In this fight between Damien Trainor and Tawatchai Budsadee, both fighters keep using these jumping/flying attacks without really setting them up with fakes or combos. Either that or I am actually missing something here. They seem to land most of the time. See two of these back to back at 4:38. The first is a jumping vertical/downward elbow to the head by Damien, and the second is a long jumping superman cross by Tawatchai.
Damien Trainor is one of the greatest in MT in recent history. He is a skilled technical fighter. I would expect him to counter Tawatchai's flying attacks while he is in the air (possibly with a sidekick or a front kick). Tawatchai's wind up in 4:43 is hard to miss. There is a flying knee at 8:23 which missed Damien's head. However, it did make contact with the body. Also, while landing Tawatchai grabbed Damien's head with both hands pulling it down. Damien missed a jumping elbow at 9:18, but then landed the next one at 12:42.
There are more of those. Some are evaded, true, but none are countered. There has to be a reason. Usually, it's impossible to counter a well-timed strike.
How are they setting these up? I can't figure out the fakes and feints. Is there any special body movement or footwork (used as fakes or feints) that I can't distinguish?
I tried the jumping elbow a number of times in the gym (of course just tagged the head gently). When I did it with people who don't study the art, I landed flush. When they saw me jump they instantly covered up, which allowed me to land the strike safely. But when I did it with people who are at my level or better, every single time they either threw a tip (front kick) or just moved away. I fell on my face twice.
