Martial Arts Defense: How to Fake

Video Transcript

"Hi everybody I'm John Graden from the Martial Arts Teacher's Association. Today we are talking about one of my all time favorite subjects. It is one of the most misunderstood subjects in all the fight game and I'm going to share it with you and this is how to fake and why you fake. So let's talk first about why you fake. If I ask you why you fake or if I ask a group of instructors why you fake or I ask students why you fake I get oh I want to fake them out, I want to make them think I am kicking and I'm going to punch them. We don't necessarily fake a technique. Here is the reason you want to fake. This is the goals of a fake. The goal of a fake is to gain time and to gain distance, time and distance. What do I mean by that? Take a look. Joining us from Pro Star Martial Arts is Mr. Joe Brignoli. Step back just a little bit. Let's imagine that he is a big tall mean guy like my brother so he is 6'5" world champion. You just can't walk in on those guys and attack, they're going to kill you so you have to become a master of faking so let's imagine this. I want to get in here and punch him with a right hand to the body. I'm unable to step all the way across and fire because he is too big, strong, fast, whatever so I'm going to throw a little fake on him. I'm going to fire a short shoulder fake which is going to do two things. One I close half the distance on him. I didn't go all the way, I closed half the distance on him. Remember the purpose of fake is to gain time and distance. Two, I gain time because you notice when I did that he hesitated for just a second and he kind of tensed up and that means I am dictating that fight for that fraction of a second so watch again. A good fake is designed to gain time and distance. As I throw the fake I go half way in, he hesitates, I am in control for this moment and I can choose now to either step on in and finish or bail out so the purpose of a good fake should close half the distance and then buy you a little bit of time with the hesitation. The purpose of a fake is to gain time and distance, that's it. I'm John Graden and for more information contact me at johngraden.com. Thank you."