I never have seen the point of defined and planned out moves in sword combat. They often don't fit whatever situation you need, and your opponent my know the same ones and thus be able to anticipate it and destroy you.
There's a similar problem in martial arts. Today Conway and I were practising with this kid, and he was trying to teach Conway how to block a straight punch. Conway was rubbish at it, and pointed out that even if he could do it properly, what if the oponent did a right hook? To which the kid said ... 'Well ... he might ... but then he also might do a straight punch. So you should learn this one.' Hmm. The instructor guy is a bit better though - when I ask him a 'what if' question, he'll go 'You'd do
this (demonstrates with random victim, too fast for me to follow) - but we'll be covering that later.' Leaving me hoping I won't get in a fight until we've covered it, else I'll be standing there saying to my attacker 'Stand there a minute ... I'm trying to remember how to wrist-chuck you ...' lol.
And apparently, the answer to 'what if my opponent also knows JuJitsu' is: a) be quicker and better at it than he is, or b) run away very fast.
