Go No Sen: Attack after they attack.

Training to read the body for Sen Sen no sen or Sen no sen generally uses the same drill, the same concept.

But attacking after they finish their attack (Go no Sen) is considered the least effective way to counter. Yet it is in some ways the more complex, and because it happens more often against skilled opponents, one to get very good at.

Usually Go no Sen happens after you either fail to read a strike on time, or could not hit before their attack is completed, usually because they have good foot work and movement.

However, there are a couple of ways to use Go no Sen in a way that really compromises your opponent.

Many baiting them to over extended past their balance to create a window to strike.

The thing is, to use Go no Sen in the best way possible, it requires an excellent sense of distance and good footwork, especially on the outside.

Jesse Enkamp the Karate nerd made a video on Go No Sen (To watch it, search his name with Go no Sen, sen no sen etc)

Jesse divides the use of the three initiatives on range, which isn’t a bad thing. But he over simplifies it, since it’s possible to do all three initiatives in all three ranges.

I will concede however that GO no Sen is the best option in long range, since it takes much more refined footwork and timing to do Sen Sen no Sen or Sen No Sen from far away. Instead it’s better to present leads and bait, to get them to over extend their strike against you as you shift, then counter. Basically watch any good counter striker, this is what they do.

WHERE I DISAGREE WITH JESSE ENKAMP: CLOSE RANGE IS GOOD FOR GO NO SEN TOO

He 30% disagree with him that Sen/Sen Sen no sen works best in close range. It does if you can do it. But so much of close quarters involves a form of grappling, where limbs are trapped or stifled. Sometimes a flow or reposition helps. Pummelling, grip fighting or even sticky hands. But your using your opponents finished strike rather than cutting it off like other forms of countering.

Think about it like Jiu jitsu. It’s how you recognize openings to escape, much like how submission attempts from the guy on bottom opens up guard passing in Jiu jitsu.

I want to reiterate, Jesse isn’t wrong that being close is a good time to attack first, to read and then strike. But frankly if you have an attack mindset, you’re constantly trying to hit first anyway, read their attack before it happens and hit the fucker. If your grappling your constantly looking to take balance or isolate limbs. And if you got good posiiton, you fucking hit them.

Go No Sen however is what you rely on when your not in a neutral or dominant position, and as a result it should be studied in all forms of fighting. And frankly it is, that’s why it’s so common.

If attacking the attack, or hitting someone before they throw a strike was easy, everyone would do it. I pull it off with my slow fat ass because I spent years just learning to read and flow, but sometimes I can’t, and I have to wait at times.

Yet just because it’s common, doesn’t mean it’s well mastered. Remember Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida? They got experienced strikers to over extended, they were very good at this. They built their career on this concept. Of course the quality of striking and feinting in the UFC got better, and it stopped being so useful, though they still had long careers even after being figured out. They certainly could ruin fighters on lower levels.

Arguably the best striker in the world pound for pound and adjusted to age.

He’s one of the best of all time. But please stop comparing him to Ali, Ali took lots of risks and took all comers. Even fought in the earliest MMA match with Inoki.

Seanchai in Muay Thai and Floyd Mayweather fought the best strikers in the world using this, and frankly were much better at it than Anderson and Machida both. Their opponents knew what they would do, present a false range and then bait them to overly commit. But their defense in general was good enough they could get inside and still score points and punishment, and they could probe very well. Seanchai in particular is a master at feinting and disguising his strikes.

Before I digress too much, I want to emphasize that mastering Go No Sen can set you apart from everyone else, it’s a game to be mastered.


But remember, it’s always better to hit them just as they are about to strike or if they are in the middle of their strike. It just is. It’s just harder.

THE DRILL

On the most general sense, one person feeds, the other counters. It naturally will shift between all three timing.

But we have to get more specific.

To specifically utilize Go no sen best in striking is to basically move backwards or laterally and have someone feed or charge at you.

Of course most skilled people quickly clue into this.

THe next step is to put your head outside the range of your footwork, a false target. You can do this with your leg or even hands. Then you pepper them with your own strikes. At some point they want to take your head off, and when they attack simply move it back or to the side, and they over extend.

See the image above? Look at what Mayweather does with his head, it’s slightly outside his stance, and he brings it right back like pulling a carpet from under someone when attacked. That’s an example of a lead, a good bait.

Long distance examples

One program that offers drills that work on this is Phil Norman’s “Ghost” program, which greatly utilizes distance and forcing your opponent to over commit. They will have video of what I describe.

A midrange example would be shoulder rolling a punch instead of slipping it to cause an over extension. The same applies for palming a strike rather than parrying it. The roll and the palm cause an over extension. I can find a moving image for a roll, but not palming a punch unfortunately.

Rolling the head instead of directly slipping to the side causes an over extension.

In the clinch the best equivalent of an over extention is shucking a neck tie when someone drives you forward, often leading to a better position. And despite the fact many people think it doesn’t work, sticky hands actually helps do this for strikes, especially when hand fighting happens.

So few people do sticking like I do in dirty boxing, this is the closest I can find. Tony is losing now, but because his wrestling is shit. His striking was never bad.

Honest to god, I will revisit this blog page to expand on it, and to clarify it. Right now this is a rough draft of what could possibly be a book or even a video instructional.