Doing forms with eyes closed

[isshinryuronin]

I had an instructor who would close his eyes while watching forms. When he opened his eyes, he expected to see the person doing the form to be at a particular point.

Don't see why he wants you to do a form at a particular restricted tempo. Taller people will take a little longer than shorter people since they have more distance to cover. Aside from this, an individual may interpret the form in a slightly different way. Two actors reading a page, or two singers with a song, may not finish at the same time, even though each does a great job. They express themselves by the way they phrase the passages.

Individuals have their own natural flow which allows them to perform effectively. Of course, taking a nap in between moves or rushing thru them as fast as possible is taking it too far, as the form's integrity will fall apart.

True, some forms have slow moves with dynamic tension and other moves done in quick, snappy, succession. Still, we are not robots and in the true spirit of TMA forms, some individuality is allowed and even encouraged, as long as the intended bunkai is not compromised. Now, there may be more than one bunkai for a particular "phrase", each with a slightly different timing.

One last comment - a kata is not a single continual scenario from start to finish, but rather a collection of shorter, stand-alone scenarios strung together, so the timing of the whole is not as important as of its component parts.

Wonder what Prostar's instructor had in mind? Perhaps it was a particular exercise of some sort. But these are my (as usual, longer than intended) views on the subject; others are free to differ.

 

[Prostar]

Sadly that instructor went back to Korea and ,since, died.

I suspect that particular instructor was a product pf the country and the time when he learned. It would not surprise me at all that a ninth dan from Korea would have firmly rooted opinions.

 

[_Simon_]

Just did Pinan San kata eyes closed many times, very interesting! Still had to hold back as it was a relatively narrow space, but I got more and more comfortable as I did it. Balance was shocking initially, but that improved.

Not only that, and this is by far the CLEVEREST idea ever for the record, I tried some heavy bag work while blindfolded haha. Just always wanted to see how it would go, seeing how it would feel being blind and just going by feel. Bumped into stuff at times, but mainly stayed pretty close quarters with the bag. Punches, elbows, knees, but I did try stepping back and throwing kicks at distance too! Didn't hurt myself so that's the main thing ;D

Tried even spinning around a few times, walking about trying to feel around, and as SOON as I felt the bag I struck like mad. Interesting exercise, give it a go!

 

[Prostar]

My instructor once had me close mmy eyes half way y during sparring.
What struck me as interesting was that I cut down on the data coming in.
I remember thinking, " He looks big and mean". I found myself working with less input, so I just paid attention to the big movements of my opponent. And he didn't look so mean.