>>23496656
>>23496612
>>23496592
>>23496648
Yep, that's basically it, a feint. Amuro also likes to use dummy balloons for the same reason, anything to get an advantage helps.

A similar thing happens in 08th MS Team when Norris tosses his heat sword to the side. Shiro locks eyes on that fast movement and watches the sword fly away, but by the time he looks back at Norris, he's already about to hit Shiro with the electric wire.

IIRC there's a similar scene in 0083 where Gato tosses a beam saber as a decoy to get up close and force a duel with Kou, but it plays out much more slowly.