enough to
think that all MAs aspire to achieve some spiritual understanding where they
can transcend the dependence upon physical factors.

Jeff