The OODA Loop and the Half-Beat

Re:The OODA Loop and the Half-Beat by hosh on Tuesday March 17, 2020 @09:33PM (#22612710)

You're not "changing" your own OODA loop. I think you are misunderstanding OODA. Your understanding of it is precisely what that article was saying is ... oversimplistic at best. One of the ways to beat someone with a faster OODA loop is to change conditions in a way where small divergances with what is observed and what is actual will start to stack on top of each other. Once the opponent starts panicking and flailing, you can lead him around pretty easily.

Col. Boyd wasn't just talking about fighter pilots. Much of what he was talking about have a lot of relevance to fighting in general. I find a lot of skilled martial artists breaking someone's tempo. Musashi and Sun Tzu have talked about it in each in their own way.

Put it this way. I have a friend who regularly beats people on first person shooters. He does not have fast reflexes. He just knows how people think and react and can manipulate them.

But I don't really care. It isn't as if I were going to go out fighting someone seriously anytime soon. And if I were, I wouldn't want to teach my adversary how to use OODA properly.

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Re:The OODA Loop and the Half-Beat by marcus_holmes on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @05:31AM (#22614917)

This. I've applied Musashi's principles in competitive re-enactment combat successfully. Faster is generally better, and there's a point where a raw speed difference is enough to win any fight. But manipulating the tempo of the fight so you can hit them on the off-beat is definitely a thing, and that might involve slowing down a bit to manipulate that tempo. Which is exactly what TFA was saying.

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