Adjust Your Timing With Randy Steinke's Change Up!
Being able to feint and trick your opponent to open up holes in their defense is an essential skill for any fighter, MMA being a sport of its own has its own unique ranges differing from other combat sports. World Class Coach Randy Steinke shows how to safely land strikes and feint to open the opponent up so they are always back peddling and guessing!
To set up his “Change Up” Coach Randy Steinke first has to land his first combination he calls the “Fast Ball”. The Fast Ball starts by throwing a fast jab high to the opponent's head to get their attention up, from that high jab Coach Steinke bends his knees to lower his level and fires a rear cross to the opponents body by pivoting deep on his rear leg to put his body weight behind the punch. From the body cross Coach Randy Steinke resets his positioning by pushing off the now loaded lead leg and shifts his body slightly back away from the opponent. Immediately after resetting Coach Randy will dart back in to the opponent with a jab, cross, explaining that coming back in with the jab cross is important because if you damage the opponent with the body shot or just get them to commit to blocking it, their hands will be low leaving the face wide open to land your next jab, cross!
Coach Randy Steinke can now start using feints to make the opponent open themselves up. His first feint he shows is faking the high jab and dropping his level to dig into another rear cross to the body. If he had been landing that jab and making the opponent respect his jab, the feint should open the opponent’s body up to be attacked, if you do not get your opponent to respect your attacks they will not make that movement to defend your feint.
The next feint Coach Randy shows is to fake the jab like before and then lower for your body cross but you will feint the cross as well, still shifting your body into the lead leg as if you threw the punch. Feinting the rear cross will load your weight into the lead leg, making it a prime time to explode off of that leg into a lead hook to the opponents exposed head. The head should be exposed if they bought the body cross feint and lowered their hands to defend the attack. From your lead hook your weight is shifted back to the rear leg so Coach Steinke follows back up with a rear cross to finish his combination.
The key to making these feints work is to keep your movements small, if you over commit your feint or throw it differently than would if you threw it for real, the opponent will not buy into your trick. If you follow this pattern you will get your opponent looking, looking low, looking high again, never knowing where the attack is going to come from which will make it much harder to defend and counter your strikes. To train these feints, Coach Randy Steinke demonstrates doing them in order to your partner, having them first hold for the “Fast Ball” (high jab, body cross) then feinting the Fast Ball (feint jab, body cross) then finishing up with the “Change Up” ( feint jab, feint body cross, lead hook, rear cross).
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