When I began boxing and later Jeet Kune Do, you’d often hear people talk about “throwing a fake” or “just feint a movement”… and to me the terms seemed to be used interchangeably and to mean the same thing.
Only years later, when I began training with my Chinatown Jeet Kune Do instructor, Sifu Tim Tackett, was it really explained to me properly. I dug up a note I’d written in class several years ago, and this is how it was explained to me at that time (so this is the ‘short answer’):
– A “fake” is a gross body movement (e.g. shoulder drop, eye movement, hip movement)
– A “feint” is a partially completed technique that should look like the “real thing”
Not very detailed, but it taught me that there is a distinction between the two.
Here’s a more detailed explanation between the two:
The Fake
Fakes are done when a JKD practitioner want his opponent to go in one direction while he moves in the other. In Jeet Kune Do, there are three kinds of fakes: “the eye fake”, “the body-position fake” and the “half-motion fake”.
To trick your opponent with an eye fake, look at one target, then attack another. For example, if the JKD practitioner plans on attacking low, he looks at his opponent’s head. This makes the opponent think the practitioner is going to throw a high attack.
A body-position fake means moving in one direction, then attacking the other. If a JKD stylist lowers his body as if he’s going to strike at a low target, his opponent will think the stylist will hit low. The opponent will not expect a high attack.
A half-motion fake refers to when a JKD stylist uses one of his limbs to distract his oppnent from his true line of attack. Basically, it is an incomplete attack that deceives the opponent and opens a line.
The Feint
Feints are not fakes. They are false attacks meant to confuse an opponent. When doing a continuous motion, like a kick or punch, the motion should seem like a real attack until the Jeet Kune Do practitioner switches to his true line of attack.
This explanation was taken from my teacher’s books on Chinatown Jeet Kune Do published by Black Belt Books.
Good clarification!!