There’s a level beyond what I thought was the highest level of combat. I previously talked about the three levels of combat, which a student of the martial arts climbs to achieve mastery of fighting. This concept goes beyond martial arts and physical conflict, but also applies to business and life itself. The fourth level of combat is prevention, which is often better than the cure.
This idea is referred to by various books and treatises throughout history, from The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, The Book of Five Rings by Musashi Miyamoto, Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury, The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, and many more. It’s not just about fighting, but also when you should or should not fight.
It’s about choosing your battles and avoiding unnecessary conflict as a core idea, not fighting fire with fire without thought, not trying to brute-force your way through problems, and not relying on sheer numbers or resources to overcome. Humans forego this wisdom when life is good.
Let’s Review the Three Levels of Combat
As previously discussed on this blog, the three levels of combat are based on how one responds to and addresses an incoming attack. The main dilemma of physical combat is not getting hit in the first place. After all, the first hit can potentially be the last.
They are as follows, in ascending order:
- Level 1: Reacting — Responding to stimuli only as it comes without prior preparation.
- Level 2: Predicting — Anticipating possible outcomes and having appropriate responses prepared.
- Level 3: Controlling — Limiting their options or making them act a certain way that can be easily counteracted.
There’s also “Level 0”, which is ignoring, either from not being aware of what’s going on or not knowing how to respond. For most people, this manifests in being frozen still, their brains short-circuiting in the face of a sudden incoming threat.
In recent times, around a couple of years after I published that blog post, I realized there may be an even higher tier, which I had known about from books I’ve read in the past. The connection seems obvious now, but it took years before I came upon it.
The Fourth Level of Combat is Prevention
At the top of the pyramid is the importance of not entering conflict in the first place. However, it also applies to instances of already being in the middle of a conflict by preventing opposing offense from being initiated.
Let’s take a look at both these scenarios, first with prevention while being in a fight, then with prevention of conflict as a whole. I guess you can call these sub-levels of Level 4, which shows just how high up that peak can go.
Preventing the opponent from mounting their offense
Among the five ways of attack in Jeet Kune Do, the most obvious one that addresses this is called Hand Immobilization Attack (HIA), or what I call Limb Manipulation Attack (LMA) since you can also do it against the opponent’s legs. You don’t just immobilize the limb, but also move them out of the way to attack while they’re momentarily unable to do the same.
This is most prevalent in styles like Wing Chun and Filipino Martial Arts, where trapping is a core part of their curricula. This has also been seen in boxing and Muay Thai, where framing and hand-fighting prevent the opponent from throwing punches while also controlling the centerline and creating openings for one’s own attacks.
But the most powerful and most misunderstood way of preventing an opponent from attacking you is by making them too scared to do so, or making them “respect you too much”.
In the anime Hajime no Ippo, they talk about sakki — killing intent — an intimidating aura that stops the opponent from attacking. “Punching without punching” is basically feinting, but it’s more than just throwing fake punches.
Feints need to have real threat behind them, and the simplest way to impose that is to hit them for real. Even if they defend against those blows, they will still feel the power and intent behind them, which plant seeds of fear in the opponent’s mind.
The next time you throw those strikes, whether they’re real or just feints, they will elicit a more significant reaction and reduce their desire to attack.
Preventing the opponent from fighting
Then there are those who are so frightening that their mere presence freezes even the most seasoned of veterans and leaves them unable to perform their best in the ring. Mike Tyson had such an aura that during his prime, his opponents were already defeated before they even stepped foot in the ring.
There’ve been other “boogeymen” throughout combat sports, both superstars and underdogs.
In boxing, undefeated five-division world champion Terence “Bud” Crawford — who recently announced his retirement — was avoided for a long time until he finally got the fights needed to cement his legacy. Gennady “GGG” Golovkin was another boogeyman who had an iron chin, nukes for hands, and a storied amateur career that cultivated sharp skills.
In MMA, the one fighter nicknamed “The Boogeyman” was Dean Lister, an unofficial godfather of leglocks in the west. On the other side of the globe, there was the “tenth level black belt of leglocks”, Masakazu Imanari. Leglocks can shred knee ligaments like chainsaws go through logs, which makes opponents scared for their careers.
That’s not as much of a boon for professional fighters, but it certainly is for social scenarios. If you look like a mean mountain of muscle, you’re less susceptible to having jerks want to test you. While not everyone who’s ripped and jacked knows how to fight, they’re still likely much stronger than the average troublemaker.
Then again, you can’t account for crazy fools who look at a big guy like a Dark Souls boss.
On the other hand, everyone who actually knows how to fight doesn’t look like it. There are advantages to a “sleeper build”, but social deterrence isn’t necessarily one of them. Diplomacy is the more critical skill, being able to calm things down with words. Coupled with the intention to not fight, it prevents provocation and escalation.
Preventing the fight itself
Combat sports in the 21st century, with so much money on the line, has seen “ducking” as a necessary tactic for elite fighters. It’s either they see enough zeroes and favorable conditions on the contract or they refuse to fight. While it may seem cowardly, there’s a lot riding on a flawless professional record — legacy, generational wealth, and prospects outside of fighting.
It’s said prizefighting is another form of prostitution since professional fighters also sacrifice their bodies for cash in exchange for entertainment. It’s not nice to hear, but that’s just how the game goes. If you want to fight for honor and dignity, stay amateur.
Meanwhile, in the real world, it’s murkier than “he big guy, no fight”. Whether it’s someone desperate for money or an alpha-wannabe looking to swing his dick, you shouldn’t want to mess with anyone. In a world full of insecure human beings, you can’t say for sure if someone is impulsive enough to maim or kill, much less whether they’re carrying a knife or a gun.
The conventional wisdom in self-defense is to assume everyone you encounter is potentially armed. Recently, a relative of mine got stabbed twice by two guys looking to steal his motorcycle while on his way home during unholy hours. He survived, but not without injuries that kept him in the hospital for over a week.
Don’t stay out for too long. Give yourself a curfew.
Social media shows endless streams of real-life violence from all over the world, of people getting knocked out, stabbed, shot, and run over. They remind us how quickly violence can erupt and to never take safety for granted.
Preventing the confrontation that can lead to a fight
It should be common sense, but different walks of life demand different sets of knowledge and experience, as well as understanding of dealing with different types of people from different walks of life. Navigating through life without facing contentious situations isn’t a luxury afforded to many, especially those who grind for everything in life.
The more prudent and practical course of action is to avoid confrontations entirely. If you find yourself in a situation that suddenly turns precarious, you’ll have to come to your senses, deescalate, and back away. If it’s with a friend or relative, all you can hope for is that they don’t escalate or hold a grudge.
It’s important to stay calm and take no wasteful action. Quick action may not always be correct, and correct action may not always be quick. Taking action that’s both quick and correct calls for practiced knowledge. Hopefully, acquiring that life experience doesn’t involve needless quarrels or taking a shiv to the belly.
If the other person is a stranger, you may have to play the fool to find your way out. However, if you’re accompanied by other people who know you or look up to you, then that becomes tougher since not standing your ground may result in losing face. In many cultures, the fear of losing face is enough to drive people mad with rage.
Losing face to someone you’ll likely never meet again shouldn’t be hard, but losing face in front of your own people may feel like too much. Do you stand your ground or give concession? There’s no one right answer for every scenario.
The consequences of a confrontation may not always come upfront. Retaliation often comes from a blind spot. It’s unsavory and disgraceful, but that doesn’t stop many from stooping low to be satisfied. You can call them cowards, but it’s no use if damage has already been done.
I’ve seen people fuck over dozens just to get at one person they’ve grown to despise. I’ve seen friends turn into enemies over misunderstandings that could’ve been cleared up with a quick sitdown. I stay far from that, but many people are immersed in such an environment.
Don’t have a fight or confrontation in or near a place you frequent, whether it’s your residence, usual third place, or so on. That’s because you wouldn’t want them to know where you live or hang out due to the possibility of them getting back at you in an inopportune time.
Would you rather walk away while they snicker and call you names, or fire back in a bid to assert your dominance? The former may make you look weak, but only to immature people. The latter may make you look strong, but you’ll actually be a troublemaker.
Preventing avoidable confrontations starts with preventing your ego from controlling you.
Preventing undesired interaction that can lead to confrontation
This is easier said than done, especially for the more socially-inclined. For someone like me who can afford to have more control over his social interactions, it’s as simple as minimizing contact with bad actors. Of course, not meeting new people isn’t the most conducive way to live one’s life, so it’s not the most practical strategy.
And not everyone they meet may not have either bad intentions or a bad attitude.
In such cases, all you can really do is focus on factors that are within your control and have contingencies for every possible scenario. Preparation is key — physical, mental, emotional, financial, and even spiritual. You don’t get to control how others act and react towards you, but you can control how you act and react towards them.
If an undesired interaction is unavoidable, you must prepare yourself the best you can.
There’s situational awareness and avoidance for practical self-defense and social hygiene. However, unless you want to be so hypervigilant that you’ll never have a moment’s peace, you can’t rely on situational awareness alone. If you want to be able to socialize, make new friends, go to new places, and live a full life, you can’t avoid everything forever.
Beyond that are deterrence, reputation, and power, which usually take shape in social and material leverage. You don’t get to be a pacifist and expect to not get picked on without a way to deter aggressors. The sustainable way you can remain peaceful while surrounded by vultures is to either have the capacity to do the same to them in defense or make being attacked so costly to them that it wouldn’t be worth the effort.
However, are you going to be able to flash those warning signs for as long as you live? Can you acquire all of those things without losing yourself?
Law 4: Always Say Less Than Necessary
According to Robert Greene in The 48 Laws of Power, the more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish or revealing that could be used against you. As a successful man once said while being interviewed in his car, “Always imagine everyone is pointing a gun at your head. It’s up to you how many bullets you give them.”
I thought I understood the meaning of those words, but I only felt their true weight recently.
I violated this law out of frustration, and it resulted in more frustration. For around two years, I had been dealing with someone who kept bugging me until it became a war of words that encroached on personal lives. The reason why they did so is not important for this discussion.
What started out as an innocent acquaintance became mean-spirited. For some reason, my usual discretion and care with other similar interactions were not present with how I talked to that particular individual. On my part, what I did wrong was simply saying and doing more than what was absolutely necessary. All I had to do was politely refuse their invitation.
I had to be a bit too honest about my feelings for my own good, especially towards someone who might as well be a complete stranger, and that only egged them on. I don’t know them personally, I’ve never met them in person, we’ve only had a few online conversations, and I don’t wish to ever interact with them any further after what happened.
If I had been more careful with my words, perhaps I could’ve prevented the unpleasant interactions that followed. I learned a hard lesson, and I can move forward with that.
Applying the four levels of combat here:
- Level 1: Fight back
- Level 2: Anticipate their moves
- Level 3: Dictate the pace
- Level 4: Remove the need to fight in the first place
Like in the scenario I found myself in, the real enemy isn’t the other person, but the part of you that needs to win.
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