Principles of War: Self Analysis – Simplicity

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"
Economy of Force - an "A"
Maneuver - a "C"
Unity of Command - an "A"
Security - a "C"

This time I’ll grade myself on the Principle of War: Simplicity.

Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to
ensure thorough understanding.

The last Principle of War, Simplicity, seems at first not to apply to the self defense situation. During the immediacy of an assault, there’s little time to plan a defensive strategy. Attempting to do so could result in your immediate defeat – perhaps death. Attempting to plan a strategy would be a distraction; in effect, putting you in violation of the Principle of War: Unity of Command – with you trying to do two things at the same time.

Simplicity, in this context, must be applied to the planning and training done well in advance of the situation.

You can decide now on a “grand strategy”, if you will, for your defense. Will you try to talk your way out? Will you run? Will you submit and hope for the best? Will you defend against assault but avoid hurting your assailant? Or will you, perhaps, choose to counter attack to disable your opponent and end his ability to threaten you or your loved ones?

If you haven’t already decided this question you should give it some thought right now. Indecision, when the attack comes, could be fatal.

All of the strategies I listed above are simple. Any of them could be valid for you. Simplicity means choosing a simple strategy and avoiding one that is too complex to implement under stress.

Simplicity also must be applied to your techniques and tactics.

If you’re a professional negotiator, you may have some favorite negotiating techniques that you believe will get you out of a confrontation. If you’re a martial artist, you’ll have some favorite fighting techniques and tactics.

The point is, when you are under stress you will have little time and little ability to think clearly about what you are going to do. That’s why many martial arts, including Neko Ryu Goshin Jitsu, stress training and drilling simple techniques and operating in a state of “mushin” or “no mind".

This means simply doing what you’ve practiced thousands of times and doing it immediately without thinking. When this happens, it’s fast, it’s decisive, it’s massive, it’s unified, it’s secure, it’s surprising, and it’s simple.

I’m still working on mushin. As I’ve said in earlier posts, I achieve it during countering techniques. Developing the ability to achieve mushin at will or at need is my single most important opportunity to improve my overall martial arts capability.

Nevertheless, both my training and my martial art emphases simple techniques, well drilled. My predetermined strategy is to counter-attack to eliminate the threat. And, I sometimes achieve mushin.

For the Principle of War: Simplicity I award my personal martial art style a “B”.

Now that I’ve analyzed my martial arts style through the lens of each of the nine Principles of War, in my next post I‘ll summarize what I’ve learned from this exercise. And, what it means for my future martial arts training.

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