How to improve the "Fighter's Eye"???

[Scrappy145]

Fighter's eye is what I like to refer to as the skill to be able to spot your opponent's and your own mistakes...the ability to decipher an opponent's weakness,his oppenings, and his strengths so as to avoid them

Doesnt sound hard, well in the middle of a fight when punches are being thrown to knock your head off, it is.

Aside from experience, what can you do to have a better perception and technical understanding of the fight game IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT

I noticed during sparring that im a brawler type, i duck my head and throw looping punches....the attack part of being a technical fighter is something i need to work on as well, but thats for another time...

Right now I want to know how to improve the defensive part of being a technical fighter, how to be able to have a clear understanding of the fight as its happening.

 

[xilliun]

for the first minute or so just take it slow, observe what your opponent does when he throws kicks/punches and notice any flaws.

 

[Scrappy145]

for the first minute or so just take it slow, observe what your opponent does when he throws kicks/punches and notice any flaws.

good point, but i also need to improve my ABILITY TO NOTICE THOSE FLAWS.
maybe its a "who's smarter" type deal?
maybe i'm too stupid to be a fighter lol nah no way

 

[BrokenNose]

I honestly think it's just a factor of experience.

 

[Ice That Jaw]

I honestly think it's just a factor of experience.

Experience and natural composure.

Basically you have to rid the fear of getting hit. Combine that with technical defense and your good to go.

 

[antfarm612]

Experience and natural composure.

Basically you have to rid the fear of getting hit. Combine that with technical defense and your good to go.

This is the best response your going to get. The reason you can't observe your opponent's openings and your own mistakes is because your mind is is pacnic mode. Experience is really the only thing I know of that will allow you to remain calm and composed. And, like Ice said, technical defense will mean getting hit less which will mean less focus on getting hit, and more focus on your own offense.

 

[Justwork1983]

I am not 100 percent sure what you are talking about but recently I have implemented wall drills. Where a partner throws punches with you against a wall. it has really helped me with parrying.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

I don't know this from experience but I've heard many times that coaching can help a lot with understanding and fixing flaws in your own game. It probably also helps with analyzing your opponent. Since you probably aren't experienced enough to coach, I think sparring is probably the only way you're going to be able to improve your "fighter's eye." Sparring and getting used to getting hit and having someone swing at you is going to help calm you down and get you out of "panic mode," as antfarm called it. Experience in real competition is obviously going to help even more than sparring but you can't just get a fight scheduled whenever you feel like.

About the defense thing: I do the exact same thing as Justwork1983's wall drill, but I like to do it without the wall more often than not because moving is a pretty big part of my defense. My coach will bitch me out if I back up instead of circling around during this drill so doing it without the wall isn't really a problem. To work on just my head movement and not overall defense I recently started doing the same thing except I keep my hands down and have my partner throw weaker punches only at my head.

 

[ambertch]

It's all just experience and skill. Lemme explain something to you, there are different levels of offense (I just arbitrarily made up this classification, but these do illustrate distinct levels of skill):

Level 1 - throwing an attack. I punch you. Duh.

Level 2 - countering: I see and/or expect your attack and defend it while executing an attack of my own.


From here on, are the skills that most people don't really know/talk about but it's what differentiates alright fighters from great ones:

Level 3 - baiting: I expect your counter so I bait a counter from you and then counter it. Example: I jab at you just out of range so you think you can step in and hit me, but I already know you're going to do that. I slip your counter and bang you to the body.

Level 4 - forcing the situation: I put you in a situation where you are at a disadvantage no matter what, regardless of our attribute differences. Example: cutting an angle that forces you to turn with me otherwise I'll clock you in the back of the head, but no matter how fast you are I'm always a quarter turn ahead because I initiated it first. These are how punches and kicks are landed at the world championship level.




Level 4 is why skill > all attributes (speed, power, whatever) at the highest level Unless the opponent is at a similar skill level he's just fucked plain and simple. It's the same as high level BJJ or wrestling. You set something up that forces a skilled opponent to take a predictable course of action in which you have the cards in your favor.




Also, the example level 3 counter I gave is KJ Noons' favorite move

 

[Da Speeit]

Just watch a lot of fights.

It took me a good decade or so to develop a strict sense of critique.

 

[Based and White Pilled]

Just watch a lot of fights.

It took me a good decade or so to develop a strict sense of critique.

I thought you were like 20? Lol clearly I am mistaken, unless you've been critiquing fights sense you were 10.

 

[Scrappy145]

It's all just experience and skill. Lemme explain something to you, there are different levels of offense (I just arbitrarily made up this classification, but these do illustrate distinct levels of skill):

Level 1 - throwing an attack. I punch you. Duh.

Level 2 - countering: I see and/or expect your attack and defend it while executing an attack of my own.


From here on, are the skills that most people don't really know/talk about but it's what differentiates alright fighters from great ones:

Level 3 - baiting: I expect your counter so I bait a counter from you and then counter it. Example: I jab at you just out of range so you think you can step in and hit me, but I already know you're going to do that. I slip your counter and bang you to the body.

Level 4 - forcing the situation: I put you in a situation where you are at a disadvantage no matter what, regardless of our attribute differences. Example: cutting an angle that forces you to turn with me otherwise I'll clock you in the back of the head, but no matter how fast you are I'm always a quarter turn ahead because I initiated it first. These are how punches and kicks are landed at the world championship level.




Level 4 is why skill > all attributes (speed, power, whatever) at the highest level Unless the opponent is at a similar skill level he's just fucked plain and simple. It's the same as high level BJJ or wrestling. You set something up that forces a skilled opponent to take a predictable course of action in which you have the cards in your favor.




Also, the example level 3 counter I gave is KJ Noons' favorite move

great post, very insightful.

 

[quikkick]

Watch tons of fights and listen to the commentary. Watch fight documentaries especially like those on ESPN classic, boxing, k-1, mma, point fighting, old american kickboxing, wcl, everything.

 

[MikeBison]

all you have to do , to develop fighters eye, is train and spar. and throught time youll start things here and there that you can capitalize on your opponent.

all it takes is experience.

also becoming a student of the game helps too, as in watching and studying fights etc.

 

[SpineBreaker]

If you're talking about that ability that not many people are aware we have, where we can get inside our opponent's mind and feel what they are doing, how strong or weak they are at the moment, then it's a lot of things. Eye contact is the basic thing. Always watch the eyes. Then just work on trying to feel what your opponent is going to do.

It's about using the subconscious, and that will come to you with experience. Not from...watching fights...YOU have to fight.

 

[SAAMAG]

I think that some of it will come with time, experience, and training. This is why jabs, feints, and draws are so important to have in a fighter's toolbox. Because these are the tools that will allow you to see how your opponent will react without having to overly commit and put yourself in danger.

A good example is Muay Thai in Thailand. This is why MT fights start slow and gradually ramp up through the rounds. You're feeling out your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Logging things in your head for later exploitation.

That said...I also believe that some of it is just natural skill. Much like how someone is just naturally fast, or naturally strong. Some people naturally have an ability to read you better than others.

 

[dkickboxer]

If you're talking about that ability that not many people are aware we have, where we can get inside our opponent's mind and feel what they are doing, how strong or weak they are at the moment, then it's a lot of things. Eye contact is the basic thing. Always watch the eyes. Then just work on trying to feel what your opponent is going to do.

It's about using the subconscious, and that will come to you with experience. Not from...watching fights...YOU have to fight.

Always watch the eyes? Funny, my coaches(@AKA) clearly told me to not watch an opponent's eyes and instead to watch their shoulder/chest area.

 

[Da Speeit]

I thought you were like 20? Lol clearly I am mistaken, unless you've been critiquing fights sense you were 10.

of course ive watched/been in/around fights since i was very young, it just took a long time before i started understanding patterns and all of the intracacies.

 

[mcdonkey]

Read Bruce Lee's philosophies in Tao of Jeet Kune Do.... seriously... do it