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Different Kiais?


Josie

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Our karate club had a sponsored walk yesterday, and on the way to our destination we had a conversation about everyone's kiai and how they're actually all different.

In our club alone, theres:

"Yaa!"

"Chi!"

"Hoi!"

"Hei!"

"Dei!" (the trigger for the ongoing "Die!" joke)

"Sie!"

"Haa!"

"Hya!"

among many other unidentifiable ones

What about you peoples?

:D

"When you are executing karate moves, you should keep your head up, looking in the direction your are going, otherwise you cannot focus properly and so, cannot execute your desired move properly. The same is true in life. If you walk around with your head down, you cannot expect to achieve your goals, because you are negative. When you look forward, you see your goal, and you can focus on how to reach it." - Master Kanazawa, during the training session before my 8th Kyu grading.

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Trek, welcome!

One of the ideas behind the kiai is to control breathing, especially to have a forceful exhalation resulting in more complete muscle contraction, right?

At the dojo where I practiced there was some variation to it, but it tended to be a "YAA!"

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Mine is always fairly brief, but explosive, when doing forms. When we kihap during basics, where it tends to get a bit excessive, its just more of an audible exhalation.

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Mine is usually KIAI or OSU. It could be a mixture of both depending how tired I am. :x

"Kiai" is a compound of two Japanese words:

Ki=Energy (spirit) Ai = Harmony (as in Aiki-do)

So in essence to "Kiai" is the process of bringing together ones sprit at the summit of the technique. It does not mean to shout per-se, (because one can perform kiai silently) and it is not representative of the sound made when one "Kiais" either.

In many "Koryu" (old school) Japanese ma there are "official" words that are used and as I understand it, these carry different cadence values, and promote a different type of strength from the diaphragm.

For example:

"Kyup" (sounds like cup) - When initiating the attack

"Toh" (sounds like toe) - when you are receiving an attack / retreating, and

"Ya" (Japanese for arrow head) - when you perform the final blow.

That said, I have heard "kyup" and "Ya" used when both initiating an attack and countering one and vv - but then again in exchange "Ko bo ittai" - attack and defense are one I guess.

If you watch a Kendo bout you will hear these sounds.

WNM

"A lot of people never use their initiative.... because no-one told them to" - Banksy


https://www.banksy.co.uk

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I was taught that it doesn't matter what it sounds like, so long as it is forceful from the diagram.

Mine has changed over time. I'm not going to yell out right now so I'm not sure exactly what it sounds like at this point. I think I have had "ya" "ha" "iyah" "huu" "hiy" "huay" "hiyt" "huaya" and "hut". I've noticed most kids tend to yell/say "kiah" or "iyah" without using their diaphram.

I wasn't aware that some japanese schools had specific sounds for different things. That sounds interesting.

Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. - Nido Qubein

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