Uechi-Ryu.com

Apologies if this has been discussed before, I searched but couldn't find it.

Where do you look when you spar? At the face, chest, hips someplace else? Do you concentrate on their eyes? Were you taught this way, or did it come about through personal experience? If you're teaching a beginner, where do you teach them to look?

Lastly, does it ever change depending on who you are sparring with?

I vary it to some degree. Mostly I tend to look at "center of mass"...roughly where the logo on a lot of t-shirts are. Sometimes I'll look at the eyes, but I find that doesn't always work for me. It creates a lot of emotional resonance that I don't always like. My instructor really likes looking in the eyes though. One of my teammates looks to the notch at the bottom of the throat. There's some variation out there.

Occasionally I'll play with looking at the hips, and shifting my gaze from side-to-side...almost like I'm looking behind the person. Messes with some people's heads, but the good fighters sometimes just ignore me.

I have been playing more and more with changing my gaze to distract or confuse people.

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http://honestphilosophy.blogspot.com/

This is a good subject! I was taught by Shinjo Sensei a very good trick.. Kiyohide Sensei IMHO has some of the scariest eyes in Uechi...He told me that his trick is that he is actually never looking into his opponent's eyes (as he could then be drawn into his opponent's emotions) but he looks at the point right between the eyebrows.. As most fighters haven't learned to control their blinking habits or at least camoflage them. we would wait until our opponent blinks and attack on the down blink.. Hard to block whatyou can't see! At least you can normally close the gap..Also, defensively a normal person will show tells by either boobing their head or shifting from side to side before an attack..

Hope it helps... Stevie

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SILENCE!!! I Kill You!!!!

You can often get in one shot by suddenly looking at a target area while attacking somewhere else. I.e., dart your eyes to their head and then kick them in the stomach. It only works once though, unless the guy is really stupid.