“The general that hearkens to my counsel and acts upon it, will conquer — let such a one be retained in command! The general that hearkens not to my counsel nor acts upon it, will suffer defeat — let such a one be dismissed!
While heeding the profit of my counsel, avail yourself also of any helpful circumstances over and beyond the ordinary rules.”
- The Art of War, Written by Sun Tzu,
Translated from Chinese by Lionel Giles (1910)
If an opportunity presented itself to you, would you sacrifice your foundations to act upon it?
Sun Tzu makes his five constant factors explicit, and he leaves no room for argument. If you ignore them, you will suffer defeat. These five constant factors are what the modern martial artist might call basics. They are principles which form the foundation of all other action. But as broadly applicable as these five basics may be, Sun Tzu still leaves room for new techniques, new strategies, or even simple good luck, but only as an additional layer of strategy. In encouraging this next layer, he says, “While heeding the profit of my counsel…” not, “Instead of heeding the profit of my counsel...”
These basics may seem over-broad at first glance, but they form the foundation for theories of attack and defense, of preparation for combat, of decision-making during combat, and of carrying the lessons learned on the mat out into the greater world.
These basics can even serve as the measure of the validity of a technique or strategy. If a strategy goes against the five constant factors it is likely invalid and ought to be discarded or at least subjected to further analysis.
Without the solid base created by the five constant factors, you’ll be unable to effectively act opportunistically or engage in more advanced strategies. Consider the following examples from the five constant factors:
Moral law (Clarity of Purpose)
If your reason for being on the mat is not clear and you haven’t reconciled your fear of injury, you will over-restrain your actions. You will be afraid to get hurt and you will avoid dynamic circumstances like scrambles or stand-up fighting that you worry might result in injury. Any time the game moves toward a scramble you’ll concede the dominant/preferred position. Even if you begin with the advantage, you’ll lose it before the exchange even begins by giving up the opportunity.
Heaven (Innate Qualities, Style and Preferences, Mental State)
If you haven’t invested your attention in specific areas of the game, you won’t have the vision to see how various positions and attacks are interconnected. These interconnections that make up styles and preferences are like a personalized road map, and can be used to anticipate what options will be available from where. Lacking this knowledge, you’ll miss the opportunities to transition from one attack to another and be stuck on just the one road.
Earth (Rulesets and Positional Hierarchies)
If you do not understand the strengths and weaknesses of your position relative to your opponent’s, you may be tempted to act upon false opportunities, such as attacking the opponent’s neck while inside their closed guard. If you give away your defensive capacity in pursuit of an opportunity that you cant fully capitalize on, you’ll wind up fighting from behind if you aren’t simply defeated right away.
Commander’a Virtues (Wisdom, Sincerity, Benevolence, Courage, Strictness)
Each of the commander’s virtues has opportunities inherent in it. But the most important is courage. Courage is necessary because courage is the will to act. Without the will to act, you will simply let a good opportunity pass you by. Lacking courage, you’ll likely find yourself at the open mat, avoiding the eyes of all the potential challengers, missing the opportunity to test your skills and commune with your fellows.
Method and discipline (Maintenance of Support Structures)
If your cardiovascular conditioning is sporadic you may find your ability to push the pace limited. Perhaps you’ll find yourself in a match and observe that your opponent’s energy level dropping. He’s breathing through his mouth now, where just moments ago he was breathing through his nose. You decide to push the pace and fatigue him, thinking that will make him easier to finish off. The harder you try to push the pace, the more rapidly you fatigue yourself, and the opportunity turns against you for lack of necessary conditioning.
There is a subtle lesson to be learned here. People think you have to be lucky in order to find once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. But you might wait your whole life and still miss the big one. You’re better off being prepared in order to act opportunistically day-in-day-out.
If you haven’t seen to your basics, you may not even have the attention span to notice an opportunity.
If you haven’t seen to your basics, you may be spending all your energy compensating for a lack of solid foundation.
If you haven’t seen to your basics, you may see the opportunity and try to act but crash for lack of runway.
So much of grappling is about timing. Basics are the key to timing. If you aren’t solid in your basics, your opponent will be constantly forcing you to shore up those weaknesses, and while you’re reacting, fixing things that you should have already had under control, they’re on to the next attack. Without solid basics, you’re always behind. When you’re behind, the opportunities are few and far between.
Learn your basics and do not neglect them.
Success,
Charles Batey