what does the term ... faking .. mean

[swampcharlie]

i googled it .. and i get different definitions.....

[Zen ©]

2 things in terms of rl
Intended purpose
Someone who is intentionally going to miss a shot or ball hit while making it look as though their intention all along is to go for it Will say faking prior to the attempt to notify their teamates that they will miss.

unintended purpose (most common use)
Someone who goes for a hit or shot and wiffs or miss hits the ball will say faking to absolve themselves of the mistake in the eyes of their team mates though no one is ever fooled by this, we all know your miss or miss hit was unintended.

[Specific Beef]

^ As above, but additional explanation...

When done well, faking can be used to win a kick-off outright. The faking player dives sideways at the last moment, the opponent knocks the ball straight downfield to the waiting goalkeeper, who gets an easy huge clear up to the opponents' defensive area. If you watch pro players on Youtube, especially when they're playing 2s, you're guaranteed to see this in action at some point. So be aware of this, if your team-mate says "Faking" on kick-off, since you'll need to be ready for what comes next. Before "Faking" existed as a quick chat, people used to use multiple blasts of "Take the shot!" as a code (which wasn't great since a lot of people spam everything they say three times, whether they know the in-crowd code or not).

Outside of that, as Zen says it can be used tactically anywhere on the field to force a player to act, so alerting you that they're about to fake is an indication that you should try and read where the opponents' hit is going and pick it up.