Controlling the Timing & Landing More Strikes

Ok guys, here’s a quick tip to control the timing and land more strikes. I’m talking about when you’re on your feet here, not so much when you’re grappling. Here it is…

Add more fakes, setups and rapid succession movements (i.e. fake punches, fake head & body movements and misdirecting footwork) into your training and fighting. 

Does that sound too simplistic to you to really bother with? Then think about this saying I learned years ago….

“The more of your movements that an opponent has to recognize, decipher and make a decision on, the longer it will take him to respond to those movements.”

That means that if you do multiple rapid succession movements, your opponent has to SEE them, DECIPHER which ones are real attacks and which are fake, then DECIDE what his response will be.

That’s confusing and a lot of work (relatively speaking) for your opponent, and it can slow his reaction time to a crawl and cause openings he’d otherwise never give you. 

In my experience, when multiple fast movements are done in quick succession, it’s almost impossible to tell which one is intended to be a fake attack, and which one is intended to be a real attack. That forces an opponent to have to GUESS which is which, and he’s likely to guess wrong.  

He’ll often try to block an attack that was only a fake, counter an attack at the wrong time, or just blindly throw an un-timed attack hoping to hit. Either way, his timing and movement is going to be way out of sync, leaving you openings and opportunities to land a clean attack. 

I’ve also found that rapid succession movements, since they are so hard to interpret, will often cause an opponent to just NOT attack when he otherwise would, due to the feeling that he’s not in control of the timing.

Regardless,  it works in your favor. That’s why using rapid succession feints and setups before an attack allows your attacks to land more often than simply throwing an attack with no setup. 

Keep training!
Bob