A:  A lot of guys I know that are really good look right into their opponent’s eyes. I’ve seen more than a few garden variety tough guys wilt under heavy eye contact.

But, while that may work for your advanced fighters, I approach fighting gaze from a different standpoint. I contend that your fighting gaze should move between two different areas – neither of which are his eyes.

First and foremost, I look at a guy’s hands.

I start any contact by looking at the hands. Is he holding anything? Is he trying to conceal something? Is he trying to hide one of his hands? Are his fists clenched. Although the eyes may indeed by "the windows to the soul", they are not going to be able to hit, slab, stab or shoot you.

Then, I rest my gaze on the guy’s chest.

Notice my choice of words. I "rest" my "gaze". I gently allow my field of vision to settle in with his chest being the basic midpoint. It is a soft look – I don’t fix or concentrate or stare.

This works for me for a couple of reasons.

First, as you will probably be anxious and have the pre-combat jitters, you deny the opponent any opportunity to read that anxiousness in your eyes if you have not locked eye contact. The attacker is counting on making you back down and he draws further strength from your fear (his predatory instinct is kicking in). You rob him of that. Also, by not looking into his eyes, it helps to keep you from being intimidated and becoming emotionally involved in the conflict. When you look into someone's eyes, you become affected emotionally. You will also think, "Oh my God, this guy looks scary!" or suffer from fleeting emotional thoughts when you should be setting yourself to fight. These fleeting thoughts can be distracting, especially when they are inappropriate to the situation. Police officers have reported thinking of completely extraneous and inappropriate thoughts during raging gun battles. These might be thoughts of what he needs to pick up at the grocery store or memories from grade school. They report that they were extremely distracted at these fleeting thoughts. "Now why would I think of that right now?", they reported thinking to themselves while battling for their lives.

Secondly, from a more physiological standpoint, your reaction time will be quicker if you gazing and are not fixed on one point. The use of your peripheral vision allows not only a greater field of vision, but this type of vision allows for auto-kinetic responses (meaning you don't have to think about it -- much like when you yank your hand off of a hot stove). Looking intently involves the cones of the retina which stimulates the critical thinking process of the brain which hinders reflexive responses. The cones are arranged mostly around the middle of the retina, surrounding the optic nerve. We use this type of vision during the day to make judgments about distance, size, color, and other tasks which need critical computing power. When you gaze and use peripheral vision, you are activating the rods on the back of the retina. They are arranged further away from the optic nerve and generally recognize movement first. This is the type of vision we want to use.

Try this drill to illustrate this principle. Have your training partner attempt to slap your face. First, look directly into their eyes. They slap, you block.

Now, gaze at a spot on their chest. They slap, you block. This time notice how much easier it was to recognize when they were starting to move, which gives you more time to block. There is a noticeable difference.

There’s nothing mystical here. Gazing at his chest keeps his hands in your field of vision better than when you make eye contact with you. And, your peripheral vision picks up movement quicker than direct vision. You perceive the motion of his hands earlier which gives you more time to block.