Deer and such will not fight unless there are no other options and it has the necessary energy and verve. Apart from immediate physical entrapment, they do not realize that they likely have no options in the long run (pun fully intended). So they run and keep running until they fall into the trough of energy exhaustion.
The first weapons would have been far more basic and require closer proximity than that of a bow and arrow or a throwing spear. So, to your point, prudent early humans would have targeted only the weak, sickly or fatigued. A hot and extended hunt would inevitably result in fatigue, so early humans would have learned the tactic naturally.
The first weapons would have been far more basic and require closer proximity than that of a bow and arrow or a throwing spear. So, to your point, prudent early humans would have targeted only the weak, sickly or fatigued. A hot and extended hunt would inevitably result in fatigue, so early humans would have learned the tactic naturally.