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Why Peripheral Vision is Important in the Martial Arts - Part 2 of 3

Author: Peter Freedman
Date Posted: March 10, 2009

In Part 2 of this series, I talk about Peripheral Vision and why it is crucial to use this type of vision in the martial arts.

After talking about my first experiment with Direct Vision with my students in Part 1, my second experiment will take us to wide angle vision or Peripheral Vision and will give us answers to the direct vision experiments as well. I needed to find a solution to my observation that when most people tried using their self defense techniques on the streets in real life encounters, they would get their butts handed to them in a hand bag. This is not good in any circumstance but it especially not good if you are a martial arts teacher or instructor.

After all, these people are putting and placing their lives in the instructor's hands and believing that the instructor has all of the solutions to every problem presented out there in all forms of attacks or muggings.

First before I talk about Peripheral Vision, let me briefly describe it. Wide angle or Peripheral Vision is the eye sight right outside of your direct vision. If you stare at your thumb right now and look directly at it using direct vision, you will come to take notice that outside of your thumb you can see the background, the walls right and left depending where you are standing while performing this experiment. You will see the sky or ceiling and the floor. But everything outside of your thumb will be blurry or fuzzy to you. You won't have the crystal clear image that you have with direct vision. This is your Peripheral Vision.

I have noticed that when I have a student stand in place using direct vision and I have another student attack, the defender using direct vision freezes or moves too slowly. When I say that they move too slowly, I mean that although the defender moved as fast as they could to avoid the attack, the attacker would always hit them.

After observing this, I had the defender stare past the attacker. This time the defender always moved out of harm's way before the attacker could reach them or strike them. Just a quick note... Some people needed to stare at the throat of the attacker while others found it much easier to look past the attacker.

By staring past your attacker you engage your peripheral vision. It takes practice to do this naturally. This is why in most martial arts schools when students are lined up into two rows facing each other, they have one person always step back before they commit to doing their practice attack on their workout partner.

When you pair off, you are supposed to get a funny feeling in your gut just before the attack happens, this is another kind of vision that I won't talk about in this article. I feel this part of the martial art has been lost today and it is why so many people reach high levels of the martial arts but inside feel as though they can't protect themselves. This insecurity will actually show in how they conduct themselves in public or while teaching their classes.

I have also come to notice that staring into the opponents' eyes before they were attacked didn't work well for most of my test subjects. They became even more frozen or frightened even though it was only a test done indoors with people who would not harm them. Can you imagine if that happened to them outside on the street with someone that they didn't know? These same subjects did much better looking past their attacker.

So after I went through these kinds of experiments, I now tell my students that direct vision is great for the study purposes of seeing and learning a new technique, but peripheral vision is far better used for self defense and self protection.

About The Author

Please continue on to the 3rd part of the series where I will discuss the third type of vision that is known as the Mind's Eye.

Sensei Peter Freedman is the Founder of the Freedman Method Ketsugo Jujutsu System and Guro Director of the Boston Arnis Club. Sensei Freedman is also a trained reiki master and healer with over 43 years of martial arts experience, Sensei Freedman intends to teach, practice, and study Jujutsu for the rest of his life. He can be reached at (603)-529-3564 or at http://www.FreedmansMethod.com.

Article Source: JKD Street Combat - online collection of General Interest articles.

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