The Central Principle: Interception is Integration

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object head-on?

Here's a better, or at least a more answerable, question: why should they meet head-on at all? And if an opponent's fist is substituted for the irresistible force, and your jaw for the immovable object, I bet you would agree they should never meet head on. The question then becomes, what are your options?

Once such a force is on its way, there are fours:

1. Do nothing: Let force meet obstacle – Passive response, passive result
2. Dodge the attack: Make force miss obstacle – Passive response, active result
3. Block the attack: Stop force with force – Active response, passive result
4. Intercept the attack: Use all force to your advantage – Active response, active result

We have already ruled out the first option – there are obviously better, less personally damaging, ways of dealing with an attack than doing nothing…

Such as the second option: dodge the attack. Not a bad idea. If you are about to get hit, move to where you won't get hit. It is quick, instinctive, and can be effective in avoiding injury. And it is "active" in that at the end of it you are in a new, potentially better, position. The fatal flaw: by itself, dodging an attack does not improve your circumstances for more than a few seconds. You are still on the defensive, and if you simply keep dodging, your moves are likely to be anticipated, or you will be backed into a corner. This makes refined variants of this technique, such as the "emergency response" and the bob-and-weave useful as secondary reactions – but not primary reactions.

The third option could be better. Block your opponent's strike, neutralizing the attack. Use the "hard method" of the martial arts, meeting force with force. However, there are two obvious problems with this option: 1. If your force is not of the right type and in the right place, it may not be effective. 2. This response, like dodging, leaves you in "reactive" mode. You are still merely acting within the the environment dictated by your opponent and not controlling it. You deal with the force, but expend energy in doing so and may gain time, but not initiative.

That leaves the fourth option: interception. The use of all force, including your opponent's force, to your own ends. In the domain of grappling, Judo and Jujitsu are known for this. The use of "ju" in each case is an explicit reference to the martial arts principle of the "soft method" – that of using your opponent's strength and energy against him.

The idea of interception came into its own in Jeet Kune Do, the non-traditional martial art created by Bruce Lee. As Bruce said in the first episode of "Longstreet"; "To reach me, you must move to me. Your attack offers me an opportunity to intercept you." That is the heart of Jeet Kune Do. As an attack approaches instead of simply moving out of the way or blocking (fundamentally passive moves), launch an attack of your own which cuts off your opponent's attack, turning the tables. Interception is the ultimate combination of "soft" and "hard" techniques, using both your opponent's force and your own to your advantage. This central principle of Jeet Kune Do makes it a great foundation for unarmed martial arts expression.

By using all forces to your advantage, interception is the most complete, most whole, most integrated foundation of combat - "When an opponent expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand. And when there is an opportunity, I do not hit; it hits all by itself." – Bruce Lee, “Enter the Dragon”

Walk on,

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