Shock absorber

grabcad

The elementary structure of an oscillation controller is essentially this: it uses compressed air in sealed units to compress, store potential energy, and when necessary release this stored force. This makes use of the basic principles of mechanics where kinetic energy has the capacity to push against another entity's equilibrium thereby creating friction as the entities are compelled apart, leading to gradual decrease of energy transferred due to dissipation across different systems. As compression in air-based shock absorption mechanisms involves moving air and mass, the potential difference across units becomes directly related with speed changes; which when increased lead to higher resistance - therefore effectively acting as an oscillation regulator. So you see the primary functionality here does involve pushing away, thereby controlling motion.