Important Points To Consider
Drawing is used A TON by experienced fighters.
It basically means setting traps and trying to entice your opponent into them.
If, however, your attacker senses that it’s a trap, if he’s smart he’ll figure out a way to use your trap against you.
This is what makes sparring so much fun–it’s like chess with the added excitement of adrenaline in the mix.
So you have to be smart about baiting the attacks. They have to be subtle.
You also have to collect information about the fighter to be able to set traps confidently.
Using the example in the video of holding the rear hand low to bait the Hook punch, that’s not a response you can just count on out of the gate.
You have to take some time first to get a feel for what your opponent likes to throw before you can select an appropriate trap for them.
One of the reasons in JKD for having the lead hand low is that it baits a fighter to Jab.
So we have lots of different counters to a left lead Jab, in order to capitalize on that response.
One final point–I’ve set traps before that my opponent completely fell into…and I still got hit.
Another reason to be subtle with drawing out attacks is that you ARE leaving them an opening.
And if you’re not ready or fast enough, and you’ve opened yourself up too much, you can still be caught by the very thing you were trying to draw out.
Hell, sometimes I know someone’s trying to bait me into doing something and I’ll still throw it just because I want to see if I can be fast enough to still get away with it–and vice versa, there are some guys I spar with who will do the same to me. Sometimes they land, sometimes they don’t.
Let me just say, if you’re reading these articles and you’re watching the videos but you aren’t at least training with a friend, you’re missing out on a world of fun.
For all of the “science of street fighting” and “self-defense application” in the martial arts, the most intriguing and rewarding aspect of martial arts to me is the found in the fun and playful nature of sparring.
