Left Pic. Ash (at Left) thrusts at James (at Right) low line. Take note of James’ rear leg on the red line.
Right Pic. James (at Right), maintains his guard and intercepts Ash (at Left) attack by quickly shuffling his rear foot backwards. This will cause his line of defence to drop.
I’ve always said that the evolution and development of FFS is through feedback and questions through my students.
Today’s lesson was typical of that situation. I had a session with one of my new students (Sean Reilly). It was actually his 2nd lesson with me. But even though he is new to FFS, Sean actually taught me something that would improve one of my moves.
His first lesson was the standard introduction to FFS; complete with the “Floro Shock” (i.e. getting hit in the face several times with non-telegraphic strikes). It is also “tradition” that we put into practice what was taught through sparring.
I find that one of the hardest things my students find when starting out with the sparring is how to deal with strikes on different levels i.e. High and low strikes.
When defending against a low line attack (e.g. to the stomach), it is a mistake to drop your hands to block or fend off the attack. The reason for this is that if you do drop your guard, you will also expose the “high line”. Hence, if you opponent fakes low, you are an easy target for a face shot.
The way I normally teach how to deal with this is to maintain the position of your guard, and instead of dropping the hands……you DROP YOUR BODY. This will effectively cover the low line.
The dropping of the body is made via bending the knees, much like doing a squat (do not bend the upper body like a “bow”).
Although an effective method, it can somewhat be hard to do, and slow, when taken by surprise.
Sean was trying to practice this move at home, and found it difficult. Especially since he is just recovering from a previous knee injury.
To compensate for this, he “invented” a new move.
Instead of squatting and bending both knees………..
From the guard position; when the low line attack comes. He shuffled just HIS REAR FOOT backwards. The front foot remains in the SAME position. It is only the rear foot that shuffles back. This in effect spreads your legs wider, hence making your body drop in height.
I think the move is genius…….as it is faster than squatting, and moving the foot back IS instinctive. The wider leg spread gives greater stability as well.
Well, there you go……the teacher being taught.
It is instances like these that one would call “Priceless”.
Ray Floro
