Where are You Going to Focus Your Eyes in the Middle of Combat?
[I:http://www.mymartialartsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/AlCase7.gif]There is, of course, that Mugger?s technique known as blindsiding. This is the sneak attack, by misdirection, from the rear, or some unknown angle or sense of time. Assuming that you are going to have enough awareness to avoid getting clocked by a blindside, what are you going to do?
Where are you going to focus your gaze when some mugger or thug wants to hit you when you least expect it? The other guy wants you to be unaware, to blink, to be unconscious. You have to remain aware no matter how fast and furious the action gets, and you have to figure out where where to place your gaze, how to keep the visual perceptions open.
The first place I was told to look with the gaze, way back when I was doing kenpo karate kumite, was on the chest. One was supposed to fix the eyes on the chest and try to unfocus and see everything. With this method one could use the eyes to see the whole area of the opponent, and not be fooled by an attack from a smaller area.
The problem here is that when you look at the body you don?t see the human being behind the body, and it is the human being, not the body, that is attacking you. The body is just a meat machine, and, especially in the arena of the martial arts, it is being used by the human being. You must perceive the human being behind the body if you are going to see who is making the decisions as to how to throw his body at you.
One Kang Duk Won martial arts instructor told me to look at the body when doing freestyle, and especially the Sticky Hands drill out of Wing Chun kung fu, because the eyes could be used to fool you. I found this extremely interesting, but, in the end, not very practical. It was years before I figured out what was wrong with this type of thought.
The error in looking at the body of the other fighter is found in the concept that the eyes are the windows of a man?s soul. The soul is the human being, it is the spirit that is atually making the real decisions. If you look at the eyes long enough, if you use good, solid karate kata training to learn and understand the concept that you are looking for the source of the thought that is driving the action that is the attack, then you see the human being, and you see the exact thought that is behind every action.
In the martial arts, no matter if it is kang duk won or Wing Chun or Krav Maga, there is no action without a thought behind it. Even a drunk behind the wheel of a speeding car, as unconscious as he can be, is making the decisions. And a fighter, even and especially a Mixed Martial Arts Combatant, honed to a technical perfection, is going to exude a stillness which, with a little practice, you can perceive the thought within.
So in martial arts, even MMA, you must look into the eyes if you wish to see what decisions a fighter is making. You must look, and train yourself to keep looking, and not be distracted by anything, no matter how the combat is fairing. This is the way to cultivate martial arts intuition and the sixth sense if you are going to survive real world combat.
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Tagged with: freestyle • kang duk won • karate • kenpo • kumite • kung fu • kwon bop • lop sau • mixed martial arts • MMA • pan gai noon • shaolin • sticky hands • wing chun
Filed under: karate
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