In this session there was added emphasis on positioning, and using the eyes to read what your opponent is doing. Don’t just go through memorized positions or moves. This was happening with my forward check. Earlier in the series Karuhat told me to stop forward checking (which is lifting my left leg to check and close the open side, which is really important for a southpaw fighter), a movement that really was helping me in my timing. He told me to stop doing it because he felt like I wasn’t doing it for a purpose, with thought, even though it was something I learned from him. At this point in the Intensive I had brought the forward check back, and even hanging it in the air as a defensive tactic. He’s urging me not to just do it, but to use it to read. What is the opponent doing when I forward check? If he/she does nothing, then what do I do? That is just a small example of the larger principle he’s bringing out. In a more basic level he tells me to watch his weight. It’s simple. When he’s on his back foot he can only defend. It isn’t hard. Yes he can block, but he can only block in certain ways. When he’s on his front foot he can attack. Just this simple toggle is important to perceive, all of the Intensives are about this reading, you’ll hear me say it again and again. If you haven’t read it yet Kevins’ “Secrets of Karuhat’s Style” is a really good piece on the kinds of things you can read, what we call games.

Episode 18. At top is a free 3 minute extended clip, but you can watch the full 80 minute commentary video of this session on Vimeo On Demand. Purchase of the video or subscription lends support to legends of the ring as Karuhat gets 55% of the net proceeds from this series; patrons get a substantial discount (you can purchase Episode 18 individually after the trailer below, or look to Episode 18 in the full list). You can also subscribe to the entire series, there are now over 20 hours of commentary training footage published:

watch all the free videos in this series