Hi,

This is a really interesting subject from a martial arts perspective.

I am not sure if it is still 'sen' or actually beyond it? There is an
interview with Ohtsuka where he mentions 'Kan'. Kan is perception,
perhaps not so different to what the sports writers describe in the
article you quote although in the past perhaps life depended on
getting it right whereas in sports...

The only discussion I ever came across on this subject was an
interview Tomiki gave to Aikido Journal. I will try to find it and
copy it to the files section.

Last year, I was fortunate to meet Ishizuka Sensei of Tokyo
University karate club. He is one of the older generation of wado
karate-ka (still actively training) and a direct student of Ohtsuka
Sensei. I asked him about 'Kan' and his advice was that you should
keep watching your opponents centre line.

Hope this is of interest.


Ben Pollock
www.manchester-wadokai.org








--- In wadokarate@yahoogroups.com, jaron ben yochanan <jaronby@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Igor,
>
> How are things?
>
> I liked the last bit of the article;Inexperienced
> volleyball hitters tend to telegraph
> > their hits,
>
> It reminded me what Takagi sensei said at summercamp a
> couple of times to people that they are telegraphing
> what they are going to do before they moved.
> And then reflects to the wild west in a gun battle
> situation. Bob also reminds us on that from time to
> time...
>
> cool stuff.
>
> Yours
> Jaron
> --- kodia1963 <safe@...> wrote:
>
> > It appears the concept of 'sen' has entered the
> > realm of sports science. Today I came
> > across this highly interesting article on Wired.com:
> >
> http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/15-06/ff_mindgames
> > It's about how top-athletes know what's going to
> > happen, before actually perceiving it.
> > Supernatural?
> > Hardly.
> > But as we in wado already know, it's hard to learn.
> >
> > Igor A
> >
> >
> > Some tidbits from the article:
> >
> > What separated the pros from everyone else was the
> > ability to pull directional information
> > out of the early stages of a swing and therefore to
> > predict a split second earlier where to
> > head. This fraction of time is game- changing. A
> > serve going 120 miles per hour takes
> > approximately a third of a second to travel the 60
> > feet from baseline to service line. This
> > means that an expert, who doesn't have to wait until
> > contact, has twice as long to move,
> > plant his feet, and swing.
> >
> > Reflex speed is not the key factor in returning a
> > serve. "People have tested casual players
> > and experts, and their reaction times are
> > essentially the same," Farrow says. The fact that
> > Roger Federer can drill back a 140-mile-per-hour
> > serve is partly a matter of muscle
> > control. But it's also about processing subtle
> > visual cues to predict where the ball will go
> > and get to the right spot.
> >
> > Vint knows that the skill he calls "perceptual
> > ability" develops, in part, to help a physical
> > underdog against bigger, stronger players. If you
> > can anticipate a throw, you don't need to
> > be as fast. If you can intercept a pass by
> > predicting its trajectory better than your
> > opponent can, you don't need to be as big.
> >
> > Inexperienced volleyball hitters tend to telegraph
> > their hits, says Vint, who has puzzled
> > over these issues with Farrow: "If they're doing a
> > quick set in the middle, they may stiffen
> > their arms. If it's a back-set, they'll arch their
> > back before the ball arrives."
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
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