Keep your opponent guessing
Sensei Chico explains tai-sabaki (body evasion) for kumite. Make your opponent readjust by being mobile and hard to read. The best fighters are hard to predict and disrupt the flow and timing of their opponent.
Move laterally, reposition yourself, change your distance - anything to keep them guessing.
Patterns and habits influence how people attack, defend and move. Fighters are tethered to a 'comfort zone', a place of high tactical potential from which they attack.
In this clip, Sensei Chico emphasises the need to puncture that sense of comfort. Being disruptive and unpredictable makes it harder for an opponent to find a rhythm. It disrupts their flow and makes it harder for them to reset to their comfort zone.