PERCEPTUAL SPEED

As I grow older, I worry that my vision will continue to degrade. During my last eye exam, my optometrist asked me my age, 50, I answered. “Ah, your eyes will continue to go to shit until about 65 and then it will level out.” Candid, but not reassuring.

Eyesight is very important to me and mine isn’t great. It also impedes my combat-efficacity.

I took my boys to Threat Dynamics to do some interactive simulated shooting and live-fire range time. Threat Dynamics has a 300-degree interactive environment that forces you to engage random targets which can appear all around you. There are auditory signals that clue you in on where they will appear, but you have to orient, observe and react before they disappear. Despite me having far more training and familiarity with handguns, both my boys scored better than I did. My reaction time was as good and my accuracy better than theirs, but my perceptual speed was worse. The targets I found and saw, I hit, but I didn’t see as many as they did.

JKD segments and classifies types of speed. Perceptual speed is crucial to your reactionary time. In order to react to a threat, you first need to observe the threat, then orient on it in order to decide what to do and act accordingly (OODA). What range time reminds me is that I have a challenge with both perceptual acuity as well as orientation (the time it takes to recognize a threat). I also noticed this when hunting sage rats – I wasn’t nearly as quick to spot the varmints as the other hunters – and I don’t think it was simply my lack of experience.

Perceptual speed is probably the single most important type of speed for survival. And arguably it is a deep part of our genetic inheritance. In The Fruit, the Tree, and the Serpent: Why We See So Well (2009), Lynne Isbell cogently argues that our visual acuity results from the need to quickly identify predatory threats, specifically snakes. The hypothesis she develops is that predatory pressure from snakes selected for threat detection, thus snakes were responsible for the development of primate vision which is now our most developed sensory interface and results in the disproportionately large size of the pulvinar region of the brain.[1]

Fortunately for me, perceptual speed in monomachy is not focused on visual identification as much as it is on the detection of motion and intuiting threatening range – seeing furtive movements and understanding combat distance.

In weapons training, I have focused on teaching the points along the continuum of motion to recognize as cues that merit a response. Recognizing those moments requires rote repetition to be sure – practice and more practice to ingrain the pattern and see the openings. But rote repetition needs refinement to learn to see the tsuki (openings). We have focused on finding these moments along the descending arc of the opponent’s sword because those brief time intervals are when possibility expands to counter-cuts, stop hits and disarms.

Learning to see those moments is the focus of training as soon as the pattern (kumitachi) is ingrained. Move beyond the rote and learn to identify opportunities created by the logic-chain.

Once you have learned to see openings, the next step is learning to anticipate them by reading the intention of your opponent.

How does one do that? Don’t fire until you see the white of their eyes!

Human eyes differ from great apes by having sclera – the white surrounding the pupil. This allows us to read each other’s focus – and we watch each other intently, recursive attention: We watch the other’s eyes to see what holds their attention. What do they want? If I know what they want I can predict their behavior. This is a critical social skill to master and we do it reflexively.

And as students of the martial arts, we need to exploit reflexive behavior in others while training/controlling our own. By watching the focal point of your opponent, you can anticipate their target. Hence the corollary strategy of hiding your eyes.

Master at Arms James Keating frequently wears dark glasses. Why?

Eye-protection during training, yes, but the habit is deeper – much harder to read his intention. Disguise your intentions.

Misdirection is another key skill to develop – learn to look both no where (mushin no shin) and intensively at false targets. By shifting your gaze you can lead an opponent. And you lead by moving your pupil and that movement is transmitted by the contrast of the sclera showing providing the background, the field of movement.

The level of concentration is paramount in weapons training. The physical exertion isn’t as important as the mental focus. Each cut should be a kill-stroke, therefore each cut needs intense visual focus. You see what you aim at.[2] This concentration can be disguised and then used for misdirection.

Play with misdirection. You can do this in everyday conversations to practice. In the course of normal conversation, quickly shift your focus on something behind your interlocutor and watch their reaction. Do they break their focus to follow yours? It’s a game to develop the skill.

The things you do everyday are not mundane – they are of paramount importance! Statistically you repeat these actions the most. So integrate your training into these actions.

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[1] Inquiry continues to both validate and disprove her hypothesis but I look to two salient facts: Ophidiophobia (phobia of snakes) is one of the most common and intense phobias among the general population and intriguingly, ayahuasca celebrants report snakes as the most common vision. One also could expand the thesis to account for dragons, which are an amalgam of predators of primates: snake, cat, and raptor.

[2] The negative side of this is tunnel vision – focus on the single problem in front of you to the dangerous exclusion of all other input. Once you master the ability to focus on your target, you need to move to the next level of breaking tunnel vision – see the entirety (the Gestalt) of the situation.

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Scientifically study human perception and Kant’s inquiry of the ding an sich dissolves in the acid test of biology and pragmatics. The very possibility of a thing in itself, not mediated through perception by the senses or conceptualization, can be dismissed entirely. Human perception and reality is comprised of ‘affordances.’ In his Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979), Gibson develops the argument that our perception is mediated at a deep level by biological demands. Thus, we do not see a “cliff” but rather a ‘place to fall from’ and we do not see “rock” but a ‘thing that can be thrown.’ This has profound implications. Gone is the Kantian imperative that people are not means to an end, since every object is perceived as nothing more than a tool (a thing that helps us to get to achieve our goal) or an obstacle (a negative impediment to our progress). Consider being at a party with friends and acquaintances. A fire erupts and one time ‘acquaintances’ and ‘friends’ become concrete obstacles that limit your access to the exit. We are built to see the world at a level of resolution to bifurcate our perceptual classification into tools and obstacles (threats). Layer Darwinian selection on this concept of affordances and one must acknowledge that this classification system is a selected survival mechanism. Inspiration >here<