JKD Broken Rhythm Basics
In motion there can be established a rhythm.
Natural body movement of bobbing and weaving, feinting, even punching and kicking often have a natural rhythm. In training learn to be aware of your rhythm. In drill with your training partner learn to be aware of his rhythm in both attack and defense. Once you become aware of rhythm you can work on breaking your rhythm to destroy the rhythm of your opponent’s defense or to break his attacking rhythm.
The breaking of any normal rhythm by a slight hesitation or an additional beat between the normal rhythm leads to broken rhythm. In other words, rhythm can be broken by:
- Motion from a slow rhythm to a fast one;
- From fast to slow; and
- By pausing between two or more movements.
Broken rhythm is also referred to as “hitting on the half-beat” because the motion takes place in the middle of one beat in the rhythm of an attacking sequence. Broken rhythm in both attack and counterattack is valuable because it catches the opponent when he is motor set, which make it very difficult to counter and defend.
For example:
The above is an excerpt from the first edition of the Jun Fan Jeet Kune Do Textbook by Sifu Tim Tackett and Sifu Chris Kent as published in the July 1989 issue of IKF magazine. You can learn more about Sifu Tackett and his JKD Wednesday Night Group at JKDWedNite.com, and Sifu Kent at CKJKD.com.
About the video: In the excerpt from the video lesson above, you can see Sifu Jeremy Lynch of the JKD Wednesday Night Group discussing a basic element of Broken Rhythm attack as taught in Chinatown JKD, the “negative one – positive two” combination; which is executed by throwing a “negative” first strike (full power strike that does not penetrate the target) which is followed by a “positive” second strike (which is a full power strike that penetrates the target).
When a “negative one – positive two” attack is performed correctly, it will have less time lag than the typical “one – two” combination. This type of an attack works especially well against a “blocker”.
The video is an excerpt from a video lesson on Chinatown Jeet Kune Do available at: JKDLessons.com
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