There’s a universal combative principle known as ‘fake east, go west.’
This idea has been valid since forever. It has been used effectively in small-scale fights between individuals and also at the grand strategic level in huge wars.
That’s because it only always works. The idea is to distract your opponent by doing one thing over here and then hit them hard somewhere else.
One application of the concept ‘fake east, go west’ concept is ‘fake low, go high’.
This idea works in many different positions, but is most easily illustrated on the feet…
Fake Shot to Flying Guillotine Choke (Fake Low, Go High)
First, we’ll use level changes to set up the guillotine choke.
Part of a good shot – be it a double leg takedown, a single leg, a high crotch, whatever – is the level change that precedes shooting in on your opponent’s legs.
If you’re good at takedowns, do a level change, and your opponent doesn’t respond, then you’re probably going to take him down.
Most of the time a good defender will match your level change by lowering their own body – now it’s much harder for you to get under them and latch onto their legs.
But you can also use this tendency to match your level change against your opponent.
First fake low a couple of times by doing a few level changes and indicating that you want to shoot in. This trains them to respond to you in a certain way.
Now initiate a level change again, but don’t drop all the way down. When your opponent attempts to follow you down change direction and go high.
Probably the most efficient thing you can do to finish a match is to go high and lock on a guillotine choke, but you could also just go high and secure an advantageous upper body tie on your opponent.
The video below has detailed breakdown about how to use the level change to set up and finish the guillotine choke…
Fake Shot to Low Single (Fake Low, Fake High, Go High)
Here’s another example of using level changes to set up and disguise your true attack.
First you’ll train your opponent to match your level change, just as before. You go down, he goes down. You come up, he comes up.
Then you drop again and start to come up which gets his momentum going up, but then you drop down again and shoot for a takedown.
The video below has a detailed breakdown of using the level change to set up the low single takedown (as well as great details for finishing with a SUPER-tight ankle lock), so check it out…
Lie to Your Opponent
The take-home lesson of today’s article is that you should learn to lie to your opponent. Learn to fake east and go west. Fake high and go low.
It’ll make your life better and allow you to land a much greater percentage of your attacks.
Stephan Kesting
P.S. This concept of Fake East, Go West was covered in detail in my Black Belt Grappling Concepts Course.
This was the very first conceptual jiu-jitsu instructional on the internet, and is still one of the best.
P.P.S. The level change fakes and attacks I talked about above are all drawn from an instructional I did with Elliott Bayev called 30 Second Fight Finishes.
This instructional is all about how to seize and maintain the initiative in a match so that your opponent is forever on the defensive and only ever a single screw-up away from tapping out.
There are a ton of gamechanging gems in 30 Second Fight Finishes, and I recommend it highly!
P.P.P.S. If you would like to receive articles like this one in email format FOR FREE then enter your best email in the box below and click the red button. I promise it’s the best jiu-jitsu email newsletter on the internet!
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