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Old 10-08-2003, 10:23 PM   #1
Amassus
 
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Dojo: Aikido Musubi Ryu/ Yoshin Wadokan
Location: Hamilton
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 306
New Zealand
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Cool Training blind

Hi there.

Something I've noted at training lately.

Usually I wear glasses (spectacles) during training as I am short sighted. When it comes to serious randori or irimi nage techniques I take the glasses off to prevent damage to them or my face.

I notice that without my glasses, my techniques are better. I no longer focus on every little detail of the technique and I 'flow' ending with a better result.

Its quite a good feeling. As uke lunges in, I 'feel' more than 'watch' what I am doing.
Its great!


"flows like water, reflects like a mirror, and responds like an echo." Chaung-tse
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Old 10-09-2003, 03:32 AM   #2
JJF
 
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Dojo: Vestfyn Aikikai Denmark
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Interesting - I'll try to figure out if I feel the same way next time we do iriminage.

One problem though: when I don't wear my glasses I have a problem judging distance, so at least my maai gets worse

- Jørgen Jakob Friis

Inspiration - Aspiration - Perspiration
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Old 10-09-2003, 08:27 AM   #3
SeiserL
 
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One of the better stduents at our school doesn't wear his glasses when he trains and is excellent. He says he can't focus on the specific visual so has to depend on the feeling of it.

Confirms what you are saying.

IMHO, too much visual focus on the waza sends the ki where the mind is focused, on the hands, etc. instead of through the center to the balance point.

I try to stay a bit defocused, which isn't very hard for me.

Lynn Seiser PhD
Yondan Aikido & FMA/JKD
We do not rise to the level of our expectations, but fall to the level of our training. Train well. KWATZ!
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Old 10-09-2003, 09:27 AM   #4
Jeanne Shepard
 
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Dojo: Puget Sound Aikikai
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When i couldn't tolerate contacts anymore, I tried to train with/without glasses. Without gave me a headache/ with made me afraid I'd get hurt or break them.

I ended up getting lasik surgery.

Jeanne Shepard
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Old 10-09-2003, 10:20 AM   #5
John Boswell
 
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Just an observation, but for all your Bruce Lee fans out there... watch him a little more closely next time:

Bruce never focuses on just one person unless he HAD only one opponent. But most of the time, he keeps his eyes looking "outward" and not focused on any one thing. He used his peripheral vision almost soley during randori type situations.

Thinking on it myself, I focus more on my hands than on my opponent while training anyways. I KNOW I'm gonna be attacked and can see it coming out of the corner of my eye. Why focus on something that you KNOW is going to happen when you have so much else to think about and so many choices to make??

Just a thought.

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Old 10-09-2003, 10:26 AM   #6
Kensho Furuya
Dojo: Aikido Center of Los Angeles
Location: Los Angeles
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All martial artists use peripheral vision in practice. The nerves around the iris are the nerves which catch movement so movements are more clearly caught when you don't look directly at the object. This is one of the fundamentals of basic sword training.
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Old 10-09-2003, 12:52 PM   #7
Don_Modesto
Dojo: Messores Sensei (Largo, Fl.)
Location: Florida
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 1,267
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Re: Training blind

Quote:
Dean Suter (Amassus) wrote:
Usually I wear glasses (spectacles) during training as I am short sighted. When it comes to serious randori or irimi nage techniques I take the glasses off to prevent damage to them or my face.

I notice that without my glasses, my techniques are better. I no longer focus on every little detail of the technique and I 'flow' ending with a better result.
Buckminster Fuller credited his wide perspective on the world to having execrable vision that made everything visible as little more than a blur.

We'll be expecting great things from you!

Don J. Modesto
St. Petersburg, Florida
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http://www.theaikidodojo.com/
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Old 10-09-2003, 01:14 PM   #8
BKimpel
Location: Alberta, Canada
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As I said on another thread, I always use the "look sort of through" uke vision, so as to keep my peripheral vision -- so I am never completely focused on uke and I don't need glasses ever.

It took a little while to get used to it at first (especially since I learned to do it in Karate where someone is just as likely to kick you in the groin as punch your in the face), but when you get a little more comfortable with it you start to overreact less (i.e. parry or move out of the way to early in the technique). At least that's what I have found.

But I wonder if peripheral vision is affected by not wearing your glasses? Depending on the type of vision impairment (or stigmatism - as in the eye is stretched horizontally or vertically) does your peripheral vision suffer as well without your glasses?

Bruce Kimpel
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Old 10-10-2003, 12:29 AM   #9
PhilJ
 
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I find improvement without my glasses as well (mild astigmatism), but I prefer to keep them on.

That's because outside class I need them all the time, so I'd prefer to be as realistic as possible with the most minute detail.

*Phil

Phillip Johnson
Enso Aikido Dojo, Burnsville, MN
An Aikido Bukou Dojo
http://www.aikidobukou.com
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