Friday, February 8, 2013

Time Hitting

"Time Hitting" is the western fencing term for simultaneous defense and attack, what in (at least one transliteration) Wing Chun is referred to as "lin sil die dar." My "Sectoring" DVD is about that subject, particularly against jabs and crosses.

The reason that developing the ability to time hit is so valuable, is that attackers rarely think of defending during their attack. Human combative instinct is not that efficient. Rather, the commonality is all defense, all attack, all defense until one sees an opening after an attack has failed, or two knuckleheads just trying to out-punch each other. The example I like to point out is that even world class boxers drop their non-punching hand when punching, and they more than anyone else are supposed to be trained to keep their hands up. I would recommend getting a video of a world class match and watching the exchanges in slow motion to see how many time-hit opportunities are presented.

Yes, I certainly acknowledge that when it's coming fast and hard that it's not a done deal, but the opportunities are there and worth training to look for and catch.