Theme of the Week: Evasion

Dodging punches sounds like a great idea and in practice, it is.  Getting hit is a bummer, blocking is difficult and even with a solid frame, hard punches still hurt.

Dodging in isolation, however, is a bad idea.  Duck one punch only to eat another.  Step away from a kick only to create more space for your partner to throw a follow up.  So after we dodge, we’ve got to do something else.  Whatever that something is (counter strike, clinch, run) it should stop our partner from continuing their onslaught.

Backing up, it is important for drilling and learning the skill of evasion to practice it in isolation (say for instance in a game setting where you try to avoid being smacked by thrown focus pads) – meaning just dodging the incoming strikes.  This must be done with the understanding that dodging as a sole strategy during a fight is foolish – no matter how good you are at it.  Maybe that goes without saying, that any defensive strategy without an offensive component is a recipe for eventual disaster.

Check out the student’s thoughts here.