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Triggers by Gary Turner
For your sparring to improve, your
reactions must become quicker. The obvious way is to work on your explosive
power to get yourself moving as fast as you can. But there is a limit to how
fast you can physically become, so you have to look elsewhere for that
‘edge’ over your opponent. If you can ‘read’ your opponent before he has
started a move you have given yourself maximum time to react. The way to achieve
this is by learning about ‘triggers’. The simple definition of a trigger is a movement that pre-empts another. A classic example is people looking down before throwing a kick, or pulling their arms back before throwing a punch. As soon as you recognise this trigger, you know they are about to attack. Everyone, without fail, will give a trigger for every strike they throw. It’s just how well they cover them up… Learning to recognise triggers
requires practice. For a start, you need to use all six of your senses,
discussed in a moment. It’s always best to start in training, so next time
you’re working with a partner in the class, whether sparring or just simple
padwork, look for the triggers. Once recognised, remember what that person does
and see if your next partner does the same. Perhaps its easier if I give some examples. A trigger that everyone does all the time is with the breathing. You only attack when breathing out, never when breathing in. If you are breathing out and need to react, you’ll take a sharp intake of breath before exhaling as you move. If you learn to watch your opponents breathing patterns you will know what moments you are safe for, and when to watch for an attack. Look for the flaring of the nostrils, rising and falling of the chest, hear the breath being exhaled, or if you are close enough you may feel (or smell!) the breath. Watch your opponent’s eyes. See where they are looking. Many people look at the target they are aiming for. When you look at your opponent, make sure you take in the whole picture – don’t just focus on one single area. Make sure you see every movement, no matter how small or subtle, from the top of his head to the weighting of his feet. See whether the eyes become more focused or intense before an attack. Look for twitches and body
movements, and learn which are related to particular techniques. Examples here
are touching gloves together or raise their guard before punching, or shifting
weight when kicking. Footwork is a good source of accurate triggers. Often people will ‘step up’ to throw a lead leg side kick, or step over to allow the hips to swing a rear leg Thai kick. The fighter’s posture may change, or feet position generally adjust, to set themselves up for a technique. Repetition creates habit. These movements are a result of errors creeping into training and becoming subconsciously stuck in your fighting moves. So if they exist in others, they exist in you. Others will learn these and play them against you. Time to shadow box in front of a mirror, and look for anything that pre-empts a technique. Get your training partners to tell you what they can spot. Once recognised, you can work on minimising or removing them, or making sure you can cover for your mistakes. Alternatively, use triggers to work for you. A successful move by many of today’s top fighters is to create a false and obvious trigger, before throwing a basic technique while sparring. After the opponent has learnt this a completely different technique is thrown but using the same trigger to capitalise on the opponent’s reaction. It is suggested you have a play with triggers, and see how you can get them to work for you. Without a doubt, a study of triggers will improve your fighting. It will give a time advantage, giving you a longer period to react. If you counter your opponent’s techniques, be sure he’ll soon get fed up with throwing them! |
