Defense and Anti-Fragility
Most of us cater our martial arts skills to create offense. I remember early on taking the approach of being so offense-oriented that my strategy would often lead to 2 paths. 1. My opponent would be forced to play defense which would never allow them into the match. 2. They would ultimately succumb to the pressure and would give up a submission. Of course the very skilled and great opponents would find a way to defend, nullify and/or counter my offense. I would always go back and look at where I went wrong and identify some mistakes that I made but didn’t always take into account what they did so well defensively. My offense was certainly not perfect but many times a sustained offense doesn’t have to be against someone who doesn’t have great defense, patience and/or composure. In the last several years, I’ve come to view defense in a completely different way.
If I had the choice of having superb defense or a superb offense, I would most definitely choose defense. If you think about the ultimate qualities of defense, I first think about something or someone who is indestructible. I could go anywhere I wanted to if I knew I was unbreakable or un-killable. An impenetrable fortress can never be invaded. The impenetrable fortress no longer needs to concern themselves with anyone who wishes to enter or attack. In this almost “perfect defensive scenario” let us imagine what the mindset of the people in the fortress is like. I’d imagine that they are a highly resilient people, robust but at ease, and allowed to focus the rest of their resources on their offensive capabilities or on simply, living their lives. Everything gets a bit easier if you can ensure you are (pardon my French) un-fuck-withable. The second and highest level of defense involves the concept of anti-fragility, a term coined by professor and investment guru Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It is described as “a category of things that not only gain from chaos but also need it to survive and flourish”.
I think about the power of this concept and it immediately resonates with me and what I feel has allowed me to improve as a martial artist. The best lessons are the hardest lessons. Losing because we spent too much energy teaches us to be efficient. Getting our guard passed because we didn’t achieve the proper control teaches us about sensitivity and proper position. In a way, we absorb what our opponents did to us, Perhaps a more powerful example is explaining what makes “The Incredible Hulk” so overwhelmingly difficult to defeat. Not only is he almost impossible to kill, he gets stronger and more potent if you try to shoot him, maim him or hurt him in any way. He literally gets bigger and stronger as he gets angrier at your petty or serious attempt at injuring him. At the end of the day though, “The Hulk” wouldn’t be “The Hulk” without his defensive gifts. He can’t “smash” with the same ease if he is highly vulnerable. Many of the most powerful Marvel characters like Wolverine, Magneto, Thanos all have superpowers that are mainly defensive. What good is offense if you can’t defend yourself or use other’s powers against them? All this brings me to some interesting and important questions we should all ask ourselves as martial artists. What does it mean to have an impenetrable defense and are we working towards this goal? What does it mean to be “anti-fragile” and can we attain these qualities through an ordinary mindset? Where does intellect fit in to make these powers sustainable and attainable for us? Taking all of this into consideration, it makes sense why they call it “self-defense” and NOT “self-offense”.
