22 Dec 00

Tunnel vision and movement:

Tunnel vision, along with auditory exclusion and a host of other psychosomatic symptoms, are commonly associated with the high levels of anxiety which are normally present in everyone who is involved in a potentially lethal incident.

The bad guy will therefore be looking at you through what appears to be a hole in a doughnut. When you sidestep four feet to one side or another, you, in effect, disappear! In order to visually reacquire you, the bad guy must blink, draw back, and move his head. In the critical second or two it takes him to do that, you can compound your advantage.

Sun Tzu said many centuries ago, "The more possibilities you present to the enemy, the more diffuse he is forced to become. The more diffuse he becomes, the more difficult it is for him to concentrate sufficiently to make a successful attack."

Movement confuses bad guys. When they are confused, they hesitate. We can then take advantage of their hesitation to further weaken their position.

On the other hand, we must ourselves develop the ability to transition from concentration to diffusion quickly, always more quickly than our adversary. We thus stay one step ahead, and the bad guy is then forced to continually play catch-up. When one is playing catch-up, a successful attack is extremely unlikely.

/John