The T-Rex Scenario

In the course of my own general study of martial science and the systems thereof, I have determined that certain common ideas among organized martial practitioners are actually false. However, I must restate that assertion to clarify that the ideas to which I am referring may actually be technically or theoretically valid, but practically untrue in a ‘real-life’ situation. For example: a very small, light-weight person, may actually be able to fell a giant man via martial prowess alone, provided that he is able to reach the giant’s vulnerable areas, hit them hard enough to do damage, and remain undamaged in the process. Though this can be easily imagined, a real situation of similar proportions would require that the smaller man be possessed of super-human strength and agility, while the giant would have to be slower and somewhat under-powered. This is necessary because, were the two men of different stature of the same proportion at their respective sizes, the outcome of the battle would be instantly decided by the larger of the two.

Modern martial arts seem to consistently preach the confidence-building adage “Your size doesn’t matter,” but this is inconsistent with many of the ancient precepts of strategy and tactics in general – its original meaning has been misinterpreted by the ‘professionals’ of martial arts to encourage those practitioners who have a bit more money than potential.

The saying is actually designed to direct the focus of each individual to practice their art in a way that takes the greatest advantage of their natural ability, while adding techniques to offset certain natural weaknesses. In this respect, size truly does not matter, because you opponent in this sense is you weaker self – an opponent that can be easily defeated through dedication and hard work. This adage, however, would seem to fall apart once one begins to consider the ‘classless’ duel.

In true ‘combat’ sports, (boxing, sumo, wrestling, etc.) the competitors are divided by their own weight classes – meaning that there are rules to separate the bigger fighters from the smaller. Why is this? Because in hand-to-hand combat between similarly-skilled individuals, big physically larger fighter has certain advantages; and, if the size difference is great enough, the larger fighter might have little trouble dispatching an opponent possessing a skill greater than his own.

Skill and ability go hand-in-hand with strength and speed, with intellect acting as the glue that binds them. Emphasizing one without the others tends to have little effect on over-all performance, but certain aspects of the more physical factors can be multiplied via size, vantage, and reach. For example – an ant can easily lift 50 times its body weight, making it incredibly strong, but how easily it is crushed by even the frailest of mankind. Taken further, the strongest members of our species might lift 3 times his body weight, literally hundreds of kilograms, only to be utterly annihilated by an elephant, which can only lift one fourth of its own girth. Size does matter. I call this principle the T-rex principle – since it is a constant factor in any conceivable scenario. We do not even have to calculate the odds of the ‘Man vs. T-rex’ scenario – hand-to-hand, the man has no chance; though the T-rex be a dumb brute and void of combat acumen or technique, the human fighter has no chance at all.

The fact that the human has no chance is of no concern to the reasoning of the martial scholar, the important issue is why. What gives the T-rex superiority? Mere size? Of course not, a banana tree is quite a bit larger than a man, but toppled with ease by hand alone – it is a matter of all of the factors mentioned above working together to the advantage of the T-rex. First, his size gives him greater reach and vantage; the ability to attack with impunity. Also, his size and weight make him more durable and less accessible for attack. Finally, his tremendous strength will lend itself to unstoppable attacks – and all of this leaves out the giant claws and teeth.

In the extreme T-rex scenario, no amount of skill or training can help the human win in an unarmed fight. He is vastly outclassed and that is that – Bruce Lee, Mas Oyama, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, John Wayne, that guy from Thailand, and Jean Claude Van Damme combined would still do little more to a T-rex than fill its stomach; its damage-dealing and receiving capacities are just too high. This is the perfect example of the classless duel, and it is this type of reasoning that brought about the creation of weaponry. Think about this for a minute.

This element of strategy in martial arts is very important in a real-life situation, because it governs our natural ability to ‘size-up’ a possible threat and choose whether to execute a ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ response. If this is a lesson we miss, then we might feel more than up to the task of backing-up that smart remark made toward that 7-foot tall linebacker sitting at the bar – go a head, you have a black belt in whatever, make that T-rex work for his next snack. Or just avoid an unnecessary conflict…

Now, all that said, what if the T-rex is attacking and there is no way to flee or avoid the fight? How can a man hope to defeat an opponent that drastically outclasses him? This is just as much a question of tactics as of strategy. One must work along with various constants such as environment, rather than pitting advantages against weaknesses like some arcane card game. From my own experience, I have found it useful to force the larger opponent to move or to expose some kind of disadvantage, to cause him to fight gravity or to move unnecessarily. It is important to use subversive tactics and indirect attack strategies against higher-class foes; but even then, this is no guarantee. All too frequently, one might expect to encounter and enemy that he is incapable of defeating on a level field, regardless of strategy and tactics – which brings us back to the T-rex scenario; the Rubic’s cube of unarmed combat.

Along this line of logic, I have returned to the central point of my goal to harness the full tactical capacity of the sword in the classical sense of its ability to equalize the T-rex effect to an appreciable extent without nullifying the manifestation of one’s own martial ability. Though it might be argued that marksmanship is its own martial art (an assertion with which I fully agree) it greatly reduces the physical responsibilities of the artist, aiming more toward the perfection of the more subtle movements of aim and of calmness.
The sword captures the nuance of aim while still holding tightly the principle of form and force. Thus it is the tactical sword technique which encompasses the entirety of those conceivable classless dueling scenarios, acting as the key to the other half of martial arts; the half that focuses on the augmentation of man’s ability to fight and to destroy enemies in battle.

This must be studied deeply before an adequate understanding of tactical swordplay and unarmed combat can be achieved in proper perspective.