Do you think that a person can learn how the body reacts before any move and know what your opponet next attack will be?
Yep, Through Sparring. After a while you can read certain 'Intents' of your adversary, you also get a feel for what's coming next. You can also begin to read body language and the like. But this takes time and experience. A clever fighter can try to trick you by seeming to suggest one thing and then doing something else, therefore catching you 'Off guard', hence why you should always keep your guard up. I am not BTW saying that you can have any supernatural/ Chi Fu Jitsu whatsitpower, just that you develop heightened senses through experience. You can be 'Prescient', as in feeling the moment, not in the Barry white sort of way either...
Sure you can - this is one of the key secrets to interception in JKD. Of course - it is also possible to capitalise on an opponent who reads well.
How important do you think this is in fighting? I'm useless at it, and I think its why my fighting isn't as good as it could be.
Same here, it's kinda hard for me to read someone like that, I know quite a few people who are good at it... |Cain|
It's an experience thing, don't worry, I don't predict very well either and just try to block the strikes as they're coming in. It'll come with more sparring experience. Knowing the person you're fighting can help you predict the attacks a little though.
It works, but as pointed out, training, eperience and practice are what helps you develope it. Lots of exercises, one-step sparring, awareness training etc.. that can be used effectivelly to this end.
As I say you have to be careful, because a good fighter can make you mis-read their intent, actions, therefore suckering you into commiting yourself to one course of action, which in this case is possibly the wrong one. By either not being where you thought that they were gonna be, or by using a course of action that you weren't expecting. Often in these cases, maintaining a good guard can save your skin in a worst case scenario situation, where you have misjudged their actions or intent and find yourself at a disadvantage etc. Most of the Knockouts in Muay Thai fights come from the other Fighter mis-reading the intent of their adversary and having their Guard down at the crucial moment. Again it's just practice practice practice in Sparring. It doesn't have to be teeth on the floor 'Macho' sparring, just stuff that allows you to judge distance, timing, accuracy, power and to be able to practice your gamut of techniques etc and being loose, as in Relaxed. As you know, relaxation aids concentration, which aids cognitive skills. As does having balanced Blood sugar levels. I don't really know much about JKD, although I have sparred with a few guys who did it and were good fighters. They're main problem when it came to transfering their skills to a Muay Thai environment, was that they tended to use the lead leg side-kick alot, which we (Muay Thaisters), tend to walk straight through and Clinch with them. This seemed to shock them and the whole experience of Thai style Grappling/ Clinchwork seemed to stun them into a state of paralysis (Maybe we smelt funny up close?). They aren't alone in this because a lot of Muay Thai stylists tend to just flap about in the clinch until it's broken up by the Ref. Chap Ko skills being somewhat overlooked by some camps. A similar sort of problem that the San Shou/ San Shou fighters have in International competitions against Muay thai fighters. I am not coming on like the Incredible Hulk with that last (Walking thru sidekicks) statement BTW and obviously loads of people do JKD and all practice it from a different technical emphasis and i've just realised that I've gone a bit off Topic. Sorry about that.
Do you think that a person can learn how the body reacts before any move and know what your opponet next attack will be? ---------- the answer is yes. it's not hard to learn but the thing is u won't find any body switching in good fighters, i can read most of my freind but not my teacher, he's like fighting without his intent... -TkdWarrior-
If you mirror the movements of your opponent you will start to notice the things they do just before an attack and where abouts from their stance and shuffle when they like to initiate, you can then change the tempo or take half steps that will throw their rythmn and range off. SoKKlab is right though about sending out fake signals, I really likepushing in as if to go with a side kick on a cross step and then hitting the jab cross uppercut, because that head and hands drop a lot when people are trying to defend the lowline, especially if it is something you have been using quite a lot.
i think the main thing in this is when sparing spend some time not worrying about what you are going to do but look at what your opponent is doing especially when you are just starting out look for little signs that a certain technique is coming and see how this translates to other people.
