What should you look at?

[suicide]

you should look at all of those and some when your in a situation you cant afford not to simple as that %-}

 

[Aiki Lee]

Sukerkin and Chris are right about zanshin. A soft vision that sees everything without directing your eyes at one particular thing is best IMO.

 

[IcemanSK]

To add to what has been said, it might help that we want to "look", rather than "focus" or (even worse) "stare" at any one part of our oponent. To a begginer, when they hear "look at 'X'" they might tend to stare at that area or body part as if it holds the key to the "tells" of the opponent. When in fact, that kind of tunnel vision will only become a problem.

"Look at everything & nothing" is the best advice on this.

 

[kaizasosei]

I think that one should still be able to look into someones eyes or at any given area of an attacker, but one should try to never lose sight of the surroundings. One should try to feel even the things behind that one cannot see, but not ignore peripheral vision either. I think it is important to be able to stare someone down or even an entire group by focusing on the right place.

So, i still think that look at nothing/everything, look at the whole tree while obverving every leaf. But sometimes, one of the greatest challenges in life, be it literaly or figuratively speaking, is to look at the things that one doesn't really want to look at. Strangely enough it can be quite a rewarding experience. Why stress about anything anyway?


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[baron]

I was taught in Karate to view the entire person without looking directly at anything. In Jujitsu the same principle but to be aware of movement of the elbows and shoulders.

 

[chinto]

When I took Tae Kwon Do the teacher said to look at the part of your opponent that your striking. When I took American Combato I was told to look at your opponents eyes, not where your striking, "your feet will find the target". When I took Krav Maga I was told to look at your opponents chest. What do you think? What part of your opponents body should you look at?

Look a bit above the solar plexus. about between the nipples on his chest. that will allow you to see all of him if you do not focus to much on that point.

the idea is to see everything while concentrating on nothing really hard. watch shoulders and that center and it is very hard to fake you out.

 

[seasoned]

Not that board breaking is optimal, but I have learned from it. My first attempt at breaking, ended up breaking knuckles. My mistake was to look at the board surface. From that first time forward I can honestly say I drew a blank just before and soon after the break. For a split second, I was lost in time, and the end result was boards breaking and hand intact. I would like to draw an analogy with looking and listening. Beautiful spring day out in the back yard, eyes closed, chilling out. All I can hear is the neighbors lawn mower. With practice, you can tune out the obvious noise, and suddenly there are birds singing, plane over head, and other subtleties not heard at first. Taking all of this into consideration, just one yell from my darling to the tune of, I thought you were doing yard work, and all else vanishes. :shrug:

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

It sounds like a Mr Miagi cliche but you should look at nothing but see everything. It is best to have your eyes pointing at the centre of mass - the chest does fine for this. But do not focus there. If you 'stare' then you will not take in the subtle movements of limb and balance and even breathing that let you react more quickly to any attacks.

The term used in Japanese arts is zanshin. Loosely this means 'awareness' and can tighten down to a single opponent or widen out to take in everything around you.

Perfectly said and will be repped just as soon as I spread more rep around!

Daniel