My early experience in combat and in combat training taught me many lessons; one is: if you’re late, you’re dead.
In the 1980s British Army, a lot of time was spent on making sure we got there on time, which meant being five minutes early and ready to go do our task. It’s a skill I still carry today, and it’s served me very well. Being on time has saved my mates and me many times, and you could say it’s a proven survival skill or life hack.
This can translate into many things in daily life. It can translate to arriving five minutes early to your practice session, being ready to go. It can also mean operating just a hair faster than your sparring partner and landing on them before they touch you.
Sword & Dagger training teaches this very quickly: if someone cuts you and you are late, you will never master the timing required to survive if the opponent is any good. Counterintuitively, you can slow things down and get the timing right and slowly, progressively speed up to full speed.
KORA Life hack: Be on time.