Where should your eyes be pointed on an opponent?

[707puncher]

I've been told 2 different ways, one is to keep your eyes on your opponents collarbone/ neck area as you dont "sell" your next move and have better peripheral vision. Two, is to have eye to eye contact, which I'm not sure is correct as your opponent can telegraph a faint to make you react for a counter.

Whats your opinion/ advice on this? I've mostly been told never to stare your opponent in the eyes.

[DIB42]

You're not looking at the collarbone so much as you're looking through the collarbone. Much like those pictures where you stare at them and a 3-d image pops out. Rather than fixing your vision on one spot, this expands your field of vision. Albeit not as sharp, so it takes some getting used to.

[BarryRobinson]

I've been told 2 different ways, one is to keep your eyes on your opponents collarbone/ neck area as you dont "sell" your next move and have better peripheral vision. Two, is to have eye to eye contact, which I'm not sure is correct as your opponent can telegraph a faint to make you react for a counter.

Whats your opinion/ advice on this? I've mostly been told never to stare your opponent in the eyes.

You should look through your opponent right through the center(chin, chest..) but look through not at. Practice with a friend just stare through them and have him/her move their arm or legs. You should be able to see everything without staring at it directly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thousand-yard_stare "there's more to reading than word meets eye" let me know how it goes

[mconstantine]

I agree that your eyes should be unfocused so that you can see things coming from all angles and directions...but you should also be actively looking for openings. So while your eyes may be appear to be in a blank stare, your mind should be focused on looking for openings or ways to set up offense.

Use your more passive (peripheral) vision to see punches coming (defense) and use your more active vision to see openings to set up offense.

This shiet is much easier said than done.

[RVABoxer]

ive always heard to look at their chest and shoulders but i feel like i always look at their head and hands if their hands are up where they should be

[Bingo33]

Jose Torres told me...

to always watch their hands.

[BarryRobinson]

I've been told 2 different ways, one is to keep your eyes on your opponents collarbone/ neck area as you dont "sell" your next move and have better peripheral vision. Two, is to have eye to eye contact, which I'm not sure is correct as your opponent can telegraph a faint to make you react for a counter.

Whats your opinion/ advice on this? I've mostly been told never to stare your opponent in the eyes.

Please don't look at anyone's hands champ. a good fake and you'll never see what's coming behind that setup.

[mconstantine]

to always watch their hands.

Looking at hands = very bad idea.

[SBleeder]

I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years. I always watch the gloves... those are the things that are going to be hitting me.

[mconstantine]

I guess I've been doing it wrong all these years. I always watch the gloves... those are the things that are going to be hitting me.

If you're focusing on the hands, not only are you a sitting duck for feints and set ups, but you're also losing focus on openings to strike.

Also, how can you actually look at both hands effectively at the same time?

Seems like constantly starring at hands would make it easy to fall into an overly defensive trap of being gun shy...and no matter how good you are defensively, once you get gun shy, you get hit because guys will just open up on you and some are bound to get through.