Multiple Attacker Fake Experience
3. In my limited experience, fakes simply do not work well. The reason is, especially when people become amped up (whether on adrenaline or other synthetic substances), they develop tunnel vision.
They don’t see your feint, they don’t see you pretending to face someone else before attacking. They just barrel in, regardless of what you are doing and try to land their blows or [execute] their takedown.
— Z
Z may have limited experience with fakes, but I don’t. I have practice effective fakes (feints) for over 30 years. No kidding.
I have three comments regarding fakes not working:
a) There are five ways of attack and only five. While each of the five ways can work on an opponent of any skill level, Bruce Lee, Steve Golden (my teacher), and I figured out that indirect attacks are especially useful against advanced practitioners.
To be frank, I have tried some decent fakes on beginners, who didn’t react … not because my feint was no good, but because they weren’t skilled enough to perceive it. In those cases, I was able to get past their defenses with more direct, and easier-to-employ, attacks.
Reserve your fakes for when your direct attacks (Single Direct Attack, Attack by Combination, and Attack by Trapping) aren’t working.
So, the fact that fakes don’t work with Z’s group could mean that they aren’t good enough to perceive them, or that they aren’t decent at firing off convincing feints….
b) You’ve read me saying that if a fight lasts more than two seconds from point of contact, then neither combatant was an efficient fighter. It’s obvious, because it only takes one to blast through the weaker’s defense.
Well, in the case of fakes not working, I can’t make the same claim.
You see, if the fake isn’t working, it could be that the recipient isn’t good enough to perceive the progressive indirect attack, or it could be that the faker isn’t skilled enough to get his or her opponent to react to a faked technique with another technique interrupting the timing of the first.
The aggressor’s acting skills might not be up to snuff. After all, if you believe that I’m really about to pound your face with my fist, you WILL do something about it.
And if you don’t, then that fake gets turned into a real hit. After all, if you don’t do something to protect my punch or kick, then I don’t need to fake. I just continue in on the opening.
This makes sense, right?
c) Z thinks that his brethren are all amped up and wouldn’t respond to a fake.
Well, in my experience, it’s much easier to fake out someone who is so revved up that adrenaline has taken over. I “want” them to react automatically. This is what actually causes the fake to work.
In fact, I need someone barreling in who commits to the attack.
Cold, calculated, and reserved is much harder for me (personally) to fake.
