i wondered that for years, i learned it, but like most people, i did it because i thought that's what i was supposed to do. some fighters say it's to help keep your arms up, that sounds kinda silly, so i'd go with it conditioning your eyes to see a blur coming at you, i guess, best i can figure is it helps with defense too, because punches coming at you rely on your ability to first see them before you can do anything unless your doing drilled defense moves. so i guess i doesn't sharpen your eyes. I'm still not sure what it does though, i know you look cool doing it, i remember the mma'rs used to hate to see me do it, or at least it seemed that way, cuz they couldn't do it. I guess, like a lot of things though, we learn things incidentally just by doing. I heard a trainer describe how he would teach beginners simple things like touching their nose or what have you and rubbing their stomach or something, to teach basic coordination. I never thought about those things when i was doing them but I realized I did learn them, like jumping rope for instance, just think of the coordination that goes into that, i really hardly remember learning it but i must have went through a process where i failed many times before i got it. so, without knowing, i'm learning to do one thing with my hands, another with my feet, gaining spring in my step, conditioning my cardiovascular system.
