What do you do to set people up? Favorite set ups?

[tko4u]

What do you guys (and girls!) use to set people up? As you get up there in rank, you learn to set things up and bait people in.

For me, I will usually use the old chuck liddell strategy (the one that worked, not the new one, sorry, off topic)
I will drop my hands 10 to 12 inches, widen my stance (to lower my head a little), just to make them think I am an easy head kick, then as soon as they go for it BAM! Instant front leg round kick to the head, I usually get asked "What did you hit me with" it never gets old.

 

[BrandonLucas]

I like to use this after a good minute or so into the match, after feeling out my opponent:

After throwing a combo of either a front leg roundhouse kick followed by a spinning hook/roundhouse, I'll back way off, putting about 5 feet between us. After I've backed off, I'll start to move to the left, making him/her circle, then change direction to the right, and I'll end up cutting of the ring, having my opponent in the corner.

I won't keep them in that corner, though...they'll usually try some combo that's aggressive enough to get them the room they need to move back to the center of the ring, so after that combo, when they start trying to take the center back, I'll start moving them to another corner...they'll sense what's going on eventually, so when I see that they know what I'm trying to do, I'll let my guard drop slightly, letting them think I'm over-confident. When they start to come in for headshots, BAM!, I catch them with one of those sneaky beltline front leg sidekicks, and I continue to use that until they get frustrated.

It's kind of a long bait, but that's the best one I can think of that I like to use that most of the time works.

 

[granfire]

Wheezing and huffing....then I might get a leg check in!

 

[bluekey88]

I drop my hands, my eyes go wide, I point behind thema dn say "WHAT IN THE WORLD WA THAT?!?" When they turn around I switch the wine glasses...

No wait..that was The Princess Bride.

I bait people by being surprsingly quick and light one my feet despite my size. Somewhere, mid match, before I'm totally spent...I'll throw in a surprise jump kick after the gaurd drops alittle bit.

Peace,
Erik

 

[BrandonLucas]

I drop my hands, my eyes go wide, I point behind thema dn say "WHAT IN THE WORLD WA THAT?!?" When they turn around I switch the wine glasses...

No wait..that was The Princess Bride.

I bait people by being surprsingly quick and light one my feet despite my size. Somewhere, mid match, before I'm totally spent...I'll throw in a surprise jump kick after the gaurd drops alittle bit.

Peace,
Erik

That's awesome....

I actually get all of my ideas of baiting people from either The Princess Bride or Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail.

 

[igillman]

This is not so much setting them up as keeping them on their toes. I am a big built guy (5'9" and 200 Lbs) and I do not jump or spin too well (too much mass). However, my first move in sparring was always something like a jumping side kick, jumping spinning back kick or something totally wild and crazy that involved spinning and getting airborne. It had almost no chance of hitting (OK, so the jumping side kick did hit once, boy did he go backwards). The reason for doing that type of kick right away is that it keeps them on their toes. For the rest of the sparring match they are keeping one eye open for the wild spinning flying kick that looked so lethal. Obviously there was not much chance of me doing another one but they didn't know that.

 

[Kwanjang]

I drop my hands, my eyes go wide, I point behind thema dn say "WHAT IN THE WORLD WA THAT?!?" When they turn around I switch the wine glasses...

Peace,
Erik

(LOL) I think I will try that, Thanks Erik

usually I front leg arc kick the body a couple of times, then flury to the head with my hands-setting them up for the 1,2,3 (1.back fist to the head,2.Reverse punch to the stomach, 3. back leg round house to da head.

 

[terryl965]

I like the inverted crest kick and please not a inside out kick, what is the difference the turning of the actual hips that give people the impression it is camining from the outside and at the last moment it cuts across your body and to the other side of there face. It works great for a few times on each person and then it is done for a couple of weeks and when they forget about it it comes back.

 

[StuartA]

Usually I chat to them, whilst a friend crouches behind them.. then its just a little shove and loads of laughs

 

[dancingalone]

An attacker sets himself up for counterattack through his initial act of aggression. No need to think about setting up anything at all.

Now if you are talking about sport sparring, that's something else entirely. I used to follow a lot of Bill Wallace's sparring strategy when I practiced TKD actively. He relies on being very versatile with his front leg kicks, being away to uncork them from any odd angle that is available after dodging an attack from an opponent. He would also bait his opponent into attacking his head, realizing that it's an advantage if you know where the kick or punch is coming.

 

[Deaf Smith]

Depends on what we are talking about.

If it's sparring I'll start off fast then slow up acting weak and tired, then in one split second go fast as I can (it's call broken rhythm. et al Bruce Lee.) People tend to go at the speed of their opponent, if you slow down, lots of times they will slow down. You then catch them by surprise.

Another method is to do a fast short lunge and stamp the front foot hard on the floor. Good chance they will react. Note the reaction. Now slide back and shift the feet. This time do the same lunge but now throw the kick or punch were you know the other guy won't have their defenses at.

A third setup is a turn kick. Bring the kicking knee up just as if it was a front thrusting kick. Bring it it hard. Make a hissing sound while doing it. Then with the knee high, rotate the leg, hip and heal of the standing leg and convert it to a roundhouse. This works very well against experience fighers. Inexperienced ones just don't "see" enough to know when to block!

If it's the street, then I sucker punch them before they get the opportunity to do it to me (and here we are presuming indicators have been given off by the other actors showing they have bad intentions, and you are alert enough to see them.)

The sucker punch works by ruse and fake.

Say show them your Rolex watch (fake... it isn't, is it?) And as they look at it flick the wrist so the watch smashes into their nose, then follow with a very good strong combination of punches, elbows, and knees.

Or say, "What" and cup your ear so they think they need to shout. When they inhale lunge forward and belt them hard and keep belting them!

Or throw your car keys in their face before you step forward and fire a real hard front kick. Or act submissive and get them closer so you can do an eye flick followed by several hand & foot stikes.

Oh, there are tons of sucker punches. Remember this, on the street it the winner is usually the first person to land a good punch. Start early and aim strait.

Deaf

 

[tshadowchaser]

A low front kick normaly opens up the upper body

 

[TKDHermit]

I kill someone and frame another person for it. Just kidding. I'm not sure if my tactic will work, but in WTF sparring, if possible, I'll just leave my head open, minimal to no openings on my hogu, by adjusting the angle of my body so that only my front can be struck, but guard the whole area with both my arms, and maintain that angle however the opponent shifts. That way he will either have to shift first then kick, or kick my head. If he kicks my head, USUALLY he will leave his body open, swinging of arms while kicking is a usual trait of players around here. Then I just block that kick do a front leg turning kick or 2 to the body, or to the head if possible. If he shifts and tries to kick my back I'll just rotate along with him and do a back leg turning kick. Never tried it, never entered a tournament yet. But I think that's the most efficient way for me to successfully hit an opponent with my current stamina and agility (BOTH ON THE LOW). Hopefully I'll get a chance to try it. We rarely have sparring practice during class because of the rate the kids [mostly] learn their poomsae. -.-

 

[CrazyEyes]

Though its probably really noobish this is one I like to use

From a right sparring stance I try to bait my opponent to kick, bringing my arms down, acting tired, whatever I have to do. Then as soon as they start to kick I bring my right leg back (going into a left sparring stance) and use that as a spring to fire a round kick, or what I've been working on is instead of a round kick going into a jump round kick.

 

[bluekey88]

We call that a switch kick at my school (you switch your feet then kick...I know, creative right?)

he acting tired thing MIGHT work once. After that, you're done for. I rather like tactics that you can use over an over. Right now I'm working to better my side step counter. I do pretty good by moving forawardish whenever my opponent lauches into an attack..rather than back up. I can often disrupt his attack just by getting inside it. I can then bounce off them to the side and launch a counter of my own. HOWEVER, I really need to work on moving forward with more angles...as I get tired my forward motion becoames more aof straight in thing...which leads to me sometimes getting hit if I get baited myself (as I found out the other night at sparring). Gotta improve the footwork and speed. Still move forward but improve that angel of attack for myself.

Peace,
Erik

 

[kaizasosei]

i like to raise my knee quickly as a fake-often to follow with punches or kicks from the other leg. also, i have a couple of good combos. one very good one is to telegraph a roundhouse and then when the leg has barely been raised let it drop back and side kick into the opening created. front kick to crecent kick. also i make good use of the cross kick like Bruce Lee does-for example in the arena scene fighting Chuck Norris. bringing the back leg forward to hit the legs of opponent or even somewhat higher..

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I'm forty one, tall (6'4), fairly lean (right around 200) and reasonably quick, but not lightening fast. Generally, I'm a defensive fighter, so I like to let my opponent make the first move so that I can capitalize on where he winds up.

I'm quite quick in moving backwards (in kendo, I move backward and attack with my shinai, but they won't let me do that in taekwondo) and can do a quick slide and follow up with a roundhouse, though I generally will try to 'set them up' by not being aggressive and letting them charge in for what they think will be an easy point against a taller, slower opponent. Once they charge in, I slide back and where they're open will determine my counter.

The set up is that I can cover a lot more ground a lot quicker than most people think that I can, mainly due to long legs. I can be out of the way of a head shot exceedingly fast because I'm used to dodging them from much faster shinai in kendo. If I can get them to take the high shot, I can do a very quick leading leg kick to their head or a crescent kick. One advantage of being tall is that if I can get them to take the head shot, they pretty much always wind up over extended trying to kick that high.

Daniel

 

[kaizasosei]

my favorite sword setup, although i have quite a few, is to hold the sword with one hand(maybe switch a few times) and then telegraph a strike so powerfully with the other hand( or just fingers) that the opponent actually goes to block and then practically invisibly thrust into the midsection as i kneel in the right place to avoid getting hit by further flailing of the opponents sword . it's so cool. almost like a magical trick.
of course i like any strike especially making great use of the delay principles.

 

[tigress]

Sometimes I like getting up close and sweeping them with my front leg real fast when they don't know whats coming.

 

[zDom]

Set up expectations and then use the ol' switcheroo.

Couple examples:

Land several front kicks with the back leg (I like to do this anyway ) then, when they are starting to cheat their blocks toward an anticipated front kick,

feint front into a roundhouse to the head.

or

Backfist them to the head several times. When they start to cheat their hands high to block,

feint backfist then stick 'em with a front leg sidekick to the midsection.



The trick is simply to make that feint look just like what you've been hitting them with.

A key element is: mix it up. In the first example, when I say land several front kicks, I don't necessarily mean all in a row. There will be other things happening.

This way you can set up SEVERAL expectations to exploit later in the fight.