Fighting Blind

[jeremy pace]

I am interested on what types of drills everyone does to teach binding. We have been locking weapons with a common strike then moving soft or hard against the bind. Well, just for fun the other day we tried it with one of us blindfolded and after working this for an hour we had an exponential increase in "feeling" the bind. We started slow and are using paddeds so everything is safe, but talk about relying on instinct. When you remove sight from the picture and can only rely on touch it seems to make a huge difference. After a while you could not only feel the direction your opponent was moving in the bind but also where he was going to possibly strike if he broke it. Just curious what everyone else does or if any others have tried this.

[Matthew_Anderson]

That's an interesting idea. I've never tried the blindfold, but I always tell people not to look at the swords when doing binding and winding drills, the idea, as you say, is to develop feeling.

[Rod-Thornton]

Well, I've worked with you being clue-less many enough times.... I reckon I could fair no worse being blind. -I'll bring my bandanas this weekend. (Actually, the idea does have an interesting merit to it....I'd like to try it, despite the flashback in my head just now to that scene in Star Wars (1977) when Obi-wan convinces Luke to put a helmet over his head).

I'll bet it does make ya' really "feel" alot more than 'anticipate' through visual cues.

[JeffGentry]

Use the force Luke.

I think it is a good idea, look at the blind there other sense do become heightened because they cannot see.

Jeff

[jeremy pace]

Thats what really brought the idea on.... (not starwars... i loved those movies for the impact they have had on our culture but i would hardly call lightsaber battles swordfighting... although, it does bring up an interesting point; is modern "mysticism" really just ancient technique misinterpreted? Breathing excercises and Kiai shouts are surely just as difficult as zornhaus to explain and with that many generations of being "passed down" how much has it changed? Was it mystical in the first place? Granted, Asian culture is steeped in spirituality but they are also very practical people and i am a firm believer that warfare is about practicality.... just a side thought) ...... my sparring partner was talking about how the bind could happen so fast he couldnt see to judge what i was doing next. Any wrestler will tell you that determining leverage has absolutely nothing to do with sight. In my opinion swordfighting rarely has much to do with the visual anyways. ( One of the best guys ive ever crossed blades with is as blind as a bat without his glasses on and due to the necessary roughness of the art he cant wear them.) But at first i asked him to just close his eyes and stand in plough. As i struck his flat to bring his blade offline he pulled up and stepped out to start the bind a lot faster when he was feeling the impact than he was when he was watching/waiting for it. Timing a bind doesnt work nearly as well as reacting to it. IMO <img src="/forum/images/icons/grin.gif" alt="" />

[William Savage]

this sounds like a great idea. I think sharring these kinds of ideas makes the best use of this forum

[Justin Lompado]

This makes a lot of sense. When one sense is ommitted the others must pick up the slack, the result can often be extraordinary. I've tried anticipating opponents' strikes blindfolded, and it istn't easy in the outset! After a while, like you said, there is a perceptible difference in one's ability to ascertain the opponent's movements. For this reason I would be hesitant to fight a blind swordsman with years of experience, because the level to which he developed that skill is hard if not impossible to recreate for those of us blessed with vision. It would be interesting to see to what extent or degree a person who could see would be able to retain those instinctive movements gained by devoting considerable amounts of time to training blindfolded once he returned to fighting with his eyes open. Training blindfolded to some degree seems to offer nothing but benefits to students or exponents of all forms of physical activity and it would be foolish of anyone to ignore or dismiss it. I'm no instructor, but do teachers use other handicaps such as deafness to aid in training as well, or at least explore its benefits? It seems we can learn a lot from using these handicaps as supplements (but obviously not replacements for) training witha all five senses.