To Crush

[Alan Armstrong]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

How do you feel about crushing your enemies?

Crushing enemies, perhaps for this day and age, is considered to be an overly aggressive attitude, is it possible to keep this only in mind but not in practice as martial artists?

[MatsuShinshii]

I'm not quite sure how to address this post.

First and foremost I doubt most members hold this ideal or would agree with it.

If and when a person attacks it is in my mind to deal with the person quickly and efficiently with minimal damage to both myself and my attacker. The object is to neutralize the threat with the force the situation calls for. Not all situations call for maximum deadly force.

Crush them????

I find no joy in doing what sometimes must be done. If, in your example of a weaker opponent, I were to crush them, what does that say about me or about all MA'ists?

Why would you "crush" someone that barely poses a threat? This type of opponent would be controlled or made to submit but crushing them... EGO much?

IMHO someone that would look to fight a weaker opponent is weak themselves. Would it be right for a Sandan to "crush" a Hachikyu? What exactly does that prove? Do we not achieve the goal by controlling someone that may not have enough sense to realize they are out matched rather than destroying them?

Don't get me wrong, I would have no problem, and haven't, doing serious damage IF the situation warranted it. But this premise of crushing ones opponents no matter the situation to me shows a misunderstanding of what the arts are about. Unless your in combat in some foreign country there is no need to "crush" your opponents.

Depending on the situation you will have several options to defeat your opponent, most without even coming to blows. I can only see the most extreme situations where crushing ones opponent would come into play.

[Alan Armstrong]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

(These are Miyamoto Musashi's words not mine)

[MatsuShinshii]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

(These are Miyamoto Musashi's words not mine)

I figured that out after I read one of your other recent posts.

[singularity6]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

(These are Miyamoto Musashi's words not mine)

It's a best-practice to quote the person who originally wrote the phrase. This saves a lot of confusion.

[Alan Armstrong]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

(These are Miyamoto Musashi's words not mine)

It's a best-practice to quote the person who originally wrote the phrase. This saves a lot of confusion.

It was quoted to Miyamoto Musashi; as plain as day.

But if you (singularity6) have a preferable way of making quotes more easily identifiable, then please feel free to share how it is to be done.

[MatsuShinshii]

I too did not pick up on the fact that you were quoting Musashi until I read the next post "To throw into confusion" and realized what you were doing. Once I saw the other post titles it was pretty clear though.

[singularity6]

This means to crush the enemy regarding him as being weak.

If we crush lightly, he may recover.

You must learn the spirit of crushing as if with a hand grip.

In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than yourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath.

It is essential to crush him all at once.

The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little-Miyamoto Musashi

(These are Miyamoto Musashi's words not mine)

It's a best-practice to quote the person who originally wrote the phrase. This saves a lot of confusion.

It was quoted to Miyamoto Musashi; as plain as day.

But if you (singularity6) have a preferable way of making quotes more easily identifiable, then please feel free to share how it is to be done.

I would have ended the post by stating the author's name.

"~Miyamoto Musashi" as the last line is fairly typical.

[MatsuShinshii]

Good point. That would be proper.

[bushido_man96]

Musashi was a duelist. When he fought, he was always fighting to the death. So for him, yes, it was a good thing.

Today, I think this strategy still holds value, but we have to keep it in context. When it comes to self-defense, one shouldn't dally around. Yes, come in hard, and finish it quickly. A former friend of mine was quite fond using a line of questioning when it comes to using force:

"How hard did you hit my client?"

"I hit him as hard as I could."

"Why did you hit him so hard?"

"So I didn't have to hit him again."

It makes sense to me, and I use this thought process myself.