Where do you look/focus when fighting?

[Alan Armstrong]

In the Wing Chun system, it is the opponent's elbows and not the chest or eyes to observe. Why look at the elbows you may ask. It is because the elbow moves much slower than the overall punch. Looking at the chest doesn't give any information and the opponent's eyes can decive you. Elbows don't lie. Controlling the opponents elbows in many ways has many advantages. Pin your own elbows to your body and then see how well you can punch and kick; not very well. Now practice sparring with their elbows in mind and conceal your own elbow intents. This is why in the Wing Chun system the immovable elbow methodology is used. It is the way to hide one's own intent and to clearly observe the opponent's simultaneously.

[JusticeZero]

Away. Don't ever look at any specific part of the body of the person you are matched with. Only look at their silhouette. Look around them. You don't care about their body details, you care about the shape of their defenses and their movements, and those are best seen in peripheral vision. Best not to focus and tune that out.

[Alan Armstrong]

Really there is not correct answer to this question.

The best place to look is the one at the time that gives you an advantage over your opponent.

Low light confrontations would relying more on tactile sensitivity information than from the eyes.

Cannot look at an opponent if attcked from behind.

Cannot look at the opponent if you are in a headlock.

Peripheral vision is OK at a distance but when things are very close as in a clinch, eyes cannot give the fighter much information by switching to body sensitivity techniques, the sense of touch plays a very important role, a type of tactile night vision.

[MatsuShinshii]

Chest. In between the neck and sternum.

[singularity6]

We're trained to look at they eyes in my style. We don't do much tournament sparring... Most people on the street aren't trained in martial arts, so their eyes will likely telegraph what's coming next.