Using Space to Beat your Opponent!
In the martial arts, the deadliest tool I know is also the one least used. The actual and effective use of space is what I am talking about here. If properly understood and utilized, space can win any fight.
Space is the absence of objects, is emptiness, is nothing. You will find, if you just ask any light beam, that space is the greatest conductor of visual perception. A very zen thing, space is not understood by most martial artists.
Space is the distance between you and your opponent. If you can control the space between you and your opponent, you can control the fight. This is the first strategy in any fight.
Space is the perception of your body. This is important if you realize that by relaxing you can perceive more, and thereby create more space. If you can create more space in this manner, you can create more potential for motion.
Space is utilized when hitting in a negative fashion. Simply, by taking energy out of your strike, and throwing the mass of the body, unaffected by energy and emotion (emotion contains, and can stop, a high degree of energy) you can strike ten times harder. Simply, consider your body an object and throw it at your opponent, and let it strike.
The space of the last paragraph is the space created by not having consideration for your opponent. I used to call this The Dead Strike. Not because it caused death, but because there was no consideration for life when I threw the object and mass of my body at somebody.
The space of your thoughts is the most important space. Concentrate your efforts not on moving by muscle, but on moving by thought, because thoughts don’t occupy space. You will be able to move far faster than you ever thought possible if you can reduce muscular effort and move by thought.
The real final frontier is thought. Thought is the source of all motion. Create space, relax, and have thought, and you will have the Ultimate Secret of the True Martial Arts.