Martial Arts Article

A Great Eye Fake...
and Why It Won't Work in Most Tournaments

by Keith Pascal

The title of this article says that this great eye fake won't work in most tournaments. It's not that it isn't en effective technique; you'd probably get it on 99%+ of the time. You can't use it in tournaments, because it's illegal.

Most traditional tournaments don't allow kicking below the waist. This fake works best with a knee or shin kick. Who knows? With a little creative planning, maybe you can adapt it to an allowable technique.

This move was actually inspired from a principle used by magicians.

Magicians use a concept called misdirection. They distract you into looking at the wrong place at the right time.

Sometimes magicians need to do a secret move in order to make a trick work. The problem is, sometimes there isn't any place to hide the movement. They have to do the move out in the open. The only solution is to distract the audience at just the right time.

Wouldn't it be great if, as a martial artist, you could distract an attacker, so he/she wouldn't even see your move coming? After all, this is one of the ways magicians get the reputation of having hands that are quicker than the eye. In reality, they aren't quicker, just smarter.

So, let's get down to brass tacks

-- here's a practical tactic that you can you use to protect yourself better:

One technique of misdirection that magicians use is what's called "misdirection by motion." Your opponent's eyes tend to follow motion. And if you want a stronger magnet for your opponent's eye gaze, make it an upward motion.

You could throw something into the air, but I have a much more natural move. It's subtle.

You are squared off with your opponent.

You are looking out of the corner of your eye. You are looking low at your opponent's legs.

Suddenly you turn your head, so you have a bit more of a front view. You look up, and .... At the precise moment that your opponent makes eye contact, you kick him/her firmly in the knee or shin.

Get it?

The beauty of this technique is that it's absolutely impossible for your attacker to look up and down at the exact same time. Right as your attacker's attention is being drawn up, you are kicking down. It's a free shot (unless your attacker has read this article and knows the tactic as well).

A Possible Problem:

Imagine a big, mean, hairy attacker in front of you. He's ready to attack. He has a right lead, and HE'S LOOKING AT YOU OUT OF THE CORNER OF HIS EYES. No matter what you do, you can't get him to look up. What do you do?

Well, as a magician I have had times where the spectator just won't take her eyes off my hands. So, I usually say,

"You aren't going to take your eyes off the cards, are you?"

Her response is usually,

"no, I am not,"

as she meets my eye gaze to tell me this.

And BAM, I do the move. She blew it. She looked up, and she didn't even realize it.

In a martial arts situation, I might be bold enough to ask something like,

"you're chicken to look me in the eye, aren't you?"

If they even shifted their gaze for a second, I'd "zap 'em."

You are definitely going to have to practice this type of misdirection.

It's a real finesse tactic. It takes precision, but it's worth the effort. It feels great when you successfully pull it on someone. Have fun.

Bonus Tip #1

Do you want another type of eye fake? Your opponent tends to look where you look. If you look at your right hand, so will your opponent.

Wouldn't this be nice, if you had your weapon secretly hidden in your left hand?

Now, if you look with your eyes and point with a finger, you have strengthened the call for your opponent's attention.

Bonus Tip #2

This tip comes in the form of a Bruce Lee quote. Yes, it pertains.

It's from from Jeet Kune Do, Volume Three, by Bruce Lee (Edited by John Little).

On page 30, Under the subtitle, Strategy of distracting attention, Bruce Lee says only:

"Repeat -- for most rapid perception, attention must be at the maximum focus on the thing to be perceived."

This is really interesting if you think about it. Why did he put it under this category? Why not under rapid perception, or even maintaining focus? Why under "Strategy of distracting..."?

For me, it offers an additional tactic to combine with an eye fake. To really make my eye fake effective, I need to make my opponent really concentrate on me.

I don't want him distracted, before "I" do the distracting. The more intensely I get him to focus, the greater the effect of misdirection.

Think about it.

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