The 3rd Eye

Many people when they first start training give away where they are going to attack, before they even attack.  How, usually by intensely looking at their target.  Your leg, or stomach, or head, etc… they look first and then they attack.  But this gives your opponent more time to react, plan, block, and get out of the way.  In other words it makes your attacks less effective and in some cases even useless.

They are so busy looking at your body, that they could be missing the bigger picture.  My master ( Great Grandmaster Tae Yun Kim ) recommends looking at a spot on the forehead between the eyes (This is called the 3rd eye, or anjun).   Dr. Tae Yun Kim also recommends learning the technique of “looking softly, but seeing everywhere".  Normally when you look intently at something, all your focus goes there, and that is all you really see.  But if you learn to look at your opponent’s anjun, “looking softly”, and open your awareness at the same time, you can learn to see the person’s whole body, even though it looks like you are looking into their eyes.  You can be aware of there every movement.  It takes practice and time to be able to do this, but it will help you tremendously.  It is like driving to drive a car, and you want to look at the brake or the accelerator.  That would be silly, but the martial arts is very similar. 

Another big advantage, is you can see into their eyes, without looking into their eyes.  This allows you to keep your emotions from getting dominated, but you can see their emotions as they change.  Are they angry, or calm, or frustrated, etc…  Their eyes are the gateway into their mind and soul, so as you get better and better at this, you can tell a lot about your opponent as the fight continues.  You can prevent them from seeing into your mind, but you can penetrate into theirs.  This is a very advanced technique, and takes years to perfect, but why wait?  If you are serious about self-defense you should know about this, and start to practice right away.  It takes years to develop, and the more you practice the more you will see.   As you get better and better you can even jump to another level and see your opponent's energy.  But remember, if you don’t really practice, and seek to improve and discover, it won’t help you.  

Have a great day, and always strive to be the best you can be.  :)