Primary Response and Secondary Response

Offense and Defense. Attack and Counterattack. These basic concepts of combat are familiar to even the novice strategist. Perhaps too familiar. Have you ever taken the time to analyze the fundamental meaning of offense and defense?

Offense is generally viewed as forward movement against the opponent. Defense as the retreat and regrouping. Attacking quantifies the actions taken during the forward moving offense and counterattacking encompasses the actions that fortify the retreat.

At the beginner and intermediate stages of fighting, these concepts are useful for their simplicity. They give the fighter a clear sequence of actions necessary to defeat the opponent.

As a fighter becomes more skilled, he begins to find offense that moves backward and forward, that side steps and even stands still. He finds defense that doesn’t retreat.

To define the total concept of strategy, without the preconceived notions of offense and defense, think of it in terms of the primary response and the secondary response. The primary response is the segment of combat in which you neutralize your opponent. Neutralizing the opponent means destroying any advantage he has over you and establishing equal ground from which you can prevail. The primary response uses the conventional defensive tactic of stopping the advancing attack combined with the additional step of selecting a skill that will create a weakness in the opponent’s strategy for you to exploit.


When you have executed a successful primary response, the secondary response will follow naturally. It will take advantage of the neutralization and the vulnerability created by the primary response.

The primary response extinguishes the immediate threat posed by the opponent and the secondary response removes any further potential threat.

Fighting Strategy: Don't get Tricked into Changing Yours

Strategy goes forward regardless of what the opponent attempts, yet at the same time is sensitive to the changes of the confrontation. To execute properly, you must know when to stick to your plan and when to change course. This means not being deceived by your opponent’s strategy. Know what is real and what is an illusion created by your opponent to trick you.

Junsado Principles

Junsado principles are divided into two elements: tactics and strategy.

Junsado tactics are a balanced combination of power and deception. Power is created by taking advantage of the most direct line of force and pinpointing the most vulnerable targets. Deception is caused by using a variety of skills and approaches to the opponent.

Junsado strategy is composed of primary and secondary responses. The primary response is the way of neutralizing the opponent’s attack through one of four possible types of actions: evasion (emptying the space), parrying (redirecting the line of attack), blocking (obstructing the line of attack) or cutting (filling the space). The primary response is usually followed by the secondary response. The goal of the secondary response is to end the confrontation as efficiently as possible. Secondary response includes hand skills, elbow strikes, knee techniques, foot skills, takedowns, throws and joint immobilizations. The key to effective use of primary and secondary response skills is in the ability to select appropriate techniques according to the situation and opponent. This ability comes from practice and experience.

Strategic Planning: How to Trap your Opponent

In fishing, baiting a hook and reeling in an unsuspecting fish is generally preferable to chasing the fish around the ocean until you catch it. Unless you can swim better than the fish, you should stay in your boat and make him come to you. Strategy is the same. Why chase after your opponent and run into his territory if you can make him come to you?

Set traps that will lure your opponent into your psychological and physical territory. Give him an irresistible opportunity (the bait) and prepare a counterattack (the hook) when he takes your bait. When setting a trap, take care not to expose it too soon. If you show your trap before he has fully committed, he will withdraw.

Conversely, do not wait too long. If he bites and gets stung by your trap, he will be furious. If you do not stun him into inaction, he will redouble his resolve to beat you. Waiting too long will result in a ferocious counter by your opponent.

Timing is of the essence for baiting the opponent. Maintain your composure  and let the opponent rush into you. While he is busy moving, mentally step back and with full alertness, view him like a fish circling your hook.

Stay detached and wait for the perfect moment to hook him and attack. Maintain a relaxed, ready posture and mind. Pick your chance and finish him when you are at a strategic advantage.

What is Strategy?

Strategy is the map you follow through the combat process. It begins when you first see your opponent and ends when the opponent is subdued. Strategy is like a game plan or a play book from which you select your course of action according to the opponent and situation presented.

What is Fighting Strategy

Strategy is a plan or method for maximum utilization of power through long range planning and development to obtain a specific goal such as security or victory. Strategy begins long before the confrontation. It begins with your first day of training. If you train well, with a goal in mind, your strategy is already being carried out.

By seeing training as a part of your overall combat strategy, you conserve time and energy. You will be well conditioned to perform the movements required to implement your strategy. You also will have confidence in adapting your training to actual combat, because your training has been modeled after real combat all along.

Strategy is long range and intricate. It takes careful consideration and purposeful planning. Strategy allows you to maximize what you already have through skillful execution of your best weapons. Strategy should not be confused, however, with tactics. Tactics are the actual deployment of the physical skills you have prepared. Strategy is the map and tactics are the vehicle you use to navigate the course you have plotted. One without the other is like being lost without a map or having a map without viable transportation—useless.

How to Draw your Opponent into a Trap

Drawing is similar to baiting the hook in fishing. The fish sees only his lunch, not the hook that lies inside. To bait your opponent, intentionally expose a target for him to attack. This can be done by three methods. The first is to assume a vulnerable stance that leaves an opening. Try this in the beginning stages of the fight. Once you have shown your true stance, the opponent is unlikely to believe that it will change. The only exception to this is if you appear tired or hurt.

The second draw is to expose a vital point such as your head, and let the opponent come in for an attack. When he commits to a high attack, evade and respond with a counterattack to his low section. Use this formula for high-low, right-left and back-front attacks.

The final case is to step back and let your opponent step forward. As soon as he begins to step in, go in suddenly like a tidal wave, and overwhelm him. Drawing, like feinting, requires practice and deception to be effective.

Deception as a Fighting Strategy

analysis. Your opponent will not allow you to win. So strategy draws the situation into your favor by deceiving your opponent into thinking he can win where he cannot. You give him an apparently favorable situation when, in fact, you have set a trap to defeat him.

Deception has many aspects. It can be small scale or large scale. It can be obvious or unseen. Sometimes the most obvious deception is the best. Imagine an opponent who rushes into the fight without any apparent plan or apprehension. He appears to be nothing but a wild bull on a rampage. Immediately you think, What a fool, I can effortlessly defeat him. He has no skill or strategy. I can outsmart him easily.

But maybe you have already fallen victim to his strategy. Perhaps making you think that he has no strategy is his strategy. While you plot how to defeat him, he will overwhelm and immobilize you. His strategy is to make you overconfident. While you are thinking, he is fighting.

This is the ultimate strategy; one that is not apparent until the fight is over.

Becoming a Balanced Fighter

Combat is a series of visible and concealed maneuvers whose goal is to destroy the opponent and bring victory. The visible maneuvers include planning, practice and the physical actions you take to attack the opponent and
defend yourself during combat. The concealed maneuvers are the psychological preparation and the covert strategies and tactics you employ in the fight.

A combination of both concealed and visible maneuvers is necessary to defeat an opponent. If you are physically very strong and well conditioned, but uninformed regarding fighting strategy, you will defeat unskilled opponents easily though brute force, but you will be outwitted by skilled tacticians. Conversely, if you have a brilliant tactical mind, but spend little time for perfecting your physical weapons, you will have trouble implementing your brilliant strategy.

In both cases, unbalanced training leads to defeat. To be successful, combine the tools of combat skills and physical training with a blue print of well-planned and adaptable strategy. Imagine having a blueprint for a beautiful house and not having any tools or lumber with which to build it. All you have is a drawing. It
has no practical function unless you act on it. Or what about having many tools and materials without knowing where to begin building. The chances of ending up with a dream house are small.

The same is true for combat skills and strategy. Know where you are going, how you will get there and what tools you will need along the way.

Fighting a Stronger Opponent

By nature, an opponent will rarely be both extremely strong or extremely quick. Assess which characteristic is predominant in your opponent. If he relies primarily on his strength, counter him with speed and smarts. Avoid his full power attacks by evasion, deflection and intelligence. Frustrate his attack by striking in sudden unexpected ways to soft, weak targets like the eyes, groin, or throat. Make him doubt the effectiveness of his power by avoiding his blows and hurting him with quick, sharp strikes. When he is surprised or confused, use
your best attack and commit to finishing the fight immediately.

Key points against a stronger opponent:
1. Use speed and smarts to avoid power blows
2. Frustrate with sharp, surprise attacks

Conventional Fighting Strategies: Outdated?

There is no absolute formula for victory in combat. There are conventional and unconventional strategies that have been tested and used for thousands of years, but none of them is fail-safe. Conventional strategies are the most proven, but they are also the best known. They are susceptible to counter tactics by skilled opponents.

However, you must understand the conventional strategies to prepare for combat. Begin from the conventional and adapt your own style and character to create a unique style that is suitable for you.

This is not to say that you should totally dispose of the conventional tactics and strategies of combat. They are very valuable and will make up the foundation of your training. They are not, however, the sole means by which victory may be achieved.

There are endless variations on conventional skills that can be created and used in unique ways by individual fighters according to their own personal strengths and weaknesses. Every individual is unique and should look for the advantages that their uniqueness presents.