No, not fainting. Oh I suppose that would work, pretend to faint and then kick their legs out from under them when they step forward to check whether you're ok. Though I don't think it has much use outside dojo sparring.

Students are told "look for an opening" then "create an opening". "Punch to head level to draw their guard up then go in under it" and that sort of thing. But what about creating an opening in your defence? It's not really an opening if you know it's there and have a plan to deal with the probable attacks that could seek to exploit what your opponent perceives to be an opening.

I recall one time raising my guard when sparring someone with a bit of a reputation for landing hard strikes to "teach" people not to let their guard down. We've all seen the sort, they overpower people where they think they can and stay defensive when they think the other person is better. They told me I had opened up, and then the next time I did it they thundered in with a kick. Except when they did I was no longer there but moving to receive the kick and counter.

I thought of this as I was reading an article about not giving away too much in a confrontation - not showing all your cards. Not exactly the same thing but sort of related, I think. Anyhow the article went along the lines of a strategy that was used was that, after all attempts to avoid a confrontation had failed and the aggressor was just looking for a fight, the guy defending took up a sort of dojo sparring posture which left his head exposed as his ruse. The aggressor sneered before barrelling in to clobber what he might have thought was "some sort of karate/kungfu wannabe". Anticipating that the most likely attack was to be a strike to the head, but ready to deal with something other, the defender in this case moved and received the punch while striking in return, gave the arm a twist which apparently did something to the shoulder and then kept going and out the door, which was the original aim when he was trying to avoid anything physical.

I just thought it was interesting.


Mick

Martial Arts/Self Defence has alot of deception in it. Bruce Lee once said that he is not that fast, but he knows how to be deceptive (or something along those lines). Although, I tent to disagree and say that he was extremely fast.

Anyway, if you were ever caught in a situation where you would have to defend yourself and you were with a friend, the worst thing they could say out loud would be "Be careful, he does karate". Surprise would therefore eliminated leaving you with having to proove that you do know karate! Gulp!

In sparring timing/speed/reactions are pretty much key. A funny thing started at I went through my red belt stages, I started to instinctively react and move with out thinking.... Some martial artists once said that they wanted to master the art of fighting, without fighting. A bit like driving, an experienced driver when going in a straight line, is not actually keeping the steering wheel dead centre, we are making minute adjustments to cater for the small bumps etc in the road. We are driving.... and we dont know it.

Fighting/sparring needs to be the same. This can only be achieved over time and practice.

Have you ever found yourself lately catching things faster as you have dropped it? Is this a sign that your reactions are improving? Well, I kinda believe it is.

As I graded for my brown belt the other day, I was able to see alot of the strikes coming from the Sensei's. The biggest problem was, I was so shattered that I didnt have the energy to lift my arms anymore to block, some I did. Some I simply got out of the way. And I got out of the way of a couple of muasha-gere's coming from a 2nd Dan. I was impressed...until he started smashing me a millions times in the gut with his punches! hahah!

I have verred off the point a little, but your move could be a little elaberate and probably shouldnt be used in dojo sparring...self defence yes...as long as you can pull it off successfully and show how deceptive you really can be! :-)