Principles of War: Self Analysis – Economy of Force

I’m analyzing my martial arts skills, capabilities, and style through the lens of the Principles of War as defined in U.S. Army Field Manual FM 3-0. My commentaries on each principle are available through the links below.

Mass
Objective
Offensive
Surprise
Economy of Force
Maneuver
Unity of Command
Security
Simplicity

So far I’ve graded my personal martial arts style as follows:

Mass - a "C"
Objective - a "B"
Offensive - a "B"
Surprise - an "A"

Now it’s time to analyze my martial art style against the Principle of War: Economy of Force.

“Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts.”

Some martial arts instructors teach students to use strong active blocks. My first instructor (in Tae Kwon Do) taught this way. But a strong block requires as much focus as a strong punch or kick; And as much time. It’s an example of allocating essential combat power to a secondary effort.

The objective of any defensive technique is to avoid injury from the opponent’s attack. If this objective can be achieved without spending precious time and energy in the effort then, necessarily, more time and energy are available for the primary effort – your counter-attack.

Neko Ryu Goshin Jitsu is one of several martial arts that emphasize the use of:
(1) Movement to avoid the attack (remember “float like a butterfly”?),
(2) Brush blocking to deflect an incoming blow, and
(3) Converting the opponents attack into an instant counter-attack.

Judo focuses on the third choice - converting the opponents attack into an instant counter-attack.

My personal style retains elements of my early days in Tai Kwan Do (my very first martial art) and Tong Soo Do (the art that awarded me my first black belt). I especially like the way Koreans kick and I love the Korean sidekick. However, in accordance with the principles of Neko Ryu, I’ve retrained myself to use body movement (Tai Sabaki) and brush blocks for defensive techniques.

My Neko Ryu is heavily influenced by Judo and my inclination to “counter-punch” leads me to prefer the Judo/Neko Ryu defense – that is; converting the opponent’s attack into a decisive counter stroke – “hitting him with the parking lot” as the conclusion of Harai Goshi.

This is the epitome of allocating minimum essential combat power to a secondary effort. Consequently, I find my martial arts style deserves an “A” when measured against the Principle of War: Economy of Force

In the next post I’ll grade myself on the Principle of War: Maneuver.

Link to the Martial Arts Training Report: The Principles of War