How to be fast when you're slow

Do any of you folks do any speed work - exercises or drills to increase your speed?

On the athleticism front, I've started doing a class at the gym that involves a lot of plyo, which is amazing and totally kicking my ***. It's all, like, frog jump, touch the floor, hop back, touch the floor, x8, then lunge this way, jump 180 and lunge that way, x8, etc for an hour. I think this is really going to help me.
 
On the athleticism front, I've started doing a class at the gym that involves a lot of plyo, which is amazing and totally kicking my ***. It's all, like, frog jump, touch the floor, hop back, touch the floor, x8, then lunge this way, jump 180 and lunge that way, x8, etc for an hour. I think this is really going to help me.
Sounds like my kung fu classes.
 
On the athleticism front, I've started doing a class at the gym that involves a lot of plyo, which is amazing and totally kicking my ***. It's all, like, frog jump, touch the floor, hop back, touch the floor, x8, then lunge this way, jump 180 and lunge that way, x8, etc for an hour. I think this is really going to help me.

This is going to help you a whole bunch. Oh, you'll have so much fun! After it stops kicking your ***, of course. :)
 
On the athleticism front, I've started doing a class at the gym that involves a lot of plyo, which is amazing and totally kicking my ***. It's all, like, frog jump, touch the floor, hop back, touch the floor, x8, then lunge this way, jump 180 and lunge that way, x8, etc for an hour. I think this is really going to help me.

At the very least it helps you avoid poor structure
 
Action is faster than reaction, but if I anticipate the likely attack and have good timing it won't matter. In sparring, you must understand the game you're playing. It's also useful to know your opponent, if possible. It's easy to look fast when you know what's coming.


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To anticipate is to guess. When training for the street, your paradigm must shift. When your life or the lives of your family may be on the line, you can't afford to be wrong. On the street, it's not sparring, it's not a game, you won't know your opponent(s) abilities, strategies, nor full intentions. You may be seriously outmatched by size, strength, age. There may be multiple attackers. They may have weapons. You don't care about looking fast. You simply need to stop the attack quickly while minimizing damage to yourself and loved ones. How to be fast when you are slow may be life or death. When one believes they are good enough to use reaction rather than action, then one is violating a basic Sun Tzu principle of never underestimating one's opponent. Why choose to start at a disadvantage? If the fight is inevitable and unavoidable, strike first and don't stop striking. Action is always faster than reaction.
 
To anticipate is to guess. When training for the street, your paradigm must shift. When your life or the lives of your family may be on the line, you can't afford to be wrong. On the street, it's not sparring, it's not a game, you won't know your opponent(s) abilities, strategies, nor full intentions. You may be seriously outmatched by size, strength, age. There may be multiple attackers. They may have weapons. You don't care about looking fast. You simply need to stop the attack quickly while minimizing damage to yourself and loved ones. How to be fast when you are slow may be life or death. When one believes they are good enough to use reaction rather than action, then one is violating a basic Sun Tzu principle of never underestimating one's opponent. Why choose to start at a disadvantage? If the fight is inevitable and unavoidable, strike first and don't stop striking. Action is always faster than reaction.
I'm not training specifically for the "street" and I'm not really concerned about the possibility of needing to fight for my life. In my opinion, if you need to fight for your life you've either already failed or you've just got horrible luck. When I reference understanding the game, I'm talking about sparring or competitive fighting. I apologize if that wasn't clear.


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I'm not training specifically for the "street" and I'm not really concerned about the possibility of needing to fight for my life. In my opinion, if you need to fight for your life you've either already failed or you've just got horrible luck. When I reference understanding the game, I'm talking about sparring or competitive fighting. I apologize if that wasn't clear.


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It was clear. Thanks. After teaching many years of martial arts and both I and my students competing successfully in tournaments, I get the game. I've simply transitioned to pure self defense now so I post from that perspective for those who are interested.
 
Reaction is faster than action.

That is science.

Reactions Faster than Actions, Study Finds

Otherwise if crap is looking a bit hairy create some distance. Keep your options open.try to avoid re stomping the groin on every body who approached you wanting to know the time.
 
Reaction is faster than action.

That is science.

Reactions Faster than Actions, Study Finds
The title is a little bit misleading, which they kinda admit later in the article where they point out that the time it takes to process the stimuli of an action is 10 times greater than "the reaction advantage" which they apparently noted.

The simplified version: Reaction movements are 21 milliseconds faster than action movements but it takes 200 milliseconds to "respond" to an action.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 
The title is a little bit misleading, which they kinda admit later in the article where they point out that the time it takes to process the stimuli of an action is 10 times greater than "the reaction advantage" which they apparently noted.

The simplified version: Reaction movements are 21 milliseconds faster than action movements but it takes 200 milliseconds to "respond" to an action.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk

There is that.
 
To anticipate is to guess. ...you won't know your opponent(s) abilities, strategies, nor full intentions. you won't know your opponent(s) abilities, strategies, nor full intentions. Action is always faster than reaction.
I try not to guess anymore. 90% of the time I know where the first strike is going to be and what type it's going to be. It's not magic or expert fighting and self-defense. It's more about understanding how people naturally react and solve problems and taking advantage of it. The benefit of what I do makes it possible for me to be faster than other people's action.

This is how I see attacks. An attack has these 5 phases:
Intent > Preparation of action> Pre-action movement > Commitment > Physical attack Action.

If I can react before the Physical Attack Action occurs then I can be faster than the attack. For me reaction is not always physical confrontation. If I see that a person is slowly creeping towards and closing the gap in an effort to attack me, then I'll just increase the gap and as a result I have reacted faster than the Physical Attack action. Some will say that I reacted before the Attack Action was committed, but in my mind that attack started when the creeping started. This same mindset can be used in self-defense fighting and sparring. Ideally I want to react to what happens before the Physical Attack Action. In a fight, this process of identifying Preparation of Attack can happen a split second before the punch, kick, or takedown. The good news is that the phases of an Attack is slower than the actual physical attack which means I'm reacting and committing action during a slower phase of the attack.

If I'm standing directly in front of someone and we are going to see who can punch who first, then my goal is to react to one of the 4 phases. If I can identify the type of attack then I can actually counter with my own attack faster than my opponent can send off a second attack.

This is how I identify the type of attack I'm getting.
Intent > Bait Specific Attack > Preparation of action> Identify prep action > Pre-action movement > Commitment > Counter+ Attack Action > Physical attack Action.
My actions are in Bold
The commitment phase is both what I must do and what my opponent must do. Even if my opponent doesn't commit I must continue to with my counter which will fall empty but my attack will still land before his.
 
I try not to guess anymore. 90% of the time I know where the first strike is going to be and what type it's going to be. It's not magic or expert fighting and self-defense. It's more about understanding how people naturally react and solve problems and taking advantage of it. The benefit of what I do makes it possible for me to be faster than other people's action.

This is how I see attacks. An attack has these 5 phases:
Intent > Preparation of action> Pre-action movement > Commitment > Physical attack Action.

If I can react before the Physical Attack Action occurs then I can be faster than the attack. For me reaction is not always physical confrontation. If I see that a person is slowly creeping towards and closing the gap in an effort to attack me, then I'll just increase the gap and as a result I have reacted faster than the Physical Attack action. Some will say that I reacted before the Attack Action was committed, but in my mind that attack started when the creeping started. This same mindset can be used in self-defense fighting and sparring. Ideally I want to react to what happens before the Physical Attack Action. In a fight, this process of identifying Preparation of Attack can happen a split second before the punch, kick, or takedown. The good news is that the phases of an Attack is slower than the actual physical attack which means I'm reacting and committing action during a slower phase of the attack.

If I'm standing directly in front of someone and we are going to see who can punch who first, then my goal is to react to one of the 4 phases. If I can identify the type of attack then I can actually counter with my own attack faster than my opponent can send off a second attack.

This is how I identify the type of attack I'm getting.
Intent > Bait Specific Attack > Preparation of action> Identify prep action > Pre-action movement > Commitment > Counter+ Attack Action > Physical attack Action.
My actions are in Bold
The commitment phase is both what I must do and what my opponent must do. Even if my opponent doesn't commit I must continue to with my counter which will fall empty but my attack will still land before his.
You might find the construct of the OODA loop to be quite useful to your strategy.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
 
You might find the construct of the OODA loop to be quite useful to your strategy.

Peace favor your sword,
Kirk
Thanks. that was my first time hearing of OODA, it was a good read and it's similar to what I described. I'll have to read about this more. This stood out to me on one of the sites that I talked about OODA

"Human reaction time is defined as the time elapsing between the onset of a stimulus and the onset of a response to that stimulus" This is how I see action and reaction. Some people think that an attackers action is solely his / her own. But it's not. The actions of an attacker are actually reactions that are based on what their victim is doing or not doing. It's easy to think of Reactions as one sided, for example, someone attacks me I react. But in reality the attacker also reacts and attacks based on what I'm doing. Understanding this makes it possible for me to manipulate my attacker's actions and gives me a better opportunity to control a situation as well as his/her actions.

This is where fighting becomes a science. When I understand that my actions trigger a specific reaction, then I can trigger that reaction at will and take advantage of it. If my attacker does Attack B when I do action A, then I can do action A for the specific goal of triggering action B. Since I know that B is most likely to occur, then I can be prepared allowing me to react to Attack B faster than my attacker can execute B.
In this scenario one can say that the human attack time is defined as the time elapsing between the onset of a stimulus and the onset of a response to that stimulus.
 
Intent > Bait Specific Attack > Preparation of action> Identify prep action > Pre-action movement > Commitment > Counter+ Attack Action > Physical attack Action.
My actions are in Bold.
IMO, not to let that attack to happen is always better than to let that attack to happen and then counter it.

To

- raise guard to bait for kick, or
- drop guard to bait for punch,

is good strategy. But the better strategy is "not to give your opponent that opportunity to attack". In order to do so, more strategies will be involved.
 
IMO, not to let that attack to happen is always better than to let that attack to happen and then counter it.

To

- raise guard to bait for kick, or
- drop guard to bait for punch,

is good strategy. But the better strategy is "not to give your opponent that opportunity to attack". In order to do so, more strategies will be involved.
I think that this depends on your personal skills. If you are very good at closing distance and preventing attack, go for that. If you are very good at avoiding attack and finding openings in their attacks, then do that strategy. Both are good, and both depend on the person doing it.
 
I think that this depends on your personal skills. If you are very good at closing distance and preventing attack, go for that. If you are very good at avoiding attack and finding openings in their attacks, then do that strategy. Both are good, and both depend on the person doing it.
The attack itself adds power to your reaction, as well.
 
IMO, not to let that attack to happen is always better than to let that attack to happen and then counter it.

To

- raise guard to bait for kick, or
- drop guard to bait for punch,

is good strategy. But the better strategy is "not to give your opponent that opportunity to attack". In order to do so, more strategies will be involved.
Baiting is bigger than where you put your hands. It is also where you put yourself. Are you to the right, to the left, or squared off. As for the hands, I never even thought of up or down to bait a kick, LOL, but apart guarantees a shot up the middle, and hands in the center guarantees a hook, or a straight shot to the hands; so, you punch yourself in the face. :)
 
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