HHMS: Haz Head Movement System
Ok so, I use head movement consistently throughout my fights, to slip incoming strikes and set up counters. To the untrained eye, it might seem as if i'm just "getting lucky" guessing where to move my head to slip a strike. The catch, is that it's not luck at all. There is an entire system in place for moving your head, slipping strikes, and setting up counters, and none of it involves guessing. What it is, is a system of set patterns, or "modes" and by switching in between "modes" You can slip tons of strikes without the guess work.
The reason this works, is because only certain strikes can lead into other strikes. If an opponent throws a Jab, there's a good chance a Right Cross, or Right Hook is coming next. We exploit these Striking Patterns, which gives us an edge with our Head Movement modes.
What i'm going to do here is break down the intricacies of Headmovement in UFC 2, including Lean/Sway Strikes, Dashing Strikes, and of course the Headmovement "Modes"/"Patterns"
The Headmovement Patterns are extremely important, but the bread and butter for making this style effective, is utilization of Lean/Sway strikes. This is something I don't think most people even know about, but by initiating a lean in a particular direction, and than throwing certain strikes, you actually get a completely different animation for a completely unique strike. There are quite a few of these, and here they are.
Lean Strikes:
Lean Jab:
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Lean Left Hook:
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Lean Cross:
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Lean Right Hook:
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Ducking Body Hook:
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Lean Hop Lead Uppercut
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Lean Right Uppercut
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Now once you master throwing the various Lean strikes, you can start to learn the Headmovement modes which is the glue that connects the entire system together. There are only a few "Modes" but each mode or pattern can lead directly into and out of each other. The Headmovement modes, also lead directly into the "Lean Strikes". By utilizing these Headmovement patterns, you'll be able to slip a ton of strikes, and set up counters with your Lean Strikes.
Movement Modes
Right slip: Left Slip: Bob n Weave:
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Lean Back: Duck:
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Right Rock:
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Right Duck Under:
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Left Duck Under:
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And that's literally it. Now all of these can lead into each other, and into the Lean Strikes. Paying attention to your opponents Striking Patterns obviously is extremely helpful, but just by cycling between these modes, you'll be able to avoid so many of your opponents strikes it's not even funny.
One of my favorite GIFs, and a good example of Headmovement:
Now Shogun doesn't have some sort of super human reflexes where he is seeing everything coming and reacting to it as he sees it. On the contrary, he is simply cycling through his own Headmovement Patterns to avoid strikes without needing to predict them before hand.
Once you get comfortable with the Headmovement patterns, and leading them into Lean Strikes, you can start to think about Advanced Tips/Tactics:
Advanced Tips/Tactics
-You can use the lean as a Feint. When you use Headmovement a lot in your fight, but only throw your Counter Strikes at appropriate times, your opponent won't necessarily know which Headmovement will lead into a Counter, or just simply be Headmovement. You can take advantage of this by pumping a Lean, and it can act as a Feint, faking out the opponent.
-You can use the Headmovement to set up your single counter strikes, and be more effective at getting in and getting out, picking your shots... But what can be truly devastating is setting up Counter Combos. Many of the lean Strikes are fantastic at setting up high speed Combinations.
- While simply cycling through Headmovement Modes can be an effective way to avoid Strikes, to truly take it to the next level you need to learn to read your opponent. Many people, even if they don't realize it, fall into patterns of certain combinations they like to throw. You can exploit this knowledge once you pick up on there patterns to better your timing and precision with your Headmovement, and set up some nasty Counterstrikes
-Often times when you use a lot of Headmovement, and your opponent starts to realize hitting your head is more trouble than its worth, they'll often start spamming Low Kicks, or Body Kicks.. This leads me right into my next Tip/Tactic, which deserves it's own section:
The Philly Shell - Defending Low Kicks & Body Kicks
Well first, let's preface by saying, no technique is effective in all situations. Sometimes Headmovement just isn't what you want to be doing, and you should move on to different tactics. If your opponent catches on to your slick *** Headmovement, and realizes striking your head is pretty much useless, they'll often just start spamming low kicks, or body kicks. At this point you just have to switch tactics, because Headmovemnt isn't gonna be effective anymore..
However, you can still use Headmovement against someone throwing a lot of kicks, and body strikes.
A lot of the time, if i'm up against someone who uses a kicking heavy, or body shot heavy style, i'll switch my defense into a "Philly Shell":
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Now obviously, what i'm doing in EA UFC 2 isn't a real Philly Shell, but what i'll do is hold block on my body, and only use my Headmovement for defending against head strikes. You can keep the body block held while moving your head around, and let go to be immediately blocking your body again. Also at any point while moving your head you can trigger a "Lean/Sway Strike" to initiate your counters. All of the Headmovement system still works out of the "Philly Shell" so you can effectively block body shots, and be ready to set up a counter strike still.
You need to really use distance management to your advantage, and pay attention to your opponents patterns. Most people, even if they don't even realize it, fall into patterns where they really only throw a few different combos. So try to figure that out, and use that to know when to block, when to keep your distance, when to initiate, use Headmovement, and when to counter.
Forward Dashing Jabs, and Left Hooks are great tools for initiating when the opp whiffs on a body kick, and is still in recovery frames.
By combining strong distance management, with the Philly shell defense, and Dash in strikes after whiffs, you should be able to pick them apart.
Also, A small section on Dashing Strikes, which many players either don't know about, or don't utilize. Adding these into the arsenal will give many more options for offensive, and defensive striking.
Dashing Strikes
Dashing Jab:
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Dashing Left Hook - "The Roy Jones Jr":
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Step Back Cross:
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Step Back Check Hook:
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And A few examples of me devastating my opponents with the Haz Head Movement System(tm):
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