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Great topic Spartacus!
I tend to vision close combat with trident and net when you get on, but that's just me going back to my former self - hopefully I was the guy in the stands with the laurel reef on my head drinking lots of Roman wine, eating grapes- you know.
Just as your namesake realized over two millenniums ago, the combat is not predictable as anything that can go wrong in its execution will. Those who shouldn't have won did, the weak often got the upper hand through blind luck, etc., etc. Thus every conceivable fight scenario was staged and rehearsed using all sorts of training aids, drills, and so on, in order to automate, if you will, reflexive responses to as many forms of the potential attack as possible.
The "Tueller Drill" is designed to expose the student to an understanding of spatial relationships and motor functionability with respect to deteriorating effects of survival stress on combat performance. Normally the student realizes that the 21 foot rule should be increased to 30 feet or more. This is a good thing and the more one trains with the onrushing opponent the smoother the defensive reactions becomes.
However, the prepared responder, one who is anticipating the attack (Condition Orange), trained or not will physically outperform the surprised (Condition White), trained victim during the crucial initial seconds of the encounter. That has real meaning when you consider 21 feet can be covered in less than two seconds.
Your combat experience has given you a clear understanding of your performance under an anticipated attack, and you handled it well. If you were not aware of this joker's presence and you turned around and met with an onrushing attack, I can assure you that your initial reactions would have been much different, as mine or anyone's would have been.
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