the.com/counterattack
Let them commit first, then make their momentum the weapon that ends them.
means An offensive move launched right after absorbing or repelling an opponent's attack, turning their spent momentum into your opening.
from Straightforward compound: 'counter-' (from Latin contra, against) plus 'attack' (from French attaquer, originally a military term for assaulting a position). The word emerged in English as military vocabulary formalized around the 18th-19th centuries, naming a tactic far older than the term itself — striking back at an enemy just as their advance loses steam.
- origin
- chess and football gave it to everyday speech
- sports use
- breaks downfield right after opponent loses possession
- psychology
- overcommitment makes victims easiest to counter
- irony
- requires patience, the opposite of attacking