Rushing

Hazards of rushing into kicks

• Mistakes are painful. Any slight misjudgment may mean you may rush directly into the kick and get hit even harder than you would have had you done nothing.
• The opponent may be using the kick as a fake or as the first attack of a series of attacks so you may be rushing into another attack for which you were not prepared.

As a rusher, you wait for the opponent to make an offensive movement, and immediately rush in with a frenzy of counterattacks. Your opponent learns that any aggressive movement on his or her part will release a flurry of attacks from you and thus will become hesitant to attack. However, do not use rushing all the time. Rushing will make opponents hesitant to attack to awhile, but then they will learn to use their movements to set you up for counterattacks as you rush in.

You have to practice rushing a lot in class until you become proficient, which will lessen your chances of injury. You have to toughen yourself for the inevitable times when you misjudge and get hit while rushing into an attack.