Yeah, but what if I did This ... ?

Way back when I first started studying martial arts, now and again it would come up in a conversation, and now and then, I got the yeah-but-what-if? refrain going.

Thus:

"Oh, you're into that karotty kong-fu stuff, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, lemme ask you something. What would you do if I did this?"

This would usually be something fairly simple, like, say a right overhand punch.

And I would say, "Well, I'd probably block and counter, like so ..."

Whereupon I would demonstrate a technique.

"Yeah, but, what if I then did this?" At which point the questioner would counter my counter and launch a second attack.

"Okay, well, then, I could do this ..."

"Uh huh, but then what if I added in this?"

And pretty soon, we would have a whole choreographed fight sequence right out of Enter the Dragon ...

Or maybe The Three Stooges ...

Um. Anyway, after a few of these conversations, what I realized was two things: A) the guy asking the what-if-I-did-this? questions didn't really want to know what I would do, he wanted to demonstrate that my karotty-kong-fu crap wasn't no way, no how up to snuff against his good, old American fist-fighting, and B) If you show somebody what you intend to do, it's not that hard to come up with a counter for it.

(There is actually a third thing I learned, and that has to do with training specific counters for specific attacks -- you throw a high, right punch, and I do Waza block-and-counter #1. But if you throw a left punch, I have to shift to Waza block-and-counter #2, and so on, and what a dead-end that was. But more on that in another post.)

Somewhere along the way, I realized that yes-but fight conversations were a waste of time, I couldn't win, and what I came up with, should they start down that road, was a good way to short-stop them:

"Okay, what would you do if I did this?"

"You know, I dunno exactly. Why don't you do it and let's see, hey?" Along with a big smile.

Oddly enough, nobody ever wanted to follow through on that. Because if they didn't know what I was gonna do, then they wouldn't have a clue how to deal with it, and if I didn't tell them, they wouldn't know. By the time they figured it out, it would be too late, and I believe they understood that on some basic level.

I suppose if I had been good enough, I could have Billy Jack-ed 'em, i.e., told them what I was gonna do and, even knowing that, there wasn't anything they could do to stop me, but I wasn't that good -- and I had sense enough to know it.

And the lesson is? If you show people your cards, it makes it easier for them to bet, so better to play them close to your vest. It's not that what you do is full of secrets, it's that there is an element of surprise in it that can work to your advantage. No point at all in giving that away.