“In One Timing” means, when you have closed with the enemy, to hit him as quickly and directly as possible, without moving your body or settling your spirit, while you see that he is still undecided. The timing of hitting before the enemy decides to withdraw, break or hit, is this “In One Timing”
There is a hilarious scene in the movie
If one’s heart is truly in a fight, strikes to non-vital areas can have very little effect. Obviously, no one can fight without any arms or legs, yet it is very tough to stop a determined foe. Loren Christensen, a retired military policeman, civilian law enforcement officer, and martial artist who has survived numerous violent confrontations wrote, “I’ve had to fight guys even after they have been shot and they still fought like maniacs. I know of two occasions where suspects had been shot in their hearts and they fought the officers for several seconds before they crumpled dead to the ground… I saw two cases of people shot in the head—one person took five rounds—and they were still running around screaming and putting up a fuss.” In the heat of battle, it is very, very difficult to stop a determined, committed opponent.
Unless you are a master martial artist who can deliver hydrostatic shock that disrupts internal organs with each blow, something that takes a good ten to twenty years of dedicated training to learn let alone perfect, it is really hard to beat somebody down without resorting to a weapon. Either you need to shock the brainstem into shutting down with a knockout blow or you need to break darn near every bone in his body, delivering such extensive physiological damage that it is physically impossible for him to continue fighting. The vast majority of opponents, however, will give up long before you get to that point. Once they stop, you need to stop too. Remain wary in case the other guy changes his mind, of course, but break off your attack and move to a safer location.
One master of strategy, Sun Tzu, tells you to leave a way out for your enemy, saying, “When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard.” This is sound advice because most people who find themselves with their back to the wall, faced with no options but to die or die fighting, will choose to fight and fight hard. You really don’t want to mess with a fully committed foe. It’s a good way to get hurt.
Another strategy master, Miyamoto Musashi, tells you to be swift and relentless, to “Hit him as quickly and directly as possible.” This is excellent advice on the battlefield, but in a civilian context, it can get you into serious legal trouble if you take it too far. Gratuitously reigning down blows on a fallen opponent, for example, makes you the bad guy. When he stops, you’ve got to stop too. When the clear and immediate threat to you or your loved one is over, it is no longer self-defense. That’s the law.
Here is the way it breaks down. If a punk decides to fight with you, whatever the reason, you have right to defend yourself—to a point. If you beat the punk down to the point where he has stopped fighting with you, you have to stop as well. Wilder knows a guy covered in tattoos, James, who wound up in that very situation. He didn’t stop and was subsequently charged with felony assault, and found himself facing serious prison time.
Wilder never found out how or why the fight started, but that is really not important here. Our tattooed friend beat the other guy down, the fight was over, sort of, yet the loser of the fight kept running his mouth. Lying on the floor spitting out blood, he continued to yell epithets at our tattooed friend who took offense to his words. The price for running his mouth was more beating.
Dominance had been established and he was clearly the loser, but he kept running his mouth. Unfortunately, James had a record; he had already done three years in a Texas prison. He wouldn’t put up with the verbal abuse so he applied more fists to the loser. You see, there were two different codes at work here—the prison code of dominance and submission on one side and the law on the other. As the song states, the law won. The courts decided that James needed to be put back in jail, while the other guy went into intensive care at Harborview hospital.
When they stop, you stop. The classic rule is that self-defense begins when deadly danger begins, ends when the danger ends, and revives again if the danger returns. Neither a killing nor a beating that takes place after a crime has already been committed, nor a proactive violent defense before an attack has taken place is legitimately self-defense in the eyes of the law.
The classic rule is that self-defense begins when deadly danger begins, ends when the danger ends, and revives again if the danger returns. Neither a killing nor a beating that takes place after a crime has already been committed, nor a proactive violent defense before an attack has taken place is legitimately self-defense in the eyes of the law.
You can only resort to deadly or potentially deadly force in order to escape imminent and unavoidable danger of death or grave bodily harm. An attacker must not merely have made a threat to attack you (by words and/or actions), but must also be in a position where he or she is obviously and immediately capable of carrying out that threat and/or has begun to do so. A common test is that the attacker must demonstrate intent to attack and have both the means and opportunity to do so. Once he breaks off his assault, you must stop yours too.
Be Prepared to Fight Until It Stops
Hence, the skillful fighter puts himself into a position that makes defeat impossible, and does not miss the moment for defeating the enemy.
Whenever you parry, hit, spring, strike, or touch the enemy’s cutting sword, you must cut the enemy in the same movement.
Hitting someone and then pausing to ask them, “How was that? Did it hurt?” is ridiculous, yet we do that sort of thing all the time on the practice floor. Tandem drills in the
The classic rule is that self-defense begins when deadly danger begins, ends when the danger ends, and revives again if the danger returns. Stomping the other guy when he’s down is not generally considered self- defense.
Hollywood loves to show the bad guys who can take a full power shot to the face and keep on smiling. It proves how tough they are, foreshadowing a kick-ass fight that’ll take up five or ten minutes of screen time with the audience cheering enthusiastically all along the way. As we’ve stated previously, the movies portray a fantasyland. It’s fun but not realistic. In real life, there is no pause until he gives up or breaks off the fight. It is critical, however, that when he stops you stop. Even if he started it and you’re really pissed off that you got ambushed or sucker
