Intentional

[glenatron]

This evening we were doing some more unorthodox ninjutsu, starting out with a lot of techniques to protect against being attacked from behind. The interesting thing about this is that as you get better you should be able to feel the attack coming by reading your opponent's intention as they begin to move. I have no idea how this works or whether it would work if you weren't expecting to be attacked from behind, but most of the time it does. The sensation is something you have to listen for (although it is much stronger if your opponent really intends to hit you) and I doubt it would work, for me at least, outside of the training hall, but it is very intriguing. You do sometimes get jumpy and evade before your partner begins their attack and what is interesting is that after you have done that you almost always get hit the next time - a part of it appears to be that you have to believe you can do it in order to trust your instincts. What the mechanism is I am unsure- I previously assumed it was a combination of low level sensations, air currents, quiet sounds and so on, that your brain collated without you being conscious of any of them, but that doesn't explain why you feel it more strongly and react much earlier when the attack is more determined.

I suppose like many things I shall come to understand it in time- I will have to if I ever want to attain fifth dan as the grading involves kneeling in front of a man with a katana and rolling out of the way as he cuts at your head.