Watching your opponent

[Doug Marnick]

I am a new member to ARMA and have only begun studying longsword. A subject of debate came up among my unofficial study group. The question is: "What do you focus on when practicing counters or sparring?" Although we have been focusing on longsword fundamentals, we came up with many reasons to watch either your opponent's eyes, shoulders, center-of-gravity, sword hilt, or all of the above. I decided to put this question on the forum to the more experienced masses. Also, what do some of the historical texts have to say on this matter? I look forward to the varied responses.

[TimSheetz]

Not that I am an expert, But I thin it is best to watch, as you put it, the center of Gravity of your opponent.

Main reason is that only by taking in their 'whole person' will you see the telegraphing of their movements.

ALSO, learning to use a less focused view is absolutely critical to avoid tunnel vision - a luxury that two people duelling may have, but won't hold up on any group melee (and real life).

Tim

[Patrick Hardin]

And whatever you watch, DON'T WATCH YOUR OPPONENT'S SWORD. That makes it ten times easier for your opponent to use feints and all sorts of things that will decieve you into thinking they are going somewhere they're not.

Patrick Hardin

[Ryan Ricks]

interesting, i was wondering that as well

[Tim Merritt]

If I understand what Tim says above, I agree. Even a single person is like a multi-threat environment. I focus on nothing, basically looking through the middle of them.

[JeanryChandler]

Sometimes you look "through" them, a bit like the stare you learn when at parade rest or attention in boot camp in the military. But sometimes you watch specific parts, you go from one to the other.

One thing you have to watch out for is what I call "reverse telegraphing", thats where your opponents can tell what you are looking at, and they can use that to trick you. I do this all the time when I catch people focusing too much on my sword, or my feet, or my eyes...

When you are flitting your view around like that, what I reccomend is to think of it like flirting. You want to take in as much as you can in quick glances, without lingering too long on any one zone, and without betraying any intent or emotion.

DB

[JeanryChandler]

Ha! And I thought that was a secret "Slum Fu" trick! I've been doing that for years. You stare intently at the guys feet while advancing, and then cut viciously at his head. Thats an oldie but a goodie. The two hard parts are A) being able to read them well enough to tell if it's working while B) watching them from the corner of your eye the whole time...


JR

[Scott Anderson]

I sort of just let my focus drift, mostly not focusing on anything but doing fraction of a second stops at various points depending on what's happening. sort of trying to take in everything at once, what your opponent is doing, what you're doing, what the ground under you may be doing, what the guys next to you are doing and not paying attention to anything around you... that sort of thing.

SPA

[Jay Vail]

Mancianolo, a renaissance master, wrote that you should look at the man's weapon hand or arm. I generally find that advice to be more helpful than staring through the guy's navel. In AMA, I don't look at anything but sort of stare through him and monitor his hands and feet with peripheral vision. That doesn't seem to work for me with weapons.

[Mark Peters]

I've had a bad EMA habit of watching the eyes - which doesn't really help all that much. In our regular practice watching the chest allows you to see arm movements and torso alignment and that does help (and the fact that our other Staten Island training partner now waits for me to look up to lanuch a low attack during drills sorta forces me to abondon the eye thing)

[Jake_Norwood]

Actually, I don't look at anything.

I've been thinking about it, and it's when I watch anything that I get killed. I just look for openings and use good technique, and I don't have to watch too much of what he's doing.

Ringeck writes, "do not watch his blows and do not wait for what he might use against you." (Tobler edition)

Exhortation to attack and use your techniques and to pay little-to-no attention to him are all over the manuals. Just go get the bastard, and don't stand still long enough to look at anything.

Jake

[Brian Hunt]

I just kind of 'de-focus', empty my mind, and fight. If there is an opening I will attack it, if they attack me I will respond. If I notice any one part of a person's body, I sort of focus through his chest at about heart level. You can observe everyone of a person's movements when you watch their chest. Mostly I don't concentrate on any one part of my opponent and try to let my periferal vision do the job it is meant for, warning me of danger coming from all angles. I hope this makes sense.

Brian Hunt
GFS

[Jonathan Waller]

Try not to look but rather see what your opponent is doing, seeing everything, as soon as you start to look you are likely to be caught out because your focus goes there, even if only slightly. However try have a referance point for your eyes as each time they moe you have to refocus and adjust and that could well be the time that you miss something. As people may be aware, the EHCG uses the opponents eyes as this referance point, but to develop peripheral vision, to see the whole person and beyond, personally speaking the field of my peripheral vision is the best part of a 180 degree arc in front of me allowing me to see quite a lot <img src="/forum/images/icons/tongue.gif" alt="" />
Jonathan
.