Page 69 - Beyond Basics_Neat

BEYOND BASICS

Most people also have been conditioned to respond to certain
stimuli. They also respond to movement patterns which occur on
a specific tempo or beat. For example, punches thrown at a partner
at the same frequency (beat), say every second will cause them to
start blocking automatically on the same frequency. If the
frequency of the changes, the block will still occur at the same
frequency until the change is noticed.

Create a Conditioned Response with a partner or opponent by
doing the same technique overtly creating the stimuli for which to
respond. Once their response has been “conditioned”, change the
target and they will still respond as conditioned. Conditioning can
be as short as changing the technique on the third occurrence.

A person’s conditioned response is to
move away from something coming
at them

Experienced fighters realize that they have patterns innate to their
fighting style and once their opponent becomes conditioned to
respond to that style, the change occurs and the opponent usually
cannot react quickly enough to respond to the change.

To illustrate this concept with an actual occurrence. I have a
defensive style of fighting and so I wait for my opponent to initiate.
In an overtime match. As soon as the Official said “Go!”, I launched
and scored! I took advantage of the fact that my opponent wasn’t
expecting an immediate attack as that wasn’t my typical pattern.

Most hunters or Skeet Shooters will immediately understand what
this means! In hunting, Leading the Target is to shoot in front of a
moving target so the bullet and the target meet at the same place.
So how does this apply to fighting?

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