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Why Peripheral Vision is Important in the Martial Arts Part 3 of 3 - The Mind's Eye

Author: Peter Freedman
Date Posted: March 11, 2009

In the 3rd part of our series, I will talk about the Mind's Eye which is something that I have students develop in the Freedman's Method of Ketsugo Jujutsu.

In the earlier articles of this series, I talked about three types of vision which were Direct Vision, Peripheral Vision, and the Mind's Eye.

Now we come to the third vision I only briefly mentioned in earlier articles. This is your Mind's Eye vision.

Here is a quick example of the Mind's Eye:

Let's say that you were having a conversation with someone that you did not know and then they told you their name. Now you will store that name away along with the way they look and how they acted and talked in your brain.

The next time you are out with your friends and a conversation comes up about that person and their name was mentioned, you would now remember that person in your head. You would see their face and remember if they were nice or if they were a bit of a jerk to you. Well this is called your mind's eye and you use it daily without even noticing or recognizing you are using it. We use this in the martial arts to help us remember new forms or new techniques.

We also use this to keep us fresh by practicing when you can't practice physically. When I lay down at night to go to sleep, I practice the footwork drills that we use for Freedman's Method of Ketsugo Jujutsu. I also practice Arnis in my mind's eye.

Furthermore, I practice that someone is attacking me and which defenses I will use against them. Sometimes I have to get out of bed and in the middle of the night and actually try it because it will seem so awesome at that moment that I just have to give it a try. My wife actually puts up with me doing this!

Some people think they can never do something like this, but you can with proper coaching. If you don't dream or you have trouble seeing things in your head, all you need is a little help in the way of coaching, like a guided meditation. This is a great way to wake up your mind's eye or to be able to recognize that you actually have BEEN using it all along but didn't realize it.

There is a lot more, but I will need to write a book on this subject to just be able to really go deeper.

About The Author

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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