On Wed, 13 Nov 96 02:48:47 -0600 Travis Butler said:
: >From: Sebastian Weinberg, bastian@enterprise.mathematik.uni-essen.de
: >It's simple physics: The far end of a swinging bokken will
: >inflict more damage than any other point. Noriko realized that
: >Kunou was far to strong a fighter for her to hope beating him
: >conventionally, so she figured out how to circumvent his
: >strengths. Instead of staying where he expected her to stay - at
: >the outer reaches of his bokken range, where he would eventually
: >be able to land a few devestating blows - she moved in, where he
: >was sure to hit her, *but* the blows would not incapacitate her
: >immediately due to decreased leverage, so she could take him out.
: >She decided to do the unthinkable and take the damage, because she
: >had analysed his strength and weakness and could weigh her chances
: >of success against the losses she would have to sustain. An
: >intelligence-based victory, if I ever saw one.
:
: I hate to disagree, but... well, as far as someone who hasn't studied
: martial arts himself can say... I don't really think that she could
: succeed in breaking through the outer perimeter of his
: strike-strike-strike attack, nor do I like the chances of her outlasting
: *that* much damage even inside his bokken range. Remember, his bokken was
: moving so fast that you couldn't see the blade itself, just a motion
: blur, IIRC, like you'd see with a fan blade. And like a fan blade, if you
: try to go through that blur, you're almost certainly going to get hit by
: the tip, unless you've got Ranma's unnatural speed and agility. Going
: inside is smarter than just staying outside to get hit, but it's still
: too much a case of playing her weakness head-on against his strength.
: Instead of doing something clever to disrupt or work around his attack,
: she charges right into the heart of it, hoping to take him down before
: going out herself.
Well, if that's the only problem you have with it, the solution
seems simple: How long can Kunou keep up this strike pattern?
Probably not very long. If Noriko would outwait his special move,
until he had to fall back onto more normal attack patterns, the
whole thing should be easier to swallow. The basic reasoning
behind her move is sound, That's one of the few things I've
learned about fighting: If someone wants to hit you witha stick -
move in.
: >It's kinda like sticking your fingers into the barrel of a
: >shotgun: "Yes, I know that my fingers are gonna look like charcoal
: >- but it's *your* face that's gonna look like swiss cheese." (I'm
: >not quite sure if that would actually work or was just a bluff,
: >but when I saw that scene in a film, I laughed so hard that I gave
: >the film an additional +5 bonus points on coolness.)
:
: I dunno; I'm not so optimistic about the containment force of fingers vs.
: a shotgun breach... I'd have to see a bit more convincing evidence before
: I'd buy it even as a bluff.
Still damn funny, as delivered in that film. :)
Sebastian