Got Rhythm?

One of our fighting principles is called “broken rhythm”. The idea is that if you can set up a rhythm and lull your partner into it, you can then break that pattern and catch them unawares.

It is a valid and powerful idea. However, you must first have a sense of rhythm in order to break it. If you can not feel or see patterns in the way that you and other people move then you can not break those patterns. You may have the advantage of not being susceptible to a rhythm based fake but you will also be unaware of any rhythms that you are unintentionally caught in yourself.

So tonight’s sparring class was all about setting up and countering simple patterns. As simple as: take three steps then jab. Repeat that over and over until your partner finds a counter for it. When they find a counter switch.

Hopefully this simple introduction to rhythm leads people to the much more complex patterns that occur during live sparring.