That's fascinating how you present that. It really makes sense. In fencing, I have a different philosophy for each weapon. Sabre is my primary weapon and I'm very aggressive, always trying to pressure my opponent into making a mistake. I'm on the attack 80% of the time, but much of my attack strategy is to force my opponent into a bad attack, which I can parry/riposte. In foil, the male captain of our team and I have this rivalry. He is very aggressive and taller so I adopt a more defensive philosophy, using counter attacks like Passata Soto and Inquartata, ducking under or sidestepping his powerful attacks. I am also able to get in his head a lot and keep him off balance. Subconsciously, I'll stand taller and drop into an octave guard with foil low and "convince" him to take a highline attack or I'll square off, bringing my left shoulder forward and offer that as a target for me to sidestep. If I get ahead after a couple of successful counterattacks, he tends to lose focus and I can be more aggressive.

In kendo, I am up for Godan (5th degree black belt) soon and "seme" is the spiritual force that the judges are looking for. It's a sense of spiritual energy that wears down your opponent and forces him to make mistakes. This can be mental or physical pressure that gets them to make a bad attack or flinch, giving you the opportunity to strike. Kiai or a loud shout is also used to get the opponent to freeze or flinch. I've had a little bit of experience with sword and shield when I was an SCA groupie. In kendo, they say the sword is the shield and much of the techniques are timed countercuts or angling the blade during parries to deflect the cut and create the opening or having the parry be your strike so that your cut lands just after deflecting the attack suck as in suriage men or suriage kote where the your parry is practically the cut to the head or wrist.

Having taken aikido for so long, it was hard for me to get into the aggressive nature of kendo. I was very hard to hit, but I sat around a lot and just maneuvered for advantage, wearing down my opponent in the process. Kendo is an aggressive art, attack being 75% of the equation. Kendo is also more linear with less lateral maneuvering. I was always just stepping off the line of attack. I'm making the transition, forcing myself to embrace the forward thinking philosophy.