That's funny. Earlier today I was thinking out loud, and this is what I wrote:

It seems to me that the only way to defeat their plan is to not merely react to events, but to exploit their moves to deliver an effective counter punch.

Back when I use to fight a lot, I was mostly a defensive counter-puncher. I tried to make my opponent create opportunity while I gave up a little opportunity as possible. By defensive fighting I was able to exploit any opportunity my opponent gave up. I controlled the timing and distance aspect of the fight. Sometimes one has to feign an offense to cause the other person the react such that they create the opportunity to counter.

My teacher use to say, how do you get an animal into a trap? The obvious answer was to bait them into the trap.