your talking about a few different strategies there. attack and defence and faking attacks In MT the shins do clash but you use the top of your shin if you are blocking on the middle if theirs. Like hitting a stick with another one, if the one striking hits with the middle (weakest point) agains the end that is held of another stick, there is a chance the striking stick will break. normally i use a punch combination before landing the low kick, the fake you mention works well. but you cant use fakes many times cos they catch on, usually. The thing with the low kick is to not just think of the single strike but to kit the target many times. after a few strikes your opponents attack and footowork will suffer, you can exploit this. the continued attacks to the leg make openings upstairs. But remember if you strike and they show pain, you got your target, got for it.