Health & Fitness Blog

The method I am about to tell you is supposed to have been created by the Little Dragon, Bruce Lee, though I don’t know whether it was ever included in his Jeet Kune Do teachings. It was supposedly taught by Bruce to Karate fighter Joe Lewis, who became one of the fiercest Karate fighters to ever enter the ring. Joe Lewis is supposed to have relayed the method to various Kenpo schools, where it was used by Ed Parker, and eventually disappeared from view.

This method will work, it will tell you what kind of a fighter you are about to fight, and help you create a strategy to fight that fighter. However, there is a glaring weakness in inside this method, and, there is a glaring weakness in the fact of the method. Still, it is an important tool to have and be able to use if you are going to develop as a real mixed martial artist fighter.

When you face off towards a fighter, fake a punch and watch what happens. Before we analyze what happens, consider the weakness of this movement. A fake is a wasted motion, and while you’re faking he might go real on you.

If the fighter backs up, he is a runner, he is going to go away from you. This means that you are going to have to go after him and track him down. You are going to have to develop a strategy which backs him up, cuts him off, and sets him up for the kill.

If the fighter charges you, then he is aggressive, an attacker. This means you are going to have to slip him or back him down. You are going to have to develop a strategy which stops him, which slips his aggressiveness, and which takes advantage of his tendency to over charge.

If the fighter stands and blocks, then he is a blocker. This means he is not going anywhere, and you are going to have to penetrate him. You are going to have to develop a strategy which penetrate his defense, which interchanges darting with overwhelming, or whatever else it takes to defeat him.

These three observable combat tendencies are excellent for establishing a structure within the chaos of combat, and highly usable. However, the glaring weakness of the method became obvious the first time somebody tried to use it on me. The fellow faked, and I moved with him, but did not flee nor charge, merely duplicated his motion such as it was.

I knew it wasn’t real, and I was interested in matching my opponent, mirroring his actions, and finding a real time solution. Checking a response is not in real time, it is in fake time. Thus, this method falls apart when somebody is not reacting, but letting The True Art move him and detail his responses.

Al Case has practiced the martial arts 4O++ years. You can see him make The True Art work, and see first hand what he is talking about in this article, at Blinding Steel. A Free ebook is available at Monster Martial Arts.