Breathing Timing

[Killer Miller]

Yes, any action that contracts the large muscles, you should be exhaling to properly activate/utilize them to their maximum potential.

The idea of Breathing from the lower diagphram is that all muscles, legs, arms, fingers, etc., all contract as one. If you strike with the arm, you are not actually just striking with the arm, but the entire body, including the legs, all as one matrix.

- Killer -

Should breathing follow strikes? I suppose the question is related to kiais...if I'm throwing a strike (or a block for that matter) should I be exhaling? Or is breathing related more to footwork than anything else? This is interesting stuff; we've never talked about breathing specifically.

[bushido_man96]

If you practice kata by only doing the footwork, hands down and relaxed, and just do the kata with only breathing timing - like learning a pirce of music. Example: La.....la..la..la.........la...........la.la.la.la... etc... Each La is an exhale, and each .... is the inhale period... The la.la.la. could be a series of short bursts of exhales and not inhale until the "..."

- Killer -

In forms practice, with techniques that tend to combo together, I'll exhale within the number of techniques. If the movements are a bit longer, I'll have one breath per movement.

Thank you for the tip. I will walk through some of my lower rank forms and see what I come up with there. But, some of the lower ranked forms are pretty simple, with a block, then a step and punch, turn to block, step and punch again. Its pretty easy to set up the exhalation per technique.

[Killer Miller]

It's good to start with the lower level steady beat katas to learn the breathing timing concept. Then progress to the more off beat timings of more advanced katas.

- Killer -

[bushido_man96]

I walked through my white belt form today, Chon ji hyung, with out the techniques, and doing only the stances and footwork motions. I find my self breathing in at the beginning of the step, during which would be the preparatory chamber of the technique, and then breathing out sharply as I finish the step, which when the technique would land.

Thoughts on my approach thus far?

[Killer Miller]

That depends. If you mean starting the step "going outward," and you are inhaling at the start, then this is totally incorrect. When going outward, you exhale for contraction. When bringing the foot/leg inward, you inhale (assuming that it's only a transition step, and not a technique like Sanchin stance, where intentionally contracting muscles coming inward). Next step after getting the breathing timing down, then you can experiment with different tempos for the same kata - example, Block......Punch..Punch.. (Note: the "..." represent the inhale action).

- Killer -

I walked through my white belt form today, Chon ji hyung, with out the techniques, and doing only the stances and footwork motions. I find my self breathing in at the beginning of the step, during which would be the preparatory chamber of the technique, and then breathing out sharply as I finish the step, which when the technique would land.

Thoughts on my approach thus far?

[Wa-No-Michi]

I walked through my white belt form today, Chon ji hyung, with out the techniques, and doing only the stances and footwork motions. I find my self breathing in at the beginning of the step, during which would be the preparatory chamber of the technique, and then breathing out sharply as I finish the step, which when the technique would land.

Thoughts on my approach thus far?

With the greatest of respect to Killer, isn't this the type of question you should be asking your instructor?

WNM

[tallgeese]

I'd ask them too.

But part of the usefulness of a board like this is to bounce things around and think of them outside the boxes we all have. It's good to get some outside thoughts on different thingsa as well.

[bushido_man96]

When it comes to breathing in my school, we are told to exhale upon completion of the technique. Other than that, it isn't covered very much.

So, I should inhale prior to beginning the step of the technique then....right? In the Chon Ji hyung, the movements are not taught as combinations, and I think that this is because it is tough enough for the white belts to get the moves down, let alone put them into combos.

In my explanation in the above post, I would inhale as I chamber the first move of the form, the down block, and exhale as I step out and block. Its a bit tougher to explain without the techniques as landmarks. The next move is a step and punch, so I would inhale quickly, and then exhale as I step and punch.

But, as a higher rank, I could take a deeper breath to start with, and exhale as I step to block, and then punch; I actually worked with this on our high orange belt form on a section of 3 consecutive stepping punches, and I noticed a difference. I also worked on it during basics in class the other night, when I was going at my own count. I noticed that I started to outpace the class a bit.

How does this sound? Do I appear to be on the right track?

[Killer Miller]

It's not something you will learn over night, and basically you are on the right track. Many practitioners have a tendancy to inhale while moving out which oposes other muscles - which is like trying to put a transmission in two gears at the same time.

It's hard to give you the exact breathing timing for each technique you do without seeing you do them - and it does vary with some techniques and combinations of techniques. However, if you work on this concept enough, in time you will, without a doubt, know what is correct timing because you will develop more speed, stability, power, and not get tired in the process.

A good tip is to keep your mouth open, for training conceptual purposed only, and go through your kata or techniques by over exagerating your breathing (inhale and exhale) for each movement or technique and you will feel the connection of breathing timing with body movement.

Another good example of breathing timing is to stand in a ready stance with your hand open and relaxed at eye level. Exhale, and at the same time move your hand down to your stomache, and stop exhaling when the hand reaches your stomache. Now inhale until the hand gets back up to eye level. Now vary the speed of this from fast to slow, and make sure your breathing of exhale and inhale "exactly" matches your movement of the hand to your stomache and back. This is the most basic method of understanding breathing timing and the connection with your body muscles. The same will apply when doing whole body muscle movements for techniques and combinations.

- Killer -

- Killer -

[Wa-No-Michi]

Can I ask how the breathing (inhale : exhale) would be timed at the point of performing the indiviual techniques during a renraku waza (combination set peice) drill for example.

IE snap punch head off the leading hand (fast) quickly followed by reverse punch and then round house kick off the back leg.

Would you inhale and exhale at the kime point of each individual technique, or would say two techniques in rapid succession be done on the same exhale but in two halves if that makes sense?

WNM