Where to look when sparring? (Plus 2 of Icy Mike’s Proprietary Tips)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ย. 2022
- Where should your eyes be when sparring or in a fight? Should you look at their chest and use your peripheral vision to see footwork, shoulder & hip rotation? Or should you look them in the eyes? IcyMike and I discuss the benefits of both, plus some more obscure strategies like “deadpan eyes” and hypnotizing our opponents with eye-contact.
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Bas Rutten has a video about how to land the liver shot where he mentions making eye contact can distract them since we typically aim our eyes at our primary target. Fools them into thinking you're gonna hook to the head but really to the body
ELLLLLL GUAAAPOOOO
Another thing he does is wind up the punch the same way so all you know is it's coming, not where it's going. You get a 50/50 mixup for the price of a telegraph, which you can stack on making them respect your power by landing a shot
Yep glad its someone besides myself having to mention bas covering all this stuff, jake paul actually pulled it off against woodley, youll see tyrones hand up, but then he lowered it to protect the body, as jakes hook went up to instead
The main bits to understand about "where to look":
Your optic nerve connects to the back of your eyeball, high and to the outside of where your focus is. This is a blind spot that your mind fills in... but you don't actually see what is there. To avoid being caught blind by a punch coming from this blind spot, there are a few things you need to keep in mind:
- Your other eye can see the blind spot, so keep BOTH eyes open and on your opponent/attacker. If you can no longer see out of one eye, look high enough to clearly see both of their elbows with your peripheral vision. Elbows have to move up when a punch is thrown; there's no getting around that bio-mechanic to fool you.
- The worst place to look is at the opponent's/attacker's feet/knees. Your peripheral vision is not good for registering distance changes, so you won't see a fist accelerating toward your face. And your blind spot will hide the rising elbow as their arm straightens to strike you. You can be caught 100% unaware of the strike until it has made contact, which means you likely got hit flush with a clean hard shot... exactly the strike that knocks people out cold.
What you are looking to watch with your peripheral vision, roughly, are the elbows and the knees. As long as you are tracking those 4 points, you know exactly what is coming your way AND how to attack/counter. You want to look low enough to make sure you never miss a movement of either knee, and high enough not to miss a rising elbow (which signifies an incoming punch). The right place for your "blind spot" is above the elbow line of your opponent/attacker... which so happens to be the chest. Any lower, and you might miss an elbow movement. Any higher, and you might miss a knee movement.
Your eyes should not be vacant - that's OK in a ring/cage setting, but it's a BAD habit for self defense. Look left and right with your eyes actively. Your peripheral vision will continue to track the attacker's elbows/knees, and you can gather info on your environment as you fight - exits, potential weapons/hazards, other attackers joining in, etc etc. There's also a psychological factor to shifting your eyes left and right - it has a calming effect on the fight-flight-freeze response, sort of a short circuit. Moving your eyes this way will allow you to think more clearly, preserve energy by lowering your adrenaline level somewhat, increase your fine motor coordination, and generally improve your chances of survival more than just about anything else you can do. Brain on = good. Brain off = bad.
@andrew taylor The "mind of no mind" would not save me from that, I think.
But I did have to go against 3 people once, and 2 people on more than a few occasions - in a couple of those, it was a weapons situation. Keep your head on a swivel, or pay for not doing it. And STAY ON YOUR FEET, no matter how you have to do it.
Thanks a lot for sharing. Very interesting!
i tend to find that so long as you’re not looking at the ceiling, you’re A-OK
Or the floor lol
great advice
@@agustin8160 people who bob and weave while looking straight down at the floor👌🏽
Sounds like advice from someone who ends up looking at the ceiling quite a bit 😂
Yes jus keep it simple 😇👍
Here's a fun little detail about peripheral vision: the fact that it's more sensitive to movement than your central vision manifests in the fact that it can see changes that have higher frequencies.
For example, there's an exit door light in my university's main event hall that flickers at a frequency that's just too high for my central vision to perceive, but low enough for my peripheral, so I can see it flickering when I see it out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn to look at it it becomes a constant light. Confused the hell out of me when I first noticed it.
I first noticed this with a ceiling fan. While looking forward my peripheral was able to pick up on the individual blades, but if I looked up at it I couldn't.
Interesting
I noticed something similar with the night sky. Sometimes I see those little clusters of really dim stars in my peripheral vision and I know they are there because I can see them as long as I don‘t focus on them. But if I start to look directly at the spot where they are. I see nothing. Like a little black „hole“ with visible stars around this blind spot. Really weird
In case no one has already stated this, your peripheral vision is very sensitive to motion while your central vision is more attuned to registering details.
Mike says that early in the video, yep 👍
@@fighttips well he asked about it, I was confirming for him 😛 You guys are great together by the way.
As a pretty nearsighted person, I was surprised to find I usually did better sparring when I wasn't wearing corrective lenses. Knowing where the blobs of fist and head are is usually enough. I think it's because it just puts you into deadpan eye mode and you also don't get distracted by the little things people do. I'd never fall for Icy Mike's eye trick because I can't see his face anyway.
I've found a similar phenomenon in 'bullet-hell' top-down shooter games, where staring unfocussed at the centre of the screen allows your peripheral vision to keep track of all the objects travelling around the screen; doing that and preventing your eyes from saccading is an essential skill required to get anywhere in the unforgiving old school 2d shooters, as by the time your brain gets updated on the part of the screen you're now looking at something from another area's already hit your ship.
nice example! back when i used to play those kinds of games more often, i felt a sort of sense of meditation when I'd really get into the zone during one XD and also not understanding how i would survive a barrage that looked unnavigable usually bright me out of it, to unfortunate consequence ^^;;
Jersey Joe Walcott KOs Ezzard Charles with that hands down walk, drawing the jab and countering with a left hook/uppercut
The older brother, younger brother energy is awesome. And the mutual respect between you guys is adorable.
Love it! Great tips too :)
Who’s the older brother though
@@vistak1148 It’s for sure not the guy with the bald spot.
Thank you, gentlemen,
I would like to relate an experience I had in one fight. As a young competitor I was fortunate to face an exceptional opponent (he later became my instructor, coach and good friend). He was much more skilled than I and a little bigger. He was gracious enough to take the fight although out of my Legue. I wasn't very experienced but fast and rather vicious. I didn't really have the skill to take advantage of my gains but, I had speed. Just by chance I had noticed that before my opponent would load up, his pupils would dilate. Noticing this I would attack pre-emptively. I did not win but, it was a cool thing to learn.
When I was younger, I would hunt alone at nighttime for pig or whatever (we were very poor). When in the pitch black of night our stereoscopic vision is useless. I taught myself to relax my eyes not to focus. Only when obtaining the target did I briefly narrow before pulling the trigger. Later a mentor of mine who was a Vietnam vet explain that to me and suggested reading material.
Sorry for the long comment.
Thank you again for the excellent content.
Happy holidays.
I agree with Mike on 4:20. Especially if you do it against a much bigger fighter. You'd box them and step back to look them in the eye as a challenge. If the other guy is bigger, they'd go for it.
I was thinking about a vision during fight/sparring a lot and finally the gods met up to give me an answer
Been watching both of you guys for years. Ironically my two favorite combat training tip TH-camrs. Hope to see more material with both of you guys I’ve learned a ton from both of you.
@andrew taylor not once.
Ivy Mike hitting people up with that "Agent Smith walk up" move, that's great. I've legit done that before too
My 2 favourite training content personalities. Enjoying the teasing and respect, and of course the ideas.
Peripheral vision does indeed detect movement faster than direct vision 🙂 We need that as animals with forward-facing stereo vision to react to possible danger in a wider field-of-vision.
Its good to see Icy Mike in your gym Shane. Great Colab💪
Love your channel. There are no good places to train around me so I've been training at home. Your videos have helped so much fine tuning everything.
@andrew taylor What da fuck?
fightTIPS citing studies now? My respect is rising!
generally I hold one eye shut and the one that's open is looking backwards into my troubled past.
Damn Bill Burr knows his shit
Peripheral vision even works for seeing things in the dark. When you stare straight at a dark area you will just see black, but if you look around it you can pick up some details in a dark area.
On the topic of peripheral vision, musashi miyamoto was a huge proponent of ALWAYS using it. He took it so far that he reccomended using it all the time even in your day to day.
If any one cares, baki's depiction of musashi has a little reference to this: hes pictures as being cross eyed, since the term peripheral vision didn't exist back then he simply called it "looking at both sides at the same time".
Fantastic to see you both
This was awesome, gonna show this to my students. Thanks to you both Gentlemen!
Absolutely loved this vid! :D
I just taught a lot of these last night. Good stuff!
Nice one dude ❤️ .. Please make a video about working out (to gain speed and strength), foot work and shadow boxing 🥊 .. Basically shit you can do by yourself to improve . . Also some tips on how to deal with fear when you're in a fight . . ☮️
I learned new vocabulary words with this one.
Stunning video and I love your video
Great video!
Gunna try that eye contact teep tomorrow that sounds like a great tip
Short and perfect!
This was one question that was running around mind.. Cause my last fight i was like seeing down not sure weather yo see face or somewhere ...fight was a week
ago lol..
Man i forgot how fun icy mike was
Love this video so much😂
Mike is actually spitting facts it's a evolutionary trait that we priorities movement in our peripheral vision
Great to see Shane dropping 'science'... I hope he does more.
They are talking about 'gaze behavior', which emerges over time when a fighter gets more sensitive to kinematic information.
Can't really be taught. Has to be learned. At best, you can tell a novice where to look. Then watch it all go out the window in a live situation. Like most drilled techniques do.
Look man, I really don't know where to watch so I watch in eyes and may be for that reason, I m kinda BOB fighter 😆. Actually in karate they teach to look in eyes with no telegraphic reactions. But after years of training, when sadly senior guys left dojo one by one, most of time I was the most senior by time (& not by belt). Teachers, any teacher in any field has a habit of open up in front of seniors if they are obedient and humble ones. So after very long they told me that masters watch at the end of neck or you can say beginning of chest, to follow their breathing for attack and few others details about standing punch. After that I left because there was no one else to practice with and etc. I stuck to this eye to eye contact fight. Anyway I enjoy my every moment in gym except injuries 😖
You guys are great 👍
Bro facts! I am trained to jab folks trying to walk in. Trying that on my next sparring session
i usually look in the eyes, ( or that zone in general) and still use my peripherals to see the rest, but it also depends on the range sometimes if iam to close i look at the chest if aim to far i look at the head,and the rest is peripheral, i think it depends with what works for you and how you adapt to the situation, sometimes in more new fighters their eyes say where they are aiming, sometimes in more experienced fighters they use their eyes to faint. i like looking in the eyes normally because it does get me an idea of the whole body and is easier for me to read them.
Ive considered open altercation as a form of communication taken to the extreme...The fluency transmitted via bodylanguage of training or extensive experience has a pronounced impact on how likely ones opponent will consider de-escalating or retreating from physical altercation. The motivating factors driving participants towards coming to violent contest are often deeply and fundamentally tied to social convention and/or heightened emotional states brought on by emotional dysregulation or out of the ordinary circumstances. An effective method ive found to be subtle but effective is to draw the attention of an opp. from one frame of reference to another, ie; from social, to intrapersonal, to instinctive or physically reactive back to the previous, mix and match etc...
A jedi mind trick it most certainly is not, but overloading the bandwidth of your competition is a multiplying factor for stress, anxiety, doubt, overreaction and so on. The basis for ones defense MUST be grounded in physical training and technique however. This has the unfortunate weakness of dealing with highyl committed or psychopathic individuals and requires a high degree of experience navigating ones own state of mind and emotional clarity as well. Use it as its useful, but be free enough to wholesale abandon these tactics at a moments notice and focus of physically dominating the fight. blahlahblah, just my two cents. enjoy cats.
This is great
Hahahaha someone who can troll Mike! That’s probably a strange roll reversal for him.
Reminds me of a demonstration Superfoot Wallace did where you bait and switch. Three lazy sidekick to the body then do the question mark kick to the head. Nice getting honest opinion thanks bro.
2 legends together imma watch this one 4 sure
Bro I want to see part 2 so bad lmao
I gaze around the shoulders. Not at... just around. Basically what you guys are saying. You can see the legs, footwork, shifting, and the important shoulder dips
Amazing video, I think you should make a video about dietary supplements for mma.
Stoked for the electric knife defense
Great to see U in the same video
Clean shaven Shane looks wild
I look at the shoulders corresponding to the same side of each eye. It's what I was told. When sparring gets heated, and I solely want to hurt them to the head, I begin making eye contact so that I can hit that specific target much easier. Everyone is different though, now aren't they. Great point to make in this video guys. 🤙
Oh goddammit Mike I was literally just shadowboxing and imagined someone pulling that shit and I jabbed. You weren't even there and I fell for it!
One of my coaches would look at the chest and that’s how I learned that….but he also would whisper shit to himself and I still wonder to this day what he was whispering about. Never asked.
Lol
Probably a distraction technique
@@OnyxXThePunch if so, it worked very well. I always thought, “Tf are you saying?” before eating a knee to the body or a left hook. 😂😂😍
With how they act it’s almost unbelievable Mike was the cop and Shane was the “hoodlum” lmao
Seems like a fun dude!
Man... I really do have some pretty eyes.
Nice. So, for yourself, a diffused gaze (wherever you are “looking”) gets you more information faster. What you communicate is a byproduct of the shark stare. Looking someone in the eyes should be communicative (or in sparring, attack, in the same way drawing an attack is an “attack,” like an element of a combo)?
The periferal is actually better and faster at recognizing movement so Mike is correct
First❤️
I think the "where to look" when baiting is connected more to the placement of your chin, more so than your eyes, since you're then implying the opponent is also looking at your eyes. If your opponent is also focused on your chest (particularly during the Icy Mike barrage then back up move), they likely just noticed the punches stopped and your chin went up, which looks so hittable, then...blammo.
i went to my 1st jkd class on monday - doing some basic trapping to chain punch transitions... because of my severe anxiety, i was so freaking excited and nervous that i was like a 5 yr old with ADD who just ate a bunch of sugar...couldn't calm down and then after the training, i threw up outside...
yeah, i know what it's like....
Look roughly at the center mass (shoulders/hips). If they don’t have the body behind their move, then they’ll not have much power or even be off balance. Locking eyes is human nature hypnotizing, and it seems to diminish your peripheral vision (maybe part of it is how we devote so much brain power to facial interpretation).
there is A LOT to unpack here... but this was fun a.f.
Goddamn you guys are funny together
The people wants more !
Mike, you can't be saying "blow my wad" on Fighttips! 😂
I like looking at the neck/chin reveals more of what they are about to throw more than what looking at the chest does for me, split second timing difference maybe
but also the distancing from opponent also dictates of the amount the peripherals can see.... the further the more and the safer but the trade off being reach and intentional telegraph with a forward step..... just need the right amount of distancing not too far not to close just a step out of the opponents jab with his step forward being the tell
Shane vs icy Mike sparring session or Shane vs street beefs
I kinda do a similar thing by dropping my left hand...invite people's jabs..then anticipate it, do something with it..
I think it varies on the person; for me I tend to get tunnel vision when I look them in the eyes but when I look at the shoulders/chest I tend to see everything and not be as scared of punches
1:40 to correct*, your peripheral vision is more active when you are in relaxed state. You'll narrow your vision under the high stress situation in order to recognize the specific danger element hence fighters tend to have more of narrow vision during the fight naturally.
Friendly sparing won't bring someone into that state but an unwanted street fight you'd have no choice that would happen from fear or an adrenaline dump intense state to be in for sure
"it sounds like bs so people aren't gonna..." you can bet I'll be doing that for sure... gonna be jabbed to hell, but I'll do it.
Is the black-red-blue Fight Tips logo on the floor meant to be like a 3-D illusion? Because it's pretty cool.
Can you Interview Phil Nurse from New York please ?
He used to train at my gym in Bolton, England with Sandy Holt and Master Sken back in the 80s
I really like Mike's point about manipulating your opponent's guard. I do that all the time, most of my style revolves around it. I'm a lazy bastard, so I wanna hit mfs in the liver, in the soft spots, land joint strikes, stuff that'll make them quit immediately. In fact, one of the only punches I have SPECIFICALLY practiced to do the same way every time is a chin check. If you fight hunting for the weak spots on your target, you HAVE to manipulate their guard.
How do u manipulate their guard
@@hamzahimran4708 primarily feints, especially in unarmed combat. Your opponent CAN'T block EVERYTHING at once, and they know it, so you have to pick a target they're protecting JUST badly enough to believe that you're really gonna pop them there. Like if their hands are high, and I really wanna hit them in the jaw, I could either fake a kick to their knee, or fake a hook at their liver, and they'll probably adjust enough for me to get a shot somewhere on their head.
Please do a video with Jeff Chan🙏🏼
My Sijo his name is Sijo Steve Muhammad he always teaches to use peripheral vision when fighting so i do like that it came up in this video
You should bring in Dan the Wolfman for one of your videos. That would be great.
(lowercase "i" got me too)
The insecurity over tagging lol🤣🤣
Waiting for Icey to make an impersonation as Shane
I hear the Philly accent is hard to impersonate...
Crossover of century
I have absolutely trash eyesight. Amblyopia and need glasses for the "stronger" eye. Staring through a target is kind of how I imagine I spar. I like to think of it more as those hidden object abstract paintings (think Ethan Suplee in Mallrats), where you are looking at everything all at once and relaxing.
I’m not staring at the eyes . I’m staring at what I call the triangle . The head is the top of the triangle . The two shoulders are the bottom corners with the chest in between. I want to see the main target . The head .
I can't give an actual professional opinion on this, but as a nerd, a gamer, a martial arts geek and a Muay Thai student, all my instincts tell me to look "through" a central area like you say so that my peripherals take in every movement.
But my son's kickboxing instructors drill into him that he needs to look his opponent in the eyes at all times. I feel in my soul that this is detrimental to my son's training.
How can I correct this without stepping on their toes?
Hey Steph, perhaps you could kindly ask the instructor about a video you saw on the topic and ask if your son can make this one adjustment?
His shirt is sweaty in the opening. Were you already horsing around? Heh
when sparring, stare deep into their eyes and blow gentle kisses and whisper sweet nothings when in the clinch
First one
Hi 👋 ...warmup then
I'm hitting bunching bag I got pain in middle and upper trapezius.. will you help me without injury hitting bag
So I guess it's not like Mr. Miyagi taught "Eyes. Always look eyes." Look before anyone was throwing something, go ahead and look into the eyes no problem and I agree with Mike on the effect. I never thought of this psychology so well said. Instead I am using what my Sifu told me "Dynamic vision. You can't always look into the eyes and you can't always look to the chest. Threat to the head or face look into the eyes. Threat who is lower look to the chest. And don't hands up for more than 2 punches you get because the vision is horrible when the hands are up."
Gotta learn the rules to break the rules
Also who did the editing to this video? 😂😂😂 They are pretty funny
Vince 😂
Where's the video with the knife taser? I don't remember seeing it on Mike's channel.
When you look someone on the eyes it draws them to look at your eyes. That takes their focus off the perigee do they miss the kick coming.
First!
Icy Mike is the Bill burr of TH-cam martial arts channels
I heard it called soft focus