For the purposes of this article, concentration is the quality of focusing all your attention on something you are doing. It doesn’t matter if you are practicing a new technique, breaking a board, sparring or dealing with a violent encounter; your concentration or focus on the task at hand is critical. On the surface, this statement seems like a paradox. For example, when you are doing attacking techniques, we tell you not to think too much, just move. Actually though, it’s not a paradox at all, as you will later.

Learning a New Technique

When you are learning a new technique, everything is new. A front stance is not terribly complicated, but when you are first learning it, there’s a lot to remember. Point both feet to the front. Lock the rear leg and make sure the heel is down on the floor. Bend your front knee. Check for adequate separation between the front and back foot, both front to back and side to side. Square your hips and shoulders to the front. Put 70 percent of your weight on the front foot. Keep your back straight. Look straight ahead. Unless you are concentrating on getting all these things right, you will learn it wrong and make it even more difficult to correct later.

Breaking Boards

There are two common problems I see consistently when a student has trouble breaking a board. Both of them are problems with what their focus is on. If you are focusing on avoiding pain, you are not going to hit the board hard enough to break it. It may hurt a little, but if your main focus is on breaking the board, you can push the thought of pain out of your mind. The other problem is focusing on hitting the surface of the board. In order to break the board, you have to concentrate on your hand going through the board. In other words, you need to ‘see’ your hand going several inches through the board and not stop your strike at the surface of the board.

Sparring

When you are sparring, you should have a goal of some type. If you are thinking about trying to ‘win’ or what someone else is going to think about you, you cannot be focused on learning. Basically, you’re wasting your time. However, if you are concentrating on learning how to perfect one of your techniques or learning how to defend yourself from an attack, you will learn.

The Violent Encounter

There is only one goal in a violent encounter and that is survival. If you are ever faced with this situation, you will go into sensory overload. Your heart will race as adrenaline is released into the bloodstream. You will begin to breathe fast and even tremble. Some good things will happen like an increase in strength and pain tolerance. Some bad things like general loss of fine motor skills, tunnel vision and auditory exclusion will also occur. Instead of trying to hit a dime-size pressure point, you are better off throwing a reverse punch or kick into the center of the body (solar plexus). This is not the time to focus on the various intricacies of the front stance. That is done in training so you don’t have to think about it if you ever need it. Just as we do in attacking techniques, you want to move without thinking too much. In this situation, the focus is on using basic techniques that you have mastered in combination with your increased strength to survive the violent confrontation. Ideally, you will not be injured at all, but you can’t let injury distract you from your goal of survival. There have been many documented cases of seriously injured victims overcoming their attacker by keeping their focus and refusing to give up. In all of these various situations, you can reach the goal you are focusing on, so make sure you are focusing on the right thing.