SO WHAT ARE YOU LOOKIN' AT?

 By Phillip Starr

      It’s a small detail, I know…but it’s also critical.  Watch a classmate, student, or even an instructor perform a given form and watch how they turn their heads just before changing directions to address another (imaginary) opponent.  Do they do it at all?  Or are the change of bodily direction and movement of the head performed as one movement?

Think about it; you're engaged in mortal combat with one opponent and you knock him down. Just then, a second opponent comes up from behind you, or moves in from one of your flanks. The very first thing you'd do is YOU'D LOOK AT HIM, right? You can't know exactly where he is or what he's doing unless you see him first! So – first, you turn and look at him. THEN you move your body appropriately. Is this how you do your own forms? It should be.

Remember your mother telling you to look both ways before crossing the street? What if, just as you step into the street, a car off the one side guns its engine and tries to run you down? Would you look directly at it? I sure hope so!

And then there's what I call “peepee gazing.” This occurs when a student does a form and looks down for any reason other than striking an opponent who's been knocked down or thrown to the ground. Students often do it to ensure that their stance is just right. And it's wrong. In a life-and-death struggle, you'd NEVER do that. Well, not more than once.

And I developed a highly effective method of stopping students frm developing this nasty habit. When they did it, I'd belt out in a rather loud voice (so that everyone can hear it), “Don't look at your peepee!” It really embarrasses the guilty party. And is he or she did it again, I'd loudly order the, “...and don't look at anyone else's peepee! Even if it's a really nice one, don't look at it!” That usually solved the problem after the giggling calmed down. I have students from more than 30 years ago who still remember me uttering those immortal words in a rather loud voice. And they laugh. It worked.

To do your form without visually engaging your imaginary foes just before you act or react is an error. Many martial arts devotees, including high-ranked instructors, are guilty of it. It's a tough habit to break but without it, you're just doing a complicated set of exercises.