Vision Awareness

Learning great speed in visual recognition is a basic beginning. Your training should include short, concentrated, daily practice in seeing quickly.

High levels of perceptual speed are the product of learning, not of inheritance.

A person reacts to a quick motion toward his eyes by instinctively blinking. Such instinctive blinking must be controlled in practice or else the opponent, if aware that the fighter closes his eyes when threatened, may provoke this reaction and utilize the moment of blindness for a hit or kick.

Central vision means that the eyes and attention are fixed on one point. In peripheral vision, although the eyes are fixed on one point, the attention is expanded to a larger field. Central vision may be thought of as being sharp and clear, while peripheral vision is more diffuse.

In combat, a student must learn to expand his attention over the entire area by making full use of his peripheral vision.