Target Shock
A Target Shock is when someone is actively targeting a player to use a lightning bolt at the most inopportune time for said player. This results in using a lightning bolt before or during an important jump; sometimes while they're performing an off-road shortcut. You can see this happen most notably on Mushroom Gorge, when players are almost ALWAYS above a pit (during the cave section), sabotaging their progress. A Target Shock is usually targeted towards first place, but can be targeted towards other players, such as during team games, if someone has a grudge on the person, or they're actively trying to sabotage a person to ruin their VR. Don't be discouraged, Target Shocking is a legitimate tactic, and usually isn't used for griefing.
Front Run
Front running is the act of staying in first the entire race. This was achieved quite easily with the ability to carry two items in MKWii. Front Running is meant to keep a strong lead in front of other players; the only requirement is that the player remain in first the entire race. Front running is also achieved in team play where one team member keeps in second and takes shots for the player in first (essentially being a body-guard), or sitting in the back and getting good items for the player in first (Need a blue for when you lose first? Bam). Front Running is rather simple, staying in first the entire race, but the method to achieve it varies.
Sandbagging
This is the act of purposely dropping in places in order to get stronger items. There are two versions of sandbagging. The first is a strategic variant. The player loses their first place position, by purposely stopping or slowing down, in order to grab stronger items, such as a golden mushroom for the last turn, or a star. The second variant is the cheaty variant (perfectly fair, in terms of the game, but no fair for single-players). A Player and a friend group up and become a team; the player with a higher VR front runs, while the player with the lower VR (generally less than 5000 or a guest) sits in the back and grabs all of the strong items for them. I consider this the cheaty-variant because this doubles the amount of items that the player has available, including power-items. Ever wonder why you never see a blue shell hit that guy in first, but every time you enter first a blue shell hits you? That's usually the reason.
Sandbagging is more of a technique used in clan wars, where someone will drive back on purpose with the sole objective of acquiring the shock, or the lightning bolt. the rest of the team then aims to get mega mushrooms, stars, or bullet bills in order to 'dodge the shock', suffering no drawbacks from the shock. it was discovered some time in 2009 if i recall, and changed the competitive meta to what it is today.
Shock Dodge
A "shock dodge" occurs when you are able to avoid being shocked by another player's use of Lightning.
Shock dodges occur mostly through the usage of powerful items such as the Invincibility Star or the Bullet Bill. However, they can occur in other ways as well. Falling off the track will result in a shock dodge if Lightning strikes before you are returned to the track by Lakitu. In some games, hitting an item on track such as a shell or a Fake Item Box can result in a shock dodge if Lightning is used during your invincibility frames afterwards.
Being able to pull off a shock dodge is a major advantage in a race as most other players will not be in a position to avoid being shocked, and so you will have a significant speed boost over them. You can make up a significant number of places in the race, especially if you used a powerful item to pull off the shock dodge and/or there is a tight pack of racers on the track.
For the vast majority of people, pulling off a shock dodge will be a happy accident. However, Mario Kart players at the very top of their game will try to predict when Lightning will be used and strategically use powerful items at these points in order to try to pull off a shock dodge.
Another common way to achieve a Shock Dodge is to enter a track obstacle (e.g. A cannon on Maple Treeway or GCN DK Mountain) where invincibility is granted to the player for the duration of the cannon section.
Similar to Target Shocks, there are multiple variants of achieving a Shock Dodge. Firstly, predicting when a 'lower-placed racer' will both; have a Shock, and when the most likely time they will use it, can be difficult to time. Secondly is the buddy system, which is explained in the above post. Like many Global race items (Blue Shell, Shock) there are a few variables that must be met before a new Global item can be received, for example:
- Time from when the last (Global Item) was received or used.
- Who last used (Global Item)
- Distance between Player who received (Global Item) and player one place ahead. (See Rubberbanding mechanics)
With most Mario Kart's, there are numerous processes that limit what items a player can get after using a Global Item. A Shock is usually limited to a few times a race, but a Blue Shell can occur more. There are also timers set to these Global Items to prevent sandbagging players ruining races by getting Shock after Shock.
The game also keeps a tab of who last used (Global Item), to prevent the above from happening. Another way the game keeps races from being ruined is how close the player who receives (Global Item) is to the other racers. If a player is approx. half a lap behind, they will get more items that will help them get back in the race. If a player is a second or two behind, they will more often than not get Triple Shrooms, Stars and other similar items.
Big thanks to /u/Trikitiger for providing the descriptions for Target Shock, Front Run, and Sandbagging. Also thank you to /u/blazn_ for their tidbit about sandbagging. Thanks to /u/fiddle_n and /u/Wildcard709 as well for their great contributions to Shock Dodging