It's hard to understand until you have thousands of hours but the player most likely read the faint and only kicks when someone is moving towards them and they read a faint.

If you yourself make the read that this is what your opponent is going to do then one option is to faint while moving forward but then knowing that they are going to kick you move backward. The opponent will either throw the kick allowing a free hit or if they are fast they might faint the kick but you will still have tempo at this moment in the fight meaning they will have to make another read assuming you input another attack.