Fight The Next Battle

When you are practising in a bout, do you try the same things over again or do you try different techniques? In line with the previous post we tend to not only fence familiar people but we repeat familiar actions. Do not fight the last battle over again, change your tactics and try something new. This is different to repeatedly practising a specific technique to improve, there is nothing wrong with that. But what you must avoid is stagnation of thought and tactics through just mindlessly repeating yourself. Just because something worked once doesn't mean it will work again. Look at the French and the Maginot Line in 1940. Solid immobile defensive lines had been de rigeur during the Great War so the French built a line of forts and bunkers on their border with Germany. They hadn't been at war with the Belgians so they didn't build on that border. Unfortunately this plan went horribly wrong for a number of reasons.... a) the Germans invaded Belgium first and circumvented the line b) they had also invented airborne glider troops and paratroopers so just dropped on top of the forts and c) all the guns pointed toward Germany making the whole thing useless if out-flanked. A classic case of not adapting to the next likely battle. Don't become a Maginot Line yourself!