Often time a new student at the kenpo karate class I attend will ask, “how do you actually see a punch coming to even block it in the first place.”
Of course some of it is simple reaction due to training. This is one of the purposes of drills so that you move without thinking about it, hopefully in a way that leads to a technique, instead of just batting the punch away or ducking it.
How to see a punch coming is actually quite easy. Most boxers do it without thinking about it because of their chin down stance. Yet, in many martial arts classes I’ve been a part of very few people seemed to be aware of it. In fact many martial artists, usually those who concentrate on kata, really don’t know where their eyes should be while facing an opponent.
There are really only two places you should train your eyes to be in a fight. And it’s really an either or choice. It depends on which choice gets the fastest reaction out of you.
- Choice one, the easiest, is to imagine a square outline on your opponent that goes from his shoulders to hips.
- Choice two is too look nowhere and see everything. Or the “hundred yard stare,” With number two you may even seem to be looking through your opponent.
With the number one choice you are looking for signals from the body that a strike is coming. A good instructor would tell you that if you watch the chest and hips you will see them move before a strike comes at you, as the body has to swivel to put force behind it. Watch someone practicing strikes or sparring you will always see the shoulders and or the hips move before the strike. Someone who is skilled will be conscious of this and make an effort in their form to minimize the telegraph of this natural body mechanic. To really use this technique you must dip your chin and concentrate on never letting your eyes leave your opponents chest or trunk area.
With the number two choice you utilize your peripheral vision. You stare through your opponent. In reality you are not looking at them at all. You widen and blur your vision to allow the peripheral vision to take control of what you react to.
In some studies it has been show that people react much quicker to peripheral vision. Have you ever been playing a sport and a turned as a ball approached your head. You didn’t really see it coming but you may have ducked anyways because you caught it at the last minute in your peripheral vision.
The reasons I wrote this post is because I was watching some fictional TV show with a karate class going on. The instructor takes a student aside after a match and tells him to always watch his opponents eyes. I had to laugh, this is absolutely the worst advice ever. The eyes lie. I can’t count the number of people I’ve faked out in sparring matches by acting with my eyes. Making them big suddenly or putting on a weird expression.
Never, ever watch someones eyes in a fight or sparring match. I guarantee you will never get hit by someones eyes.
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