5. Avoid standing squared (open shoulders), while either in front of an opponent or in the pocket. Common sense tells you that if your shoulders are open, then you not only present an easy target for your opponent to hit, but also it is difficult to rotate your hips fully through the center line to create any power behind either knee strikes or inside punches.
6. When facing a southpaw or sharp-shooting hard kicker, a fighter may lack effective feinting or faking skills to draw this leadoff fighter off balance by breaking his timing. When it seems impossible to back up this type of opponent, a fighter must know how to break his rhythm or cause him to hesitate, using faking skills, and then work defensive timing to come in his back door with a counterattack.
7. Many fighters and practitioners who spar always fail to keep their backs pointing towards the center of the ring. They will be walked to the ropes, and find themselves trapped and punished, without any means or daylight (room to move), allowing them to escape.
8. Avoid the habit of remaining in the same pocket position, continuing to fire combination after combination, without turning your opponent or changing the angle or spot from which you keep firing. Remember that standing in the same spot makes you a good target.
In a career spanning more that four decades, Joe Lewis has won more competition titles and instituted more innovations than anyone in the history of martial sports. That’s why he is “The Greatest Fighter in the History of Karate.”
