Sensitivity Training!

Ah, there you are, sitting in front of your Monitor, but how aware are you right now?

What do you smell?

What do you taste?

How much weight is on your backside, and how much on your feet?

What can you hear over the drone of your computer?

Like it or not, it is difficult to leave all our senses switched on all the time.

I'd like to discuss sensitivity. Some Martial Arts have specific methods of training this, while others never discuss it at all, yet training Martial Arts does increase our sensitivity.

How aware of this are you?

Does your art do any specific exercises to train sensitivity?

What do you feel are the benefits of such training?

 

Ah, there you are, sitting in front of your Monitor, but how aware are you right now?

What do you smell?

Coffee - just brewed up five mins ago

What do you taste?

Er...coffee?

How much weight is on your backside, and how much on your feet?

Er...best left unsaid I think

What can you hear over the drone of your computer?

Nothing...Its really, really early in the morning...well I can hear the keys but thats all...

Like it or not, it is difficult to leave all our senses switched on all the time.

Especially if one of the senses is over used - i.e. There's smoke in the room...actually...that can affect most senses can't it...er..

I'd like to discuss sensitivity. Some Martial Arts have specific methods of training this, while others never discuss it at all, yet training Martial Arts does increase our sensitivity.

How aware of this are you?

Up until just now...no very...hmmm...I can hear something else now...AHA!! I am having a thought!

Does your art do any specific exercises to train sensitivity?

On a more serious note yes. We do sticky hands and tegumi training.

What do you feel are the benefits of such training?

I know what the benefits are supposed to be and have sometimes been able to 'feel' a change in pattern but at the moment my training is mostly based on drills, so I really haven't had chance to improve on this yet, as I am in a flow drill - if a beat changes then I know that they are about to do something.

 

Errr, yeah.......thanks Melanie......I think?

(Thought you wanted some serious MA threads?)

 

I am usually pretty aware of what is happening around me and am making conscious efforts at taking in all the happenings around me.

I don't like being suprised so I pay attention to all my senses (haven't really used my nose yet), I hear something and look around to see what caused it rather than get startled, I also use my peripheral vision well - my head is always moving and I use my whole angle of vision to see where things are moving then look at them to see what it is.
Just recently I've noice that my sense of touch has gone strange. I seem to be able to feel alot more detail in the things I touch and can sense heat better without it being hot.

I see people all the time who don't pay attention to their senses. I manage to sneak up on people all the time when I am just moving around normally - I am a quite person normally but people just don't listen or look beyond what they are doing.

I have found this to be really useful in one of our more chaotic excerises. The basic drill involves one person attacking another with two, slow open handed attacks. The defender's objective is to primarily block and evade but is also trying to use the movement and mometum to throw or lock the attacker.
The crazy adaption of this drill is where all the students are attacking everyone at the same time. Here being aware of where everyone is at all times is paramount and I catch a few people out every time we do it and slap them across the back of the head and I also manage to meet all the people trying to blind side me when they think I'm not looking.

 

Well, tkd, does none of that.

However, we do develope a sort of 6th sense after so much time and practice.

For example, our master would put the really good sparrer, up against 2 average, or up and comming sparrers.

I have fought 2 people at once many times, I don't have to look at the other one and I know where he is, even if he is standing perfectly still. Therefor, I am able to kick him, but I don't have to look at him.

It's pretty sweet stuff.

 

i like to do this senstivity drill while i m doin things, in bus, in restuarant etc etc... n i guess ppl had called me paranoid for being like that...
well labatt TKD does that training for every worst situation... sparring multiple is good but it doesn't devlop much senstivity... the question r u aware when u walkin down the road or when u r going into resturant....can u feel that hidden attacker/oppnt??...
duh for being too much paranoid...
-TkdWarrior-

 

Andy, have a serious MA thread ..... on MAP??? Yea right! LOL

<What do you smell?>

The sushi I just ate.

<What do you taste?>

Beer at the moment.

<How much weight is on your backside, and how much on your feet?>

Beer butt LOL

<What can you hear over the drone of your computer?>

The TV, and the wood burner going.

Ok, ok. Seriously. TKD doesn't do this stuff. But in TSD, I did learn "awareness." I learned to use my "sixth sense." If something doesn't seem right, it prolly isn't. They taught me to be aware of what's around me. I never have my back to the door. IE: I sit with my back to the wall facing the enterance in a bar or restaruant. If someone is following me, I turn and make eye contact. That usually discourages a "would-be" attacker. Stuff like that. Plus we did "blind sparring." Which we had to "feel" the attacker with our other senses. We did hyung (or kata) in the dark, or we would have someone do a "surpise attack" and we would have to defend, ect. It was, in my opinion, good exerises.

 

Andy, are we talking about touch sensitivity like chi sau or are you using the term to include awareness?

 

Hi Lynne,

You caught me (again), I was no doubt leading up to this. Give us your explanation of Chi Sao, so people can see if they do anything similar please.

 

TKD should do more things like that.
I am going to try to be more aware.

 

Well chi sao is all about sensitivity, how much use it is in a fight is debatable........

We definitely do become more sensitive in many ways as martial artists.

Easy to become too sensitive, do you ever find yourself feeling paranoid when out in pubs etc, assessing every possible risk and weighing everybody as potential opponents?

 

Smell: Beer.
Taste: Beer.
Hear : Beer.

Sensitivity, isnt that when you call a woman fat and she crys?

 

Pgm, I know what u mean.

Everyone see is a potential enemy. Sometimes

 

Chi Sao practices one form of sensitivity. Surely all your senses are used in a fight?

 

I don't know if it is "part" of Shaolin Kempo system but in class we did a cool drill to increase our awareness of our opponent. Have one person in a stance as if they had thrown a punch, arm extended and all. The "defender" then closes the distance, gets in striking range, and tries to navigate around the body with stikes. The "attacker" is motionless. When it is easy to "work the body" we try it with our eyes closed. The drill greatly helped my no mind drills and my ability to strike the body from any position with any weapon I choose.

 

Sounds like a useful drill Joe K, I suppose this increased your awareness of the targets available, and of your posture?

 

Definitely! By a great amount. I was able to strike certain targets without seeing them by using his body as a map. It became easier and quicker for my mind to react, hitting automatically without thinking.

 

True, I do believe its of use, I've spent enough time doing it. Although its hard to know exactly how much that form of sensitivily training contibutes to our fighting abilities. Does it contibute to sensitivity in all types of fighting or just delicate techniques that are similar to chi sao

 

So your Chi Sao practice is delicate then Pgm?

Don't look at the drill, look at 'how' it trains, and not 'what' it trains. If you look at it's benefits as being limited to the applications shown to you, then you have not learned Chi Sao. You do something similar when you grapple after all? Posture, angles, leverage etc?

 

beat me to it Andy, increasing your sensitivity is very important in a "live" fight. Okay, it`s not likely an attakcer will attack you in a pefect chi sao style but it helps to train your sensitivity to your opponents movements.
In Aiki we do a number of connection exercises intended to increase your awareness of your body and the way your opponent is trying to manipulate your energy, it`s nearly impossible that an attacker will use perfect kata shotae awbasae buit increasing sensitivity and reflexes and feeling is never a bad thing,