Broken Rhythm

For fighting purposes Broken Rhythm refers to the idea of constantly changing your pace, your timing, your speed and what techniques you are throwing.

Examples of pace include walking, crawling (slow motion type speed), skipping, jogging, light running and sprinting etc.. Your timing can change based on what kind/speed of motion you are doing and when you are doing it. For example if you start running then stop then break into a jog and then just start walking while in motion to fight. Your technique speed can be faster or slower to mess with the timing and / or movement of the other person.

The idea in broken rhythm is for the opponent to never know what you are going to do next. If they can figure your movement out in advance then you are not truly moving with a broken rhythm and are probably moving with a pattern or rhythm of some kind.

The primary benefit of broken rhythm is that the opponent can not figure out what you are going to do next. The downside is that to truly move with broken rhythm you must constantly change and not repeat a pattern which is mentally and physically very demanding and tiring so that most people can not keep up the demanding pace for very long.

A good drill to work on Broken Rhythm is to have your training partner point their finger at you pretending they have a gun and if they can figure out where and when you are going to be before you get there then they yell bang and drop their thumb to indicate shooting. If they get you quite a bit then you should ask them what they are seeing or picking up on that is repeating and / or giving you away so that you can fix the problem.