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Sylvie Technique Vlog - The Power of Eye Contact (10 min)
🕑 Added 2019-06-25 09:40:12 +0000 UTCI try to keep informing my patrons in long form vlogs detailing techniques I'm working on. Most of these come from techniques you'll find in the Muay Thai Libary. As I train with someone I pick up something that connects with me and I usually bring it into my training. I urge everyone to do this as it keeps your training fresh and alive, getting influences from beyond even your gym.
This technique is one I ran into a few times over the years, but maybe most forcefully in my Krongsak session (you can find it linked below). It was almost as if the most important thing to him. You must have eye contact. Other trainers had other advice, no one way is best for everyone, and I've used several. This one I ignored for a long time, mostly because it made me really uncomfortable. But the mental training and meditation work I've been doing got me to the place where I really have been challenging myself to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, which made me open to bringing eye contact into all my work from shadow boxing, to bagwork, padwork and sparring. Even in clinch training. As all my technique vlogs aren't "demos" of how to do anything, but shares of what things are like for me as I'm working on them, if you try this you are doing it along with me.
Let me know how it goes for you on my new forum, head on over to the Patreon Library section and start a topic:
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If you enjoyed this vlog check out my other exclusive for patrons Technique Vlogs here all in a long form:
#5 Sylvie's Technique Vlog - Dieselnoi's Lowkick in the Clinch (12 min)
#4 Sylvie's Technique Vlog - Dieselnoi Air Knees in the Corner (8 min)
#3 Sylvie's Technique Vlog - Acceleration at the End of Strikes (10 min)
#2 Sylvie's Technique Vlog - The Kem Pivot (12 min)
#1 Sylvie's Technique Vlog - Dealing With Fear, How to Cut it Out (13 min)
If you can't get enough technique advice you can check out my full Technique Vlog playlist on YouTube, with well over 100 videos compiled over the years.
Technique Vlog YouTube Playlist
Krongsak was a legend who was emphatic on looking the opponent in the eyes, you can watch that Muay Thai Library here:
#52 Krongsak Prakong-Boranrat - That Shoving Energy (56 min) watch it here
Legendary Krongsak, a man who beat Sagat 3x, and fought Dieselnoi to a draw, gives a session that is all about the right fight energy in training. He places great importance on eye-contact, and making sure your strikes really finish, as well as focusing on the back foot in stance, the rudder of the boat.
Patrons get exclusive access to all kinds of material beyond even the incredible Muay Thai Library. You can check out that extra content here.
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And of course browse all the wonderful videos in the Muay Thai Library itself:
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Comments
Jim Molter
I wrote " Look Here " on my heavy bag at eye level.
Great video! I found sparring with eye contact I’m more in control and calmer. And it seems to keep more aggressive people back. When I lose eye contact I tend to lose what I’m doing and get hit without even seeing it. Thanks for the tips
Coming from a grappling/wrestling/bjj background primarily, eye contact during body entanglements was not something I ever paid attention to. When I first started learning Muay Thai about a year-and-a-half ago, I also never paid much attention to my eye contact during sparring or pad holding. That changed about six months ago when I trained with a former lumpini champion in Hong Kong who told me in his broken Chinese that I should not be shy with my eye contact during my kicks, and in fact I should make sure to maintain eye contact throughout the entire arc of the strike. He even went so far as to say something to the effect of "small eye contact equals small heart" . I can still remember the piercing look he gave me as he said this. Being from an Asian cultural background, I too have found it challenging to maintain eye contact during pad holding since then, but noticing this tendency to avert my eyes has been very interesting to me because I am sure it has other unintentional ramifications for my life off the mat. Great post, validating to hear someone else working through this seemingly minute detail that could have far reaching consequences.
Stefan
Been trying to do that when working with a partner but I kind of have a hard time with it as I'm pretty short sighted and see my partner's face kind of blurry. I can look in the direction of their eyes but cannot really focus DIRECTLY on them.
