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Reader question: Please explain “striking distance” in this sentence: There are more than 80 beaches on this island, so you are always within striking distance of the sea. My comments: This is one of the more striking (unusual but interesting and impressive) examples of how to speak good, idiomatic English, something I always encourage Chinese learners to do. Here striking distance means simply a short distance, a distance so short it’s as if the sea is within reach. Yes, within reach. Reach? Reach refers to how far you can stretch your arm to touch something. Boxers, for example, often talk about things like that, like, so and so having a long reach. That simply means a boxer has particular long arms. A long reach gives the boxer an advantage for obvious reasons, as it enables him to hit an opponent before his opponent can touch him. Muhammad Ali, for example, has something of a 10-inch reach advantage over Joe Frazier, one of his greatest rivals. Because of that, Ali liked to hit Frazier in the head whereas Frazier always liked to zero his way in and work on the body. Frazier had to – he had to step forward so that his opponent is within striking (hitting) distance, but he often had to suffer a series of jabs and punches to the head on the way in. Here, you see, within striking distance means simply within reach. Your opponent has to be within your reach, or arm’s length for you to launch an attack, or to strike a blow, as they say. | 
