In all combat sports I observe the iron law of offensive OUTPUT – IN ANY COMPETITIVE MATCH WHERE YOUR OPPONENT IS ATTACKING YOU AS YOU ATTACK HIM – YOUR OFFENSIVE OUTPUT WILL BE DIRECTLY PROPORTIONAL TO YOUR DEFENSIVE confidence. When I coach athletes I am not nearly as interested in how good their offense looks when they drill as I am in the question of whether their defensive skills MATCH AND INTEGRATE WITH THEIR DEFENSIVE SKILLS – FOR ONLY WHEN THEIR CONFIDENCE IN THEIR DEFENSE IS HIGH WILL THEY ACTUALLY USE THEIR OFFENSIVE SKILLS WHEN THE OPPORTUNITY ARISES. Every day I see athletes with fine looking offense in drilling, but when the moment of truth comes and it's time to pull the trigger, they shy away and hold back. Why? Because they know if the attack should fail their suspect defensive skills will be exposed, so they stay in a safe zone and will not take a risk. ALL OFFENSE CREATES RISK. ONLY DEFENSE MITIGATES THAT RISK and thus ironically, DEFENSIVE skill IS THE SEED FROM WHICH ALL OFFENSE SPRINGS. Work hard in your fundamentals of defense. Only when you are defensively sound will you ever actually show what you are offensively capable of.
