However the privilege of striking the first blow is a luxury we must usually grant to our attacker

“However, the privilege of striking the first blow is a luxury we must usually grant to our attacker, so in a sense there can be no strategic surprise in defense. But that does not mean that the defender cannot achieve tactical surprise. By doing what our assailant least expects us to do, we may throw him completely off. As we have seen, what he usually least suspects is instant, violent counterattack, so the principle of aggressiveness is closely tied to threat of surprise.”

Cooper, Jeff. Principles of Personal Defense. Paladin Press, 2006, loc. 49.

Surprise; confusing the mind of your enemy, or stimulating your enemy into a prescriptive physiological response by inflicting pain or the threat of damage at an unexpected and vulnerable spot; is the best way to grab the “action,” phase of the action/reaction cycle. Once you have your enemy reacting to what you’re doing, you have the speed advantage since a reaction can not be faster than the action which instigated it. [[As_I_will_mention_later_in_this_book_a_person_cannot_react_faster_than_another_person_can_act_So_I]] You also have the advantage toward winning since you will be forcing the opponent into a defensive posture, while you are acting offensively.