Utilizing your 180 degrees vision to see the trail without having to look at it

[Gunnar H]

An average human vision covers somewhat more than 180 degrees. We have the physical capability to use this for actually seeing, but most of us (99.7%?) uses much less of our vision for seeing.

If you don´t believe in this, there is a simple yoga practice you can do to convince yourself. Pick a detail on the wall opposite to you. Keep the spot in focus for a minute while taking in how much more than the spot your vision actually registers. About 180 degrees, with decent resolution as well.

I learned this from a seminar with a man who have spent a very large part of his life sailing (as he did put it – I am not a sailor, I am sailing). He has been skipper in Volvo Ocean Races but also works as yoga trainer for two Swedish national teams to enhance their performance.

He claimed – and it was very easy to believe him – that he actually uses his full 180 degrees vision for seeing when he sails, and this is necessary to win races when you are sailing 40 knots crossing the south Atlantic in front of a tropical storm. If you react rather than act on a sudden gust you are loser. To be able to act you have to actively see 180 degrees so you can see the subtle change of the water surface in the corner of the eye so you know exactly when the gust comes. This would not be unique for him among elite sailors, but he was very good at putting it into words. Afterwards he held a short yoga training with many exercises that would be good for balance and strengthening the feet, but the vision practice described above was the one that really stood out for me.

So back to hiking. One  result of this limited use of the vision is that is that most of us either only sees the trail, or don´t see where we place our feet. People who have lived their life in the forest seems to have developed this skill since they can walk off trial in good pace and still spot everything that is going on in the whole forest. From the book “Out there” it is clear that Chris Townsend also have developed this capability after lifelong hiking.

I think it would be a great skill that allows me take in the surrounding nature while walking safely even off trail if it not to dense vegetation. Ideally it would all take

place on a subconscious level but I don´t have a time or patience to take a lifetime to get there so I decided a few months ago to practice this actively.

I walk the dog in every morning on a 3km footpath in the forest with a lot of roots and stones. Well-known and close to home this is the perfect practice ground. I force myself actively to keep my focal point up but still seeing the stones  and roots that I approach in the lower part of my vision. And it seems to work! Something has started happening in just a couple of months without accidents and it´s a bit mind-blowing to enhance something as fundamental as sight. At least it works on my well-known footpath, it´s still more or less untested for longer unknown trails. You have to be present in your mind here and now, not letting your thoughts stroll away on things like work issues, but that is no disadvantage for me, rather one of things I strive for while I am in the forest.

Do anyone else have actively tried this, or do you feel you have this skill already? How did you get there? Has this already been been discussed here a lot previous years? What worked for you?

Feeling very positive about this I would welcome your thoughts, tips and comments.

[David Thomas]

I have a sense of doing that, at times, while on the trail.  It certainly makes for a better experience than keeping my eyes glued to the trail and missing the scenery.  There have been times I’ve looked up and around and (1) been impressed by how spectacular the surroundings were and (2) wondering how much equally fabulous stuff I’d walked right past.

Another thought on “People who have lived their life in the forest”: I spent a summer on staff at a Scout Camp and we had no lighting on the trails.  We didn’t bother to carry flashlights with us and there were bumps and dips and also logs placed across the trail as a water breaks.  I semi-consciously developed a stride in which I tentatively lowered each foot before committing weight to it.  It sounds slow and tedious, but it really isn’t much slower than normal walking.  Ever since, I’ve been able to slip back into that mode and make decent time, pretty safely, on a rough, dark trail.

[Franco Darioli]

The only times I look at where I put my feet on a trail is when scrambling (if) , otherwise I tend to trip over because it is something unusual for me to do.
No idea when I started doing that, I don’t remember otherwise.
But I have noticed that many do look down as they walk.

[Gunnar H]

David, Yes it has happend to me to many times, that’s why I put an effort in this. I don’t want to experience the places I put a lot of effort in getting to only when I stop. What you feel with you feet becomes a larger part of it not only in the dark, bu also looking up I experience as might be expected. This time of year It’s only daylight a few hous when I am at work so I do a bit walking in the dark as well. As long as there is some snow it is almost always ok, This boring winter we dont have snow and then I get problems in the forest as it is just to dark. The small bumps I manage in a way similar to what you describe, but I tend to lose the trail slighly all the time if its to dark, resulting in branches poking your eye etc. I don’t like using flashlight in any form if I can avoid it.

When scramling or when you can fall over a cliff it might be agood idea to really focus on where you put yor feet.  Franco, it seems like you are were I want to be. I just hope an active effort will speed up the process for me. But it is good to hear that other people are there, then it should be possible for me as well.

[d k]

Unfortunately, I am so nearsighted that I literally do not see anything but blurred colors outside of my glasses, or for that matter anywhere near the edges of them, since I now use progressives. So I have to check in on the ground ahead of me constantly. I do try to look around a lot by moving my head so that I do not miss out on my surroundings…I guess my neck muscles get a better workout that way, at least.

[Franco Darioli]

My wife looks more or less at her feet as she walks.

I tried several times to show her how I do it,   but she can’t.

She does miss out on seeing a lot of wildlife .

[Greg Mihalik]

Mountain biker here.  Always looking way ahead, and still missing the rocks coming at the wheel.

We process sight in many different ways, with multiple pathways processing direct as well as peripheral inputs.

Watch this blind guy (stroke, I think) walk through an obstacle course –

He can navigate, even though his visual center is broken. It’s called “blindsight”

You can train yourself to do similar stuff – take it in, track it, and miss or hit it, without staring at it.

 

Drifting – to show that input doesn’t always go visual –

Or in this case, look out for wildlife. “Know” that you are looking for critters, let the trail take care of itself.

[Jim Colten]

Blindsight …  Fascinating!

Perhaps that explains why I become aware of a large bird perched in a tree 100 yards to the side through a forest (winter, no leaves) when focused on driving a narrow winding road?  Or being aware of a bird in flight on the edge of my periphery vision but to far away to ID?

That has been happening ever since I started volunteering at The Raptor Center several years ago.

[Paul Wagner]

Astronomers will tell you that “averted vision” allows you to see dim objects better than staring straight at them.  But that’s not the same as being able to perceive and react to visual clues in an entire hemisphere of vision.

 

I don’t usually look at the trail if it’s smooth, but in rocky terrain I do, because if I don’t I can’t judge correctly how big those rocks are.  Have I ever fallen down on the trail?  Only a few times in the last 1500 miles, often due to slippery trail surfaces.  Do I stumble?  Yep.  Too busy looking at the stuff around me to see the tree roots, lumps in the trail, rocks that move under my weight…

On the other hand, my wife spends way more time looking at the trail when we hike.  Sometimes I have to point out the mountain views to her.  And she points out the flowers, mushrooms, scat, and other things I miss because I’m looking up, not down.

 

 

[Gerry B.]

Liz Thomas, in one of her recent blogs, said that it took her, I think, over a 1,000 miles of hiking before she learned how to see the bigger picture rather than the trail right in front of her.  I would be interested to hear feed back from other thru-hikers.

On a slightly different note, I often walk my dog in the dark and as an exercise I close my eyes for thirty seconds or so and try to feel the surface of the road (quiet, country road with virtually no traffic) in order to go straight but inevitably I curve to the left.  I would love to develop my “feel” for the road (or trail) much better than I have now.

[Gunnar H]

Really interesting youtube links.I also think utilizing your full sight better is key to experience more wildlife.

The good thing is that it is the brain that limits, not the eyes, and the brain can be trained to do new things. The frustrating thing is that it takes time to change something the brain has been doing the whole life.

Walking in an smooth road or trail, I don’t have to look at it even though I annoyingly tend to look down as soon as my thoughts are somewhere else, thinking of work issues etc, even indoor in my own house. But the real challenge is to get it working on a more rough trail, as almost all trails I walk.

A couple things you find if you try to change this actively:

• You really collect more information on obstacles on the trail because you see them for a longer period from different perspectives. This I believe can more than compensate for not staring at obstacles as you are very close to step over them.
• In these days of 3D goggles and games – if you start looking up as you walk you will find that a forest is amazingly 3D. If you have been doing this already you probably don’t think of it that much any more. At least one advantage for us long-time down-lookers.

It takes time but I still think you can take an shortcut by perusing this actively rather than just walking 1000+ miles more or less continuously on a trail until it just happens by itself. And the rewards should be worth it.

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