How are they able to overpower powerful blast if they hit it from the side?

[Seekeroftruth]

So in both Bojack and Broly's 1st movie, I notice that Piccolo was able to stop an attack from both villains via firing his energy attack and hitting their own from the side. And both attacks were meant to kill Gohan, with enough power to do so. I'm curious as to why is energy attacks in dragon ball seem to have less durability and can be overcome easier if they are hit from the side rather than head on.

Example, Piccolo saves gohan from a projectile attack meant to kill him by hitting the beam from the side.



Example 2, Piccolo stops Broly's attack by hitting the energy attack from the side rather than head on.

https://youtu.be/KHboNKkugBI

[dbgtFO]

It's just simple physics, the blasts are incredibly powerful yes, but that power is only moving forward, so hitting it from the side, where there's no force (aside from the blast's energy) acting in that direction, will be far more impactful than trying to stop it/derail it from the front.
Piccolo also did the same during 3rd form Freeza vs Gohan.

[Kendamu]

It's literally the same as parrying a punch

Learning how to parry a punch can be of great value because it's a good way to defend yourself in a fight. The word "parry" comes from fencing. In fencing, to parry an attack means to deflect the attack by using your sword to divert the opponent's sword in another direction.

In boxing, parrying is a basic yet effective defensive move that uses your opponent's momentum against him. A lot of boxing experts and also fighters say parrying is a superior defensive move to blocking because it offers more protection while creating better counter opportunities using your opponent's energy.

With this in mind it makes absolute sense how parrying a blast works