Eye focus during bout

[Mark]

During a bout, I naturally focus opponent's blade only. Is it right?

Should I keep my sight on opponent's whole body? or just focus on his blade? or keep eyes on opponent's eyes behind the mask?

[RebelFencer]

Typically the blade and the upper portion of the body (from an epee' perspective) are the most important parts to be wary of, or at least in my opinion. I do like to look blankly at their mask before I do a toe touch to kind of throw them off guard.

[ReverseLunge]

Originally Posted by Mark

During a bout, I naturally focus opponent's blade only. Is it right?

Absolutely wrong. That is the very worst thing to focus on. I can mesmerize you with my blade. The reason why disengages and feints work is because the opponent is looking at the blade or bell.

Some fencing masters tell you to have kind of an overall focus (focusing on nothing and everything at the same time) others will tell you to look at the shoulder or chess area and some say always look at the eyes since the eyes will tell you everything.

[J.Harris]

Yeah I was told looking at the blade is not the best idea because your opponent can bring their blade closer/further from you to confuse your distance.

[Boo Boo]

I generally focus on my opponent's guard and shoulder (to judge intent and distance) whilst keeping aware of the immediate target around the weapon arm (i.e. upper chest and - if exposed - flank, in addition to shoulder) in case the open line changes during a hit.

Boo
(foil)

[Go? Fencing?]

I tend to focus on the shoulder/chest area and look at the blade/weapon hand peripherally.

[Cipher]

I generally try to keep my focus on the eyes. Use peripheral vision to track the rest of the body. Once I figured out that the most important things to watch are the line of the shoulders and your opponents posture, my distance improved greatly.

[sabreur]

Sort of on topic, but not entirely.

My sabre group does a couple of "follow the leader" drills during our warm-up.

One where you keep distance with another fencer as he/she does regular footwork, and one where the leader just sort of walks/runs forward and backward, occasionally giving hand signals to lunge, advance-lunge or sabre-fleche.

I have found that these have greatly improved my ability to keep/feel distance. During these drills, I either focus on the leader's head/eyes, or on the middle of their chest.

In general, I find looking at the other fencer's eyes/head with "soft eyes" is the best way to keep good distance/awareness during a bout. I often am very conscious during preparation about the apparent size of the opponent's mask and how it changes--bigger and they are closer, smaller and they are further away.

MR

[Epee Scherma]

WHAT? Your all wrong. I know from experience in epee, that your vision should always ALWAYS be on your opponent's back foot.

[howtobrew]

Originally Posted by Epee Scherma

WHAT? Your all wrong. I know from experience in epee, that your vision should always ALWAYS be on your opponent's back foot.

Seriously? Usually I look at their chest and at the set of their legs to gauge their next movement. I can see where the back foot would be a good indicator though....

[MyrddinsPrecint]

then there's also the theory that your chest/shoulder region can lean forward or backward, but your hips generally show where they really are.


......... i don't actually have an opinion on this, i'm not happy with anything i've tried so far for looking at my opponent.........

but i would imagine that different things work better/worse for different people.

[Decadence]

Originally Posted by howtobrew

Seriously? Usually I look at their chest and at the set of their legs to gauge their next movement. I can see where the back foot would be a good indicator though....

he was obviously kidding. think about you in a bout looking down at the floor.

[parrythis]

Originally Posted by Cipher

I generally try to keep my focus on the eyes. Use peripheral vision to track the rest of the body. Once I figured out that the most important things to watch are the line of the shoulders and your opponents posture, my distance improved greatly.

I agree 100%. Focus on the eyes.

Focusing on your opponent's blade is the worst thing you can do. It will move too fast, draw your eyes away, and you'll lose it and get hit.

I used to focus on the (foil) target area and that worked kind of OK, but I found a huge advantage to looking my opponent in the eyes. Once I started focusing on the eyes/head, I found I could read my opponents distance intentions 1000% better. The head is the telltale for the rest of the body. All of a sudden, my distance management got a LOT better. Good thing as I was taking up epee at the time.

Focus on the head - the eyes if possible, and take the rest in with peripheral vision. Don't let your opponent distract your vision as they will be misdirecting you (see any book on being a magician) and setting you up for an attack.

[Coup de Grace]

I favor the head, eyes and shoulders, in no particular order. I agree if you focus on the blade or guard alone, you will get juked. In my opinion, focusing on this area helps me to keep my head still and shoulders relaxed as much as possible as well.

For the eye focusers, what do you look at when your opponent dons sunglasses?

[Mark]

Thanks all for your teachings.

[UTEpee]

i think myrrdins hinted at this earlier.........
its all in the hips. upper body can 'fake you out,' looking at the blade can be deceptive, especially if your opponent favors absence of blade, watchng the head is a no no, as it can move too much and throw you off. watching the feet is also out because they can easily move the stance closer or farther apart and play games with distance that way. the body however, no matter how hard you try, can go nowhere without the hips.

this is not to say focus 100% on hips, personally i usually unfocus my eyes and 'stare' at my opponents midsection but try to pay close attention to their bladework.

[Boo Boo]

I believe that I read somewhere (but can't remember where ), that people fencing different weapons tend to have different areas of focus...

I basically never look at someone's head... but it would make more sense for a sabreur or an epeeist...

Boo

[Symon]

i usual guage between the oponants sword arm, sword and face

[Von_Moss]

I personally reccoment just looking at the adversary as a whole. Look at the blade, just enough not to be caught off guard. Look at his mask, and see his expression through the mesh. Look at the hand, and the feet, which will either allow you to guess his intentions or be fooled by a feint, heh heh. And when in doubt... Slash him! (for a sabreur, that is)... If you get his timing right you might pull off a nice stop cut.

[RebelFencer]

Originally Posted by Epee Scherma

WHAT? Your all wrong. I know from experience in epee, that your vision should always ALWAYS be on your opponent's back foot.

Except when fencing an attractive female, in which case the chest is the best way to go! [/sexism]