Right Side Of The Box
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When considering the right & left sides of the Box, all references are from the users point of view, not that of the opponent. The simplest way to visualize this is to consider a stick in each hand, and have them both pointing vertically upwards. Your right stick forms the right side of your Basic Box.
The right side is sometimes called the outside of the box. This reference is commonly used when one hand holds a weapon and the other is empty. For example when defending an attack to the right side of your body (e.g. a strike to Zone Four) it would be advisable to defend with your (weapon-holding) right hand. The body moves to bring the Right Side of the Box into the correct position - in effect, your right arm is simply creating the outside of your defensive Box. For these reasons, the above example is often known as an Outside Four.
When using the outside of the Box as a defence, a common beginners error is to reach out for an incoming strike - meaning that elbow discipline is lost, and the Box would collapse under greater pressure. It is also very simple to take advantage of such a positional error, either by changing the incoming strike's direction & target or, once contact has been made, softening the wrist & flowing around the too-long defence to strike the arm.
As with the other components, the Right Side of the Box may also be performed with two weapons in various combinations as needed.
Learn more about the other components of the Basic Box below;
- More about the left side of the box
- More about the roof/top of the box
- More about the base/bottom of the box
- More about the corners of the box, also known as the Areas Of Doubt
The Right Side of the Box is used in conjunction with the other components and the five striking zones as part of the entire Basic Box Theory. You can read more about this in other areas of this site.
