I'd like to start my inaugural post by asking you to look at the following picture and tell me what you see.
It's a simple picture, with simple answers. It's a rabbit. Probably wild. Definitely a boy. It's in some grass. A man or woman named B. Katzung placed a watermark on the picture, apparently in 2005.
But there's more to the picture than just that. Much more. For instance, from this picture alone (not using Google or any other webpage), I can tell you that it was taken with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II camera. I can tell you that the picture was taken June 12, 2005, at 1:22 PM local time. I can tell you that a person named Bert Katzung (so it was a man!) edited the picture several times using Adobe Photoshop CS2 on a Windows machine. I can tell you that the picture was taken in the Marin-Sonoma area of California. In fact, if I wanted to track down the person who took this shot, I'd have a pretty good head start just from this picture alone.
So how do I know these things, just from this one file?
Simple. This picture of a bunny contains hidden information. Tons of it.
The camera that took this photograph saved the picture, and along with it, saved inside the file information about the camera itself. Shutter speed, model type, whether the flash went off, the time taken - all kinds of information (called "metadata"). The photographer's image editing software added more, such as who has registered the software (Bert), what kind of computer he was using (Windows), and where the picture was saved from (a folder called ...\California\Marin-Sonoma).
You can see this information (and much more) by using a simple and free tool called EXIFTOOL (available here ), which will allow you to see hidden information in many different kinds of files (not just pictures).
Bert probably had no idea that the bunny picture had all of that information in it - to him it was just a picture of a rabbit. But if you know what to look for and how to look for it, there's a wealth of information to discover.
So what does this have to do with fighting?
Simple. Your punches, kicks, and the rest of your movements also contain hidden information. Lots of it.
In a real world confrontation, before the first punch is thrown, there is a lead up to it: words are exchanged, distance is crossed by the aggressor to the defender, and body positions are shifted to cut off exits, to protect vital regions, or to give better access to strong sides or weapons. This is true whether the encounter is a fight at a bar or a mugging in a parking lot. One person makes the decision that it is going to get physical, prepares their body for violence, and the other must react.
Knowing how to spot the hidden information in these pre-fight movements - knowing how to see more than just "the rabbit" - is the difference between learning that the Fight Is On while the guy is still 2 steps away from you, or making that same realization after his fist has already connected with your face.
If I'm the defender, there are several pieces of hidden information that I'm looking for which we'll go over in future posts. For now, the most important, is "is this guy about to attack me?"
The best way to learn to find and read these hidden cues is through continuous mindful practice with honest partners. In the Combat Systema classes that I teach, we use drills where one person is the defender and the rest of the class walks around that person like they were a crowd walking past a pedestrian in Times Square. No one pays attention to the defender at all... except for the one person chosen at random to be the attacker. Sometimes the attacker will come at them with fists. Sometimes he'll reach into his pocket or into his waistband and pull out a knife. Sometimes it'll be from the front. Sometimes from behind. The point is to train the defender's eyes to recognize the directed aggressive attention, to see the break in the pattern of people around him, to pick up on the hidden body language clues. Distance, cadence of walk, choppiness of breath, body angle, hand and eye positions - all of these things contain hidden information that you can pick up on to reveal the person's intent.
Reading this hidden information won't stop the fight from happening, but will give you more time to react and prepare.
Response time = reaction time + movement time
The middle of a fight is a bad time to be thinking about mathematics, but here is one equation that governs the reality of combat. Your response time equals your reaction time plus your movement time. If I have any hope of blocking your incoming punch, I have to:
- realize you are punching me (reaction time)
- decide upon a course of action (also reaction time)
- move my arm to deflect your incoming attack (movement time)
This equation works both ways. As a defender, I want to minimize my reaction time by identifying an attack as early as possible. And as an attacker, I want to not telegraph my attack so that I delay my opponent's reaction time (ie cause him to not realize my attack is happening until it's too late for him to stop it). Michael Jai White brilliantly shows this in the following clip:
By taking away movement cues, White is able to land more punches without speeding his fists up at all. What White says about brake lights at 3:50 is a perfect explanation of what is going on.
You can work on removing this hidden information on your own through slow and mindful work in front of a mirror, but it should also be tested with a partner. When you are by yourself, throw punches slowly while watching your body in a full-length mirror. Are you telegraphing when you punch? When I started doing this seriously, I began to notice that I kept my hands loose, but clenched into a fist right before my punches. This hand movement alone was enough to give an opponent a few hundredths of a second of heads up notice that an attack is incoming.Other common tells are breaking breath (either by holding breath or loudly exhaling), visible shoulder and neck tension, and breaking of rhythmic patterns of hand and arm movement prior to throwing the punch.
Partner drills are simple - have them hold a hitting target still while you warm up striking slowly with a simple jab. Remember, start slowly at first. After a few dozen reps, have the partner call out when they see your attack begin. See if you can get your hand closer to that stationary pad before their voice each time. It is important not to throw fakes at this time; each movement should be thrown genuinely and with awareness. As you gradually speed up, continue trying to get your hand closer to the stationary pad before you hear your partner's voice. Once you get to full speed, you can have them pull their target away or avoid your strike instead of calling out (it is good to have another stationary pad behind this so you aren't damaging your arm when you go full speed). This drill can be done at all distances, from clinching distance (where less power will be generated but the technique will be faster) to full extension.
Remember, training solo is good, but live feedback is best. And there's no better live feedback then sparring against a non-compliant partner. Find an open mat in your area, grab a training partner, and put what you practice to the test!
Good luck, and safe training!
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