Maintaining visual focus is testament to the individual combatant’s confidence and competency in their combative capabilities.
The reality is when you cannot see your foe and the incoming threat you are disadvantaged in relation to contact avoidance, cover guarding against contact or deflecting straight-line or uppercut lines of contact.
Turning away from a threat or restricting your vision by bending forward and either looking ground ward or tucking your head and face down and in towards your body are all negative practices in relation to maintaining the highest levels of safety possible and threat neutralisation.
Crouching and cover guarding and stationary evasion are emergency practices in stationary counter engagement, however you should always maintain vision of the threat and threat situation.
The stationary evasion incorporates the squat cover guard and pivot to transition your body from front on to side on.
Stationary counter engagement comprises of a weightlifter’s squat type bent knee status buttocks backwards and trunk of body diagonally forward and upward with both hands on the highest part of the cranial bone above your ears with your outer forearms and upper arms in line with your outer line of your legs is the primary Crousch cover guard position.
This Crouch cover guard position provides cover and deflection capabilities from the top of your head to your pelvic bowl level, simply by squatting bending and hard cover guarding.
Your hands should hold your cranial bone above your ears palms open and firmly against your skull and your forearms will be rigid to absorb impact from round house strikes.
Strikes that come between your forearms or combative sighting as the Todd systems refer to it as will be deflected with the directly opposite arm redirecting the striking arm towards the free arm of the aggressor, neutralising both arms for that millisecond in time.
Your eyes will be focusing diagonally upwards and towards the threat.
You need to maintain point and place visual sighting, point being the aggressor and place being your 140° plus of peripheral vision.
Timing your combative respiration with every executed offensive action and with the cover guarding or deflection of every counter action requirement will reduce the effects of autonomic reactions to stress, fear and sudden aggressive shock action.
Blinking can be reduced by considerable by training the combative way employing primary hardcover guard and deflection proven practices initially against slow speed low intensity striking. Then with increases in proficiency and competency in cover guarding and deflecting combined with countering engagement , the speed and power of strikes can be increased.
Timing, combative respiration with the cover guarding or deflection will reduce adverse reactions and with high repetition practice will make the countering of such strikes, more predictable and the threat less unpredictable.
In any situation where an incoming action must be countered from stationary and that incoming action is a kicking or kneeing offensive action or when you can visually detect the threat but are unsure of the specific type of threat, by having a single stationary evasive crouched cover guard and stamp kick counter engagement means, a complete and varied range of unarmed threat can be counter engaged from stationary.
Less is more and having a single stationary evasive counter engagement means to combat striking and kicking threat actions will reduce decision-making, reduce risk, increase safety and improve the combative chance of threat neutralisation.
To achieve stationary or stationary evasive threat neutralisation vision is required to be maintained.
Any formidable smart adversary on detecting the weakness of their foe turning away covering one’s eyes or tucking their head in against their body, impairing their vision will pounce on the opportunity to attack a blind target.
Training your eyes to identify incoming strikes and by employing avoidance, evasive actions, cover guard or deflective counter action skills will increase your capabilities to remain visually focused under threat.
When you see a boxer that can look down the barrel of incoming punches and make them narrowly miss combined with counterpunching you can identify a combat sports person that is confident and competent and has become well accustomed to neutralising such threats.
Weapon disarming requires the combatant to look at the forward tip or point of the weapon over looking at the attacker. It is the weapon that will stab or bludgeon you and not the attacker’s body or bodily extremities. In combative disarming for the requirement of striking or seizing and securing of the weapon holding wrist and hand, the requirement is a visual determination prior to making any disarming or seizure and securing contact. This is essential to reduce risk of injury.
Boxing coaches of yesteryear have used all sorts of flail type home-made equipment to assist with their charges ability to visually focus on incoming movement and duck slip or roll the flail training device in preparation for slipping ducking and rolling punches.
Pugil stick fighting in military CQC is another example of the importance of looking at the point end of the pugil stick and not the butt end in order to be able to avoid the closest and hottest part of the weapon. Such training aids assist in visual focus of specific threats and requirements needed to counter and neutralising them.
Once confidence and competency is increased the speed of threat can be increased to the point where the combatant can identify the line and direction of the incoming threat against armed or unarmed threats incoming travel, often reacting to a flash of colour or a blur of movement.
Without visual focus on the threat from the outset factual assessment and accurate decision-making cannot be made and as such risk is increased and the chance of threat neutralisation is decreased.
In evasive counter offensive military close quarter combat in order to be able to identify upper and lower quadrant incoming threats as well as right and left sided incoming threats the crouched cover guard includes a transfer of the visual focus from the aggressor’s eyes immediately when the threat is beyond the point of no return to the aggressor’s midsection as part of the pre-evasion ready status setting.
The head must nod downward in order for the eyes to focus on midsection.
This practice combined with the small squat ready set go status enables accurate detection of not only the striking limb but the angle and level of its incoming travel.
