Being defensive can be counterproductive, particularly if you see the attack coming and you wait to respond. Your best advantage may be to react first. Look for your opening — in a real-life scenario, your window of opportunity will be small your opponents are spontaneous and unpredictable and you might not get a second chance.
Let’s think for one moment that action is faster than reaction. So the question remains, why wait for the subject with the clenched fist to hit us first? Why not be on the offensive and react first. Would you wait for a bad guy to go to his trunk and get his gun and shoot you? If he told you that’s what he is planning? You’d be crazy.
When you know that you have exhausted all of your verbal judo skills, why wait for him/her to attack you? It will be to your advantage to react first.