muay thai blocking

[Fighter]

Bruce Lee had a similar saying I cant remember it exactly. Can someone answer that one.

The bit before:

"When the opponent expand I contract, Where the opponent contract I expand AND when there is an oppotunity I do not hit...It hits all by itself.........."

--Bruce Lee--

[Jun-Fan Lee]

The dialog

Hi there,

I hope i understood your question because i'm from the Netherlands and my english i not that good.. haha.
So sorry if i give you the wrong answer...
But...

The dialog is....

What is the highest technique you hope to archieve ?

Lee : To Have no technique...

What are your thoughts when facing an opponent ?

Lee : There is no opponent...

And why is that ?

Lee : Because the word I does not exist....

So continue...

Lee : A good fight should be... like a small play, but played seriously. A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready. Not thinking yet, not dreaming. Ready for whatever may come....... When the opponent... your lines...

[#42]

Well, sounds reasonable, does it?
Maybe he had a similar view on certain things...

[Fighter]

Thanks again #42. Hope you all heard that....THAT alone could be the smartest thing a Martial Artist could ever learn.

Memerize it......NOW!!!!!!!!

[#42]

Maybe that's the most difficult part for most people: Switching from the agressive kinda "My rage is all over you" approach to a rather relaxed and reasonable one.
And it is quite understandable by the way.
After all often you are either quite upset right from the beginning of the confrontation or frightened at first and in case you finaly manage to keep it together quite mad in the consequence.
Still one would have to ask one self, if one would develop such feelings in a situation where the oponent addmittedly is overwhelmingly strong. Let's for the sake of making things clear assume one whould have to take on let's say a bear or a lion or something like that. All of a sudden there whouldn't be no macho stuff anymore . At least from your side. The only thing left whould be to either submit to your fear right from the start or to try to stay calm by all means. Actually it would most probably bring out a completely different person in you, applying completely different principles while fighting for your dear life. You would probably by all means refrain from getting to agressive, in order not to make a fatal mistake and overlook something, just trying to find a way out of which there might not be many. Basically this is what _real_ fighting is all about: Prevailing against a _stronger_ opponent.
An opponent you can't just crush if you only manage to get in an sufficiently agressive mood. An opponet that outnumbers you. An opponent that might rely on additional resources like weapons and/or a terrain or a setting which he knows better than you. Finally everybody get's older. Wouldn't it be nice to
move the point in time where you can't keep up with the younger ones anymore a little bit further down the raod?
That's all stuff one should be concerned with in real self- defense.

[Fighter]

Just to add to that. After alot of years in constant raining, fighting etc. Fighting becomes a way of life, it becomes instintual, you should never lose your temper and go into a crazy fit. One should remain Still, Ready and mentally strong. You should also never be overly confident/aragant.

One who is aragant has already lost....

[#42]

I would most definitely second that, it's all about general
attitude....
I myself was never able to improve significantly on my fighting without improving on my general attitude. Trying to adhere to bad technique kinda subtracts from your true capabilities. Good technique simply doesn't stand in your way while performing. But your upper limit is ultimately determined by your general attitude and mental capabilities.

[auto]

Fighter is right. It is good to be confident but not overly so. As for temper. I lost my self control one time too many and suffered badly for it. I have learned to control it now(very high level of tolerance now). Knowing yourself is the ultimate satisfaction.

[#42]

I'm arguing with my self all the time if it's at all possible to really get to know oneself, but yes it should help to be realistic about things, even if that means to accept that you probably never can be absolutely shure about anything.

[Fighter]

Thanks guys Im glad you agree.