Chi sau

[mook jong man]

I also find that closing my eyes helps me really concentrate on the feeling of the energy flow. And, what you said about sensing their entire body position from the tactile input you pick up with your bridges is very true.

However, I asked the question because I have also heard instructors caution against training too much this way. The concern was not that you would have to fight with your eyes shut. Rather it was that you would be more easily distracted by visual stimuli, and would not be able to use visual cues to your benefit as well as tactile cues. An example would be a facial expression that telegraphs your opponent's intention, like that "narrowing of the eyes" you referred to on the thread about "telegraphing". You'd have to have some pretty sensitive arms to pick up that with your eyes shut! The best sounding advice was to limit your eyes-shut practice and maintain a balance.

Don't get me wrong , its not the only way you should train. I mainly do it when the skill gap is very large , and I don't think I'm really getting any thing out of the session. So I will handicap myself, by closing my eyes , or maybe standing on one leg , or sparring them with one arm. Its a bit of fun for them as well because sometimes they can get a hit through. You better believe it though If I'm with someone who's close to my level or better , then my eyes will be wide open brother.

You mentioned about telegraphing with facial expressions , that is something that I have mostly seen with beginners or untrained people.
Its like their face betrays the effort they are about to make in their attack before they do it. I think it is a habit that has to be trained out of you .

Take weight training for example , I just went in the spare room where I train and picked up a barbell started doing some curls , watched my expression in the mirror. As I did the first rep my eyes narrowed and facial expression changed , have you ever seen somebody with a placid , relaxed expression when doing heavy weights ? , I haven't .

It seems to be an engrained habit that people exhibit when they think they are going apply a lot of effort. But I don't do this in Wing Chun , because this habit has been trained out of me , and you learn to relax and put on the poker face.

Actually when I think about it , I rely on sight to pick up the facial and body cues when they are at kicking or just out of punching range . But soon as we engage arms I'm mostly concentrating on their chest area .

Although I can see their face I'm not really looking at it , most guys that have been training for a while will have that poker face on so you won't be getting any clues there anyway.

You do get some people who scrunch their face up a little just before they do a trap , or even worse you get the ones that you feel their arms slightly hesitate or build up tension just before they try and trap you.
A very interesting subject.

 

[geezer]

Take weight training for example , I just went in the spare room where I train and picked up a barbell started doing some curls , watched my expression in the mirror. As I did the first rep my eyes narrowed and facial expression changed , have you ever seen somebody with a placid , relaxed expression when doing heavy weights ? , I haven't .

I've tried that. Deliberately trying to have a calm, relaxed expression while lifting. It doesn't work for me. In fact I go to the opposite extreme. You know, grimacing, grunting, and making exaggerated breathing noises. I get away with it because I lift privately on my back porch. But I have to make sure the kids aren't around or they press their faces to the window, start imitating me and then shriek and howl with laughter. Makes it a bit hard to concentrate. Especially when they bring their friends to watch the show.

 

[mook jong man]

Ha , reminds me of when we used to live at another place where I used to train on the heavybag in the backyard . The people next door , their back verandah overlooked our side fence.
They had three little kids who used to stand there watching me and saying " Why don't you kick high Mr Karate man , go on kick high".