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Comment by Super_Jambo | Hacker News Reader

So optimally you want to be startled into action by something other than your opponent drawing. Then you get the speed advantage & a head start...

Wonder if anyones done any research on training this for martial arts.

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We had techniques where we try to minimize the "telegraphing" of our own punch. You practice that with a partner, and try to hit the partener's open hand before they can react to it. If the partner notices you moving first, they drop their hand and they "win". Its an effective drill for the partner too, because they have to learn to read your body motion.

Yeah, they do this in Krav and Jitsu too, but it's not what I'm talking about. These techniques are about spotting the initiator as early as possible, then you're startled into re-action.

The article suggests that actions where you're primed to act and then startled into action are faster than ones where you act of your own volition.

So, could you (for example) condition yourself into being startled by say a raised eyebrow, at which point you would be able to carry out a pre-planned attack with the same speed as a reaction.

A friend who does Aikido says it's not explicitly taught quite like that - but that he does train to watch, for example, an attackers shoulders for slight movement prior to their attack.

I don't know any martial arts, but it reminds me of basketball - dribbling is exactly the same - every second you decide to start or not, you can make fake moves, and your oponent has to guess and react faster. And if his guess is wrong he allows you to pass him.

Sometimes you can just feel the rythm in which oponent will react, and then passing him is easy and pleasurable at the same time. And looks cool. That's why I love basketball :)

It's the same in [association] football, rugby, volleyball, netball, [field] hockey. Presumably true in other sports too - so is that really why you love playing basketball?

Which implies that you could probably throw off someone like that just by, for instance, feinting the shoulder movement.

Having the body control to produce false, seemingly involuntary signals - while suppressing true involuntary signals - implies a level of physical mastery to the extent that you, likely, already possess a substantial advantage in the bout. This is like selling a fake tell in poker while not actually having a tell - even James Bond would tell you that's hard.

You could just sell enough fake tells--produce enough false signals--to throw your opponent off of whatever actual tells you have. I wonder if this is similar in concept to the "drunken" kung fu style.

My thought to.

Believe me: doesn't work ;)

Kind of like Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction

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