Quote:
Originally Posted by Lovewyrm
If you can do retreats, engages, and clean form attacks, every seconds, then I'd say you must be exceptionally good, having to not only change direction, on a second tact basis, with all the counter momentum that's added to it, but you also are in 'fight mode' against a potentially dangerous opponent.
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Have you ever watched cricket? From the time the bowler releases the ball, you have between about 0.5 and 0.9 seconds before it reaches the batter. In that time, batters regularly take a step forward, then rock back (or even take several steps down the pitch), and then take their bat back and then decide to play straight, horizontal, forward, or back (and many other combinations) and strike a ball moving somewhere between 80km/h - 140km/h (faster in some cases, but that's at the highest level and less common), dealing with it moving in the air, hitting a grass pitch and variable bounce, movement, and so on. 1 second is a lot long than you might imagine when you're well trained in various physical activities, particularly those which are almost reflexive. All the movements of a batter are (typically) decided after the ball is released. Sometimes it's premeditated, but generally they can see the line and length of the delivery and then react and move in that time frame. Sure, faster deliveries mean less reaction time, but they can still move, adjust, and hit or withdraw within a fraction of a second.
The complexities of two fighters moving are finer than the granularity of GURPS. A slight lead with a shoulder causes a reaction to sway or pivot which causes a counterreaction to step and use the other hand which causes a reaction to to try to block and reverse the sway and so on and so on. And as many people have mentioned many times, a hex of movement doesn't require a literal yard of movement all the time. It's an average that can reflect all those little nuanced movements that allow just enough space to help to avoid a blow but not so much you can't push back quickly to attempt to attack (perhaps to also face a retreat).