Feint Attacks With Randy Steinke

Feinting is a really important aspect of striking that is almost never trained, at least directly, by most fighters or coaches. Feinting is the act of making a motion that looks like the beginning of a strike to make your opponent flinch. It’s a good thing to know the difference between feinting and faking a strike, faking a strike is when you throw a strike completely, like a rear cross, but have no intention of landing whereas in a feint you only throw the first part and should be more non committal, meaning it will be easier to return to your normal stance. Both can be used for a similar purpose but should be used in different situations and at different times. 

Feinting is done for many different reasons One of the biggest and the main framework that feinting is taught in is using them to make reads on your opponent. If you feint a strike, particularly if you have used that strike before and landed with if, the feint will normally draw out the defense of your opponent. Now that you know what kind of defense your opponent is likely to go with, you can build off of that. 

For example let’s say that you have been landing your jab and then you feint your jab to how your opponent is going to react. If you see that your opponent is going to reach out to try and parry your jab because of your feint, you can feint another jab but then come around their parry arm to land a lead hook. 

Another reason that feint is important is that it helps you create openings like we just mentioned but in more ways. If you feint a jab and they bite on it and attempt to defend against the jab, any other shot is available to you. The nice thing about feints is that overusing them can still be useful. If you use a feint so much that your opponent becomes desensitized to it and doest react, that means that the strike that you were feinting becomes easier to land, as your opponent is less likely to defend against what they think will be just another feints. This means that you will pretty much be able to attack when you want, as your opponent won't know what is an attack and what is just a feint. 

On the other hand, feints also help keep your range, as you are constantly threatening strikes, it will be harder for your opponent to know when to come in as you might be readying up to throw a strike. 

On that note in this video featuring former World Series Of Fighting competitor Randy Steinke shows a method of doubling up on your feints to control the range and step up your strikes. THis is a fairly simple method of feinting that only uses the lower body, which makes it easier to defend if your opponent tries to counter. 

You are just going to step forward as if you were coming forward with a jab and then step forward again, this time on a 45 degree angle outward as if you were following up with a cross. Doing this quickly will likely confuse your opponent and might make them freeze up like a deer in headlights. From there you can follow up with strikes or return to your stance.

Make sure that you don’t step too far forward or else it will be harder to defend yourself or return to your stance, remember feints should be fairly non-committal and shouldn't get you stuck. To help train the right distance you can do what Randy did and place a piece of tape on the floor to mark where you should step. 

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