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Common Spear (Yari) Tactics - Avoiding a Bind by Retreating for Distance

By considering the extreme example of the spear we can better understand the situation of tall fighters who fight long.  By using the spear a short fighter can become tall, and a tall fighter can become short by facing it.  This is one of the reasons to maintain asymmetrical weapons within comprehensive schools who wish to remain relevant, even though they may seem to no longer hold a purpose.

The next common tactic is for the spear to retreat to keep the distance.  This is especially true when the spear encounters shorter weapons - I guess that if your advantage is the range, you want to maintain it.  Due to the body position (turned) and the foot position (apart) movement is often linear.

There are essentially two components to the retreat:

  1. The feet move the body backwards.
  2. The hands move the spear backwards.
Often when pressed both components are used - the goal of the spear is to:
  1. Avoid the bind.
  2. Keep the centre.
  3. Maintain the distance.
Often retreat is associated with 'losing' however there is a marked difference between retreat and collapse, and it is a perfectly acceptable tactic in the right situation.




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