Loudly or quietly?

[Why_Worry]

Wow that makes sense but makes no sense either from what i hav elearned. I have learn that tense muscles blocks the flow of chi, but i guess if you have it all in one spot, yoru kinda invicinble in that one spot so that is actually really useful to realize. It kidna traps the chi.

[Zaine]

Nothing, but breathing l0oudly can cause a couple of problems in a fight, although most people use them in forms and not fights, they might get mixed up and use them in a fight and all someone would have to do is time there shot to when there breathing out and then there down for the count

[Sauzin]

Uh actually I breath out loudly when I get hit hard all the time. It helps protect from and absorb impact. It's when you're breathing in that you're really vulnerable, at least as I understand human biology. I certainly wouldn't want to breath in while getting socked in the chest.

[Taiji Mistress]

I was always taught that, with the exception of internal iron shirt chi gong, all other chi gong was to be done with quiet breath.

There are probably as many conflicting views on this as any other MA topic!

What I always do is experiment and find what works best for me and discuss it with my teacher.

[pineapple]

It appears from the responses that I received that if I am practicing "combat" chi, I must breathe with force and if I am practicing "healing" chi, I must do it quietly.

[atalaya]

during sanchin kata we are to use "hard breathing" or breathing so that you can hear the breath on the "in" and "out" phases. it definitely helps you tense your body. (sanchin kata testing involves striking various parts of the body to test "toughness")- sauzin, you may be familiar with this. (also a kiai is a forceful breath from your core that "ignites" and helps you "express" your chi- hard breathing is a smaller version of that.)

[giang_hu]

I was taught not to breathe loudly since your opponent will hear it and will know how you are using your energy. I am sure there are advantages to breathing out loud, however.

[Kajukenbopr]

Some schools teach breathing extremely loudly while other schools teach controlling your breath so you can't hear it.

What's the difference?

Some styles belive that by exhaling using strength, you're body breathes easier and gives you brusts of energy.These burst fo strength can be learned by the body to be repeated where the techniques need to be more powerful.(so you dont need to think about when should you use strength in your technique, kata, etc)

Chinese styles prefer no sound for in order to make sound just by breathing, you have to use more energy that needed, since really, the body doesnt need to make a sound to breathe naturally.

[fighterdude0]

During forms when the class was supposed to go on their own count, and not the instructor's we were always taught to breath heavily so we could stay in count by listening to eachother's breathing.