Many years ago, JKD expert Tim Tackett taught me that one’s awareness was alerted by three things.
1. Visual – what you see.
2. Audio – what you hear.
3. Tactile – what you feel, no vision opportunity, such as in floor-ground fighting and say… things like various bear hugs. Times when you cannot see all of your body and your opponent’s body parts. Often referred to as the “sixth sense,” proprioception is your body’s ability to perceive its own position, orientation, and movement in space without needing to see your torso or limbs. It relies on specialized receptors called proprioceptors located in your muscles, joints, and tendons that send constant feedback to your brain.
In my Collision 1 outline of the Collision 6 study (the 6 typical collisions of a typical fight), and levels 1 in the hand, the stick, the knife and the gun courses – there’s much material with no physical contact yet – and we rely heavily and invent response drills on the visual aspect, especially when:
• An enemy moves in such a manner as to set up a sucker punch.
• An enemy first raises his hands up to strike a fighting pose or to “mad rush” attack.
• An enemy chest bumps and maintains chest-to-chest-contact and decides to hook punch you or drops to catch your knees in his hands for a push-pull takedown (we call the Firepole Takedown). You might feel the initiation of this across your chest. Great idea not to stay there in the first place but history (and youtube) shows it happens. Fast.
• An enemy moves his hands to weapon carry sites.