I have just seen some clips that when they do their forms, their eyes and major hand are not coordinated. For example, your eyes always look at one point (north) when you move your major hand: - to your right (east). - to your left (west). - behind (south). - upward (north). - downward (north). - in circle (north). - ... All TCMA try to coordinate hands, eyes, Shenfa (body movement), and footwork. In combat, you want to make sure that your hand can hit/deflect right on target. Why people have zombie eyes when they train? What's your opinion on this?
So you can use your peripheral vision to locate other possible threats, see the whole person etc. the Japanese term for it which one of my teachers told me once roughly equates to "staring at a distant mountain. Also if you get easily phsyched out by your opponent's eyes or feints it helps. Sometimes you need to coordinate the eyes and hands... Sometimes you don't.
Eyes can be tricked and eyes can give away your target, so if I have feelers on the person I don't use them. If I don't rely on them to deal with my opponent, I can use them for secondary threats. When there aren't any feelers (like longer striking range) it's a very general overview sort of thing. Usually aimed at the chest but not focused on much of anything. It's a way to avoid tunnel vision and to rely on intuition and contact more than specific visual cues. But then I'm not a KF guy, so your method will probably be different. I know what you talk about and I like the name for it.
This may only make sense for the striking art. In the grappling art, if you already make a clinch, your arms can give you better feed back than your eyes. I was taught that it's hand follows eyes and not eyes follow hands. It's like hand gun shooting. If you can see a point and you can shoot at that point, you are a good shooter.
Could you expand on that please, poulperadieux? Little idea = neutral eyes? I don't follow. My eyes unfocus doing siu lim tao just coz there's nothing else for them to really do but stare into space lol
Maybe it's just practice. Your eyes can pick up and track motion easier when they are not focused on anything in particular. In Marine boot camp way back when I was in, it was called the thousand yard stare. You see everything by focusing on nothing.
I was always under the impression, from when I've seen the thousand yard stare, that those exhibiting it focused on everything but saw nothing, quite the opposite of what training is meant to achieve. Or perhaps this is a difference between USA and UK terminology?
I've always heard the thousand yard stare used to describe traumatised veterans who'd seen a bit too much, who struggled to focus on the things around them?
I'll call that day dreaming. If you punch to your right (east) but look at your front (north), it won't make any sense to me no matter what style that you may train.
My point was that in my experience the 'thousand yard stare' refers to those who look with unseeing eyes, generally due to exhaustion or trauma. Getting back on topic, I don't always look where I hit. If I already know where my target is I'll hit there while keeping an eye on the next one. In the examples you give however it doesn't sound as there is a deliberate intent (like this), more a lack of focus.
It's not a lack of focus. You have to understand two things about vision. Firstly, to stabilize the visual field there is a moment of blindness between the saccades of the eyes. Secondly, in perception there is a difference between overt and covter focus. Overt focus follows the eyes. Covert focus can be done without moving the eyes. There is intent but the lack of a visual fixation point allows the point of focus to be anywhere in the visual field without the blindness between saccades, and without indicating intent by movement of the eyes.
Not my point. My point was that while this can be a tactical use of the eyes I suspect that most practitioners are just simply being dopey.
Well, I am a KF guy and I think you are right on the money. In the lineage of WC I practice, eyes follow hands in the forms, but when working against an opponent, the eyes are directed towards the opponent's center is a kind of soft or broad focus. Then again the hands seek the opponent's center as well, so they do work together. Still, as you pointed out, once you are in contact with your opponent, vision is of secondary importance to what you feel.
