Sen

The word “Sen” is of the Japanese language and has multiple uses and translations. The word “Sen” as we use it in these combat concepts, means “before” OR “ahead of”. “Sen-te (先手)” means “initiative” or “first move” and indicates an attack. The work seems to have been shortened to “Sen” by those who’ve coined the phrases. These concepts have been used and mentioned by notable martial artists such as Miyamoto Musashi, Jigoro Kano, and Morihei Ueshiba. It is used heavily in the arts of Kendo, Judo, Karate, and Aikido. As mentioned before, even if not spoken of in Japanese terms, these concepts are used in all other martial arts including BJJ, Boxing, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai, Krav Maga, Systema, Wing Chun, and Kung Fu.

Sen is one of the most crucial elements to understand regarding warfare and martial arts practicality. It is important to not only understand these concepts, but also how and when to utilize them. All martial arts, both sport and defense oriented, the concepts of Sen are recognized and incorporated. At the most basic level, it’s about taking initiative at different points of conflict; before, during, or after an attack from an adversary and taking advantage of controlling the timing of either parties attacks. There are three Sen concepts: Go No Sen, Sen No Sen, and Sen Sen No Sen. We will discuss the differences and advantages each situation provides, especially when it comes to reaction and “timing” of attacks. Before we can fully comprehend the idea of Sen, there are three fundamentals we must first shed some light on and they are Ma-ai (my-eye), Attacks, and Strikes. While explaining the conditions of Sen, these terms will need to be understood and defined. After reading this blog, put this all into practice as much as possible.

Ma-ai Principle

Ma-ai is the distance between two opponents. Ma-ai determines if you are either in jeopardy of being struck or safe from an opponents effective attack. Mai-ai depends solely on one main factor and that is weapon range. A weapon is anything used to strike you such as fists, elbows, feet, head, baton, sword, knife, gun, lead pipe, rope, or the candle stick… in case you didn’t have a Clue. Every weapon has a range when also considering the arm and leg length of the wielder. Once we properly gauge this distance, we can determine how close someone can get without actually being able to strike you. Another minor factor that must also be considered is speed. The speed of an attacker can increase their range coverage. If you know they are fast, increase your distance.

Safe distancing is very difficult to determine with new attackers. Working with a wide variety of people and weapons, over time, will train your brain to make these minor calculations faster and more accurately. Training this fundamental will not only protect you from getting hit or grabbed, but also condition your flinch response and increase confidence levels. If someone is outside your Ma-ai and throws a punch, you’ll learn to not react since the strike will not be effective. Jabs in boxing are a great example. Jabs rarely hit, but they can sometimes create a flinch response and kuzushi to get off another strike. But if you don’t respond to a jab that won’t land or won’t be very effective, you can stay more calm and continue assessing the situation.

Ma-ai also works in the opposite direction. How close can you get to your opponent to be able to strike them effectively? We are talking mere inches when it comes to effective distance versus safe or ineffective distance. It’s vital to learn how to sense the exact distance needed to make an effective strike and to know your capabilities. Why is this important? Because if your reach is longer, for example, you’ll want to take advantage and stay out of their effective striking range while still being able to deploy a powerful strike of your own.

Ma-ai indicates the effective distance of an attack or strike. Ideally, attack at an angle or distance in which you can effectively strike and they cannot, such as from behind.

Once Ma-ai is broken, this means the opponent’s body has entered and compromised your safe space. Attacks will now be increasingly more difficult to gauge and defend against. Maintaining good Ma-ai will increase reaction time. This is because more body movement must occur to break your Ma-ai. To prove this, get within 1-foot of someone and have them slap your head as fast as they can. Then have them do it from 4-feet away. What is giving you more success? The extra 3-feet of space to analyze the attacker’s movements, trajectory, and speed to evade properly.

Finding Your Ma-ai

To find your Ma-ai, start by taking a stance facing another person. Next, both participants will extend an arm and fingers. Get close enough so that the finger tips are at the tip of their nose without leaning forward. This is as close as you want anybody… This is YOUR proper offensive Ma-ai. You will probably feel uncomfortable and that’s expected.

Now move apart several feet more and one at a time, slowly approach the other just until you begin to feel uncomfortable (the feeling of not being able to react in time if they launched a quick random attack). This will be your defensive Ma-ai for THIS specific partner. Now try this with people of varying sizes as well as with different weapons to become more accurate and confident with Ma-ai.

Attacking

We are often taught that when someone “attacks” you, they are throwing an insult, punch, kick, or ninja star. Although true, attacks are not only objects or words directed to harm you physically or mentally. Attacks are also about intent. When someone makes an approach with an intent or gesture indicating harm, it is considered assault. When someone assaults you, it’s an attack. This is why brandishing a firearm or knife can be an assault. *Disclaimer – do not use this blog as a legal defense

The definition of assault varies by jurisdiction, but is generally defined as intentionally putting another person in reasonable apprehension of an imminent harmful or offensive contact. Physical injury is not required. 

Legal Information Institute by Cornell Law School

The main definition we use for attack is when an attacker intends to break Ma-ai and enter past your safe-distance. As a hostile approaches me, I consider this an attack and either engage or regain proper Ma-ai to defend myself. Thee doth not has’t to be punching, waving a bodkin, ‘r swingeth thy Mjölnir at me to beest considered an attacketh. Once I fear or sense any intent of harm from another, I enter defense-mode and adjust accordingly. Never let an aggressor enter your Ma-ai just because they are not performing the typical actions of an attacker. Once they are within your Ma-ai, they can launch attacks with more speed and accuracy giving you much less time to assess and react. Stranger-danger. Check out this video to see why distance is important:

Striking

Striking can be a form of attack. Simply, strikes will be defined as using a weapon, as mentioned above, to physically strike an opponent. Literally any body part or object can be a physical weapon. Strikes, however, are only classified as attacks if they are close enough to be used with effectiveness. They only become attacks when the attacker enters someone’s Ma-ai. Once inside Ma-ai, strikes can deployed quickly, precisely, and with great effect. The actual events of swinging a bat or a performing a spinning back-fist are always strikes but not always considered attacks.

The Sen Concepts

1. Go No Sen (After the Attack)

A natural and commonly performed concept, Go No Sen is reacting and defending an attack AFTER it happens. It’s the typical, “block the punch” or “get out of the way” response. An example we use in Aikido is when someone tries to grab your wrist, you will react until after it connects. We all know this concept well. Our body’s natural response is to protect itself from harm so it will evade or block incoming attacks once it recognizes potentially harmful stimuli. As a completely reactive concept, you must train yourself and become confident with your skills to employ this concept on purpose.

Advantages

When comfortable with Ma-ai and your own abilities, performing this concept can allow you to draw-in your opponent. Opening your guard can lure your rival into your Ma-ai allowing you to parry and counter-strike. Allowing an opponent to casually enter your Ma-ai may give them excessive confidence and this CAN drop their guard. Take advantage of their invaded Ma-ai, hesitation, or ego to strike hard and fast. If they enter with a strike, block and/or move off-line and perform a counter-attack or evasion. The average person will strike you down where you stand. They have no idea IF, HOW, WHEN, or WHERE you will move or block. Their only goal is to make you ugly. That focus and potential tunnel vision allows you to move anywhere the strike isn’t going. It can be very intimidating to attack someone and realize they are not backing down…

Remember, once within your Ma-ai, it’s an attack. If you feel in danger, you can and should protect yourself. Just because they aren’t actively striking does not mean you are not in immediate danger as strikes and grabs can be very quick and unpredictable.

In martial arts like Aikido and Ju-jutsu, we sometimes welcome this kind of energy as it can be redirected or managed. Proximity is important when considering any grappling or throwing art because the closer they are, the easier it is to perform certain techniques while avoiding strikes. Also, in weapon-based arts such as the Samurai Sword, luring the opponent into your space and parrying their attack followed by a counter-strike is common practice.

Disadvantages

As someone enters your Ma-ai, you invite the opportunity for the attacker to connect with a strike or grab. Sucker-punches, headbutts, uppercuts, and straight-jabs are common and very difficult to perceive and defend against. As they get close enough to strike, our reaction time decreases exponentially with every centimeter. Reacting too late or too early can be detrimental. It could get you hit or allow them to track you.

No matter who you are in this beautiful world of ours, if someone is 1-foot away from you, no amount or level of training will be enough to evade or block a random strike. If you can, then consider this a challenge. Distance is key. Controlling the distance controls the damage and determines reaction time.

2. Sen No Sen (Attack the Attack)

This concept is what martial arts is all about. Attacking the attack. By now, you’ve discovered that an attack is not just when someone performs a strike, it can also be the movements leading up to the strike. These movements, especially as they enter your Ma-ai, are what we are attacking, not always the individual strikes or grabs. As mentioned in Go No Sen, strikes can be fast and unpredictable, so how can you punch at the same time they do if you don’t know exactly WHEN they will launch the strike? Instead, as the person initiates an attack via their body movements and enter Ma-ai, that is when we counter-attack. This is why Ma-ai is so important as it provides ample time to react. In Go No Sen, when someone grabs you, you will react after the grab takes connects. In the concept of Sen No Sen, as they are reaching for the grab, we enter towards the grab essentially intercepting their attack. As a demonstration, try to grab someone’s wrist while holding still and pull them close to you. Then try to grab it and pull them close to you as they randomly enter towards you. In this experiment, you should discover that it disrupts your calculations of when to grip and pull. This is Sen No Sen.

Bruce Lee’s martial art, Jeet Kune Do, is literally named after this exact concept. It means, “The Way of the Intercepting Fist”. He exclaims that in order for someone to attack another, they must first approach their target and with that creates an opening for an attack of our own. Prime examples and further explanation of this are in the video below, if interested:

As the enemy approaches and closes the distance, they are doing so with the exact speed, trajectory, and power needed to launch an effective strike. The brain performs these calculations based on all available stimuli and signals various body parts and organs to engage. Now we have everything in motion, we now have momentum. When we enter at the same time they begin their attack, they must now alter their course of action by re-analyzing and re-calculating the new stimuli. Distance, speed, and trajectory has all abruptly changed. Momentum will have to be neutralized prior to making the exact adjustments required to attack properly. This will reduce their response time. Additionally, it places the attacker from offense to defense; you cannot win by only playing defense.

Humans cannot multi-task as well as we think. We cannot both commit 100% to an attack while simultaneously defending a random strike. For example, try punching a punching-bag as hard as you can and have someone randomly strike you at a random time. It’s guaranteed that once the random strike is recognized, all resources will be diverted from attack to defend. You will either eat the strike and punch the bag hard or you will evade or block the strike thus compromising the power of your strike to the bag.

Advantages

The attacker’s reaction time is decreased by adding a speed variable which must be analyzed mid-attack. Meanwhile, you can launch your attack with confidence and good technique. It will disrupt their timing of events, as mentioned in the “grab the wrist” example earlier, rendering it less effective. If their goal is to grab you and pull you in, give them what they want but earlier than expected to throw them off and set kuzushi. Don’t you hate it when dinner guests come over earlier than expected and dinner isn’t even ready yet?

Also, this will actually increase your speed… sort of. If we wait for an attack, as in Go No Sen, there are simply too many variables to protect from and the chances of performing the exact block for an exact strike is extremely difficult. By learning various Sen No Sen tactics via “universal” blocking and entering methods (to be covered another time), we prompt them to become reactive instead of proactive. This means their strikes will be less accurate, less powerful, slower, and more predictable. This will reduce the stress of worrying about which strike is coming or its effectiveness.

When closing the distance quicker than the attacker anticipates and encouraging them to attack a certain way, you will appear and react faster.

In Aikido, we practice some techniques from an arm grab. As we begin, the attacker will grab and we will learn the technique from a static position. As we advance, the uke will grab and pull you closer. We want to start using Sen No Sen to initiate movement towards the grab and work the technique while in motion. If we do not use Sen No Sen, they will almost certainly be successful in grabbing and controlling you.

Disadvantages

As you close the distance, you are calculating movements based on your perception of stimuli presented by the attacker. If their speed or trajectory alters, you will then be in a similar situation and they will then be performing Sen No Sen on you. This is where is starts to resemble a chess match or a poker game. If you are not confident with a multitude of split-second decisions and changes, Sen No Sen may not be for you just yet. Ma-ai of both parties will be compromised leaving both vulnerable.

3. Sen Sen No Sen (Attack Before the Attack)

What if you could control the timing of someone else’s actions? If you were able to better predict someone else’s actions in a fight, would you take advantage of it? In Sen No Sen, we interrupted the opponents actions to modify their attack mid-way through. The instant they actually began their attack was unpredictable but since we were at a safe Ma-ai, we are able to gauge that movement and enter at almost the same time. In Sen Sen No Sen, however, we actually initiate an attack by moving towards our opponent BEFORE they initiate an attack.

Now why would we ever do such a thing? So that we prompt a counter-attack on our own terms. When someone else initiates an attack, the ONLY thing we can do is respond to the stimuli our senses detect. If we are too slow or are fooled, we may get struck. Also, remember what humans and animals do, naturally, when they are attacked? They protect and defend themselves. So when we initiate an attack by simply MOVING towards our opponent and enter their Ma-ai,we do so with the expectation of a reaction. This means that based on how fast we enter and what we are doing while entering, we can partly control HOW and WHEN they will react. As with the arm grab examples used in the other two concepts, instead of waiting for the grab or moving in to meet the grab, we put out our hand to give them something to focus on and grab. Once we walk towards someone with our hand towards them, that is the attack, they defend by grabbing and pulling. The only difference this time is that we will more precisely predict when the grab will happen allowing us to perform technique quicker. as opposed to reacting to their attack as we do in Go No Sen and Sen No Sen.

A quick WWYD example based on your own personal experience (attacker size and experience is that of your own):

You are unarmed. As I approach you with hands down, you will have two options: engage in physical conflict with me or maintain a safe distance. Quickly, if you decide to engage, what would you do to stop me??? Think about it...... Okay, so I'm going out on a limb here and going to say you either put a hand or fist in the face area, went for a take-down, or a shot to the crotch. Why did I gravitate towards those specific options? Because they will be the most effective in stopping someone. Attacking the face, crotch, or take-downs are the most common counter-attacks used by even the most untrained individuals. I bring this up because it's predictable that people will default to what works. Sen Sen No Sen depends on this a great deal and utilizes the predictability of typical defensive maneuvers as an advantage. 

Now as you train this concept, it’s vital to learn decent defenses to each of these attacks as well as many others. Once you know how to block, parry, or prevent a variety of attacks, the rest is about reaction time. By initiating the first attack, however, you will prompt the other to make one of these moves (hopefully) but the timing is controlled by you. Your speed of entering will let you know, more precisely, when that defensive reaction will likely happen. And if you enter with your hands up, for example, like a boxer, the chances of them throwing a punch is dramatically lower since your defense for that is already up. If they still want to punch your face in, then you’re all set If they don’t, it may prompt them to go for a lower-body attack such as a hit to the crotch or a take-down.

A prime example of when we would use this in a real-world scenario is when you believe you are out-matched such as in randori (continuous attacking or multiple attackers). If surrounded by 2 or more foes, you will automatically be at a disadvantage because someone may always be out-of-sight. Therefore, you must control your position so that all adversaries are within view. Therefore, you must take charge and go where you need to in order to see them all. The problem is… someone will most likely be in your way. So attack them and force them to respond on your terms for a better outcome. One attacker is difficult enough. Multiple attackers is much harder and almost certainly requires Sen Sen No Sen.

Advantages

Based on your speed and actions, you can control when and how they will counter-attack to your entering movements. This allows you to to “better” predict their actions thus making your response time much faster. Additionally, initiating an attack puts the other person on defense. You cannot win a bout without offensive tactics.

Disadvantages

Once again, we are entering into someone else’s Ma-ai. If your approach is miscalculated, you will end up on the defensive. Just as you can alter your trajectory and speed, so can they. As you attack, they can perform Sen No Sen on you. Playing chicken is always a toss-up.

Martial Arts and Sen

During practice, try to always take note of these Sen concepts. While performing drills, paired exercises, techniques, etc., experiment with each concept throughout to teach your mind and body how to gauge distances, speed, and trajectories. Where are they aiming? How much movement is necessary to maintain Ma-ai? Are you too slow, jumping the gun, anticipating, predicting, controlling, or getting hit? Tighten up your Ma-ai and train yourself to know exactly what it takes to apply these concepts and distinguish the situations in which they are warranted the best. Whether you study Aikido, Karate, or the Samurai Sword, you can use these concepts to overcome and neutralize an opponent on your terms, not theirs.

As always, remember to gain knowledge through multiple sources. Obtaining different viewpoints on a subject is optimal for training and understanding. Feel free to investigate these concepts further on YouTube or read this article of Go No Sen from Stanley Prenin at AikidoJournal.com, this article from the-dojo.org, or this article from an Iaido school in Singapore.