Overuse of Kiai's!

[bushido_man96]

I think a forceful, silent exhalation can be equal to a kiai. I don't think it always has to be audible, but that's just me.

[JohnASE]

Well, there are already traditional karate associations within America. For example: Japan Karate Association, International Shotokan Karate Federation, American Amateur Karate Federation, World Shotokan Karate Federation, USA-National Karate-do Federation. and the list goes on and on and on. Objectively speaking, the real problem are people within the more sporty side of karate -- such as NASKA -- who mislabel certain performances as "traditional" when they are not traditional.

The first few organizations mentioned are specifically Shotokan, right? The USA-NKF and AAU Karate are more like NASKA and NBL where they oversee tournaments for different styles, but they're all traditional Japanese/Okinawan. Their tournaments are more like traditional Japanese tournaments. They're both national organizations with local chapters. In case anyone's interested, here are their sites.

http://www.aaukarate.org/

http://www.usankf.org/

I see nothing wrong with having traditional divisions in open tournaments as long as the rules are defined, even if they're not as traditional as they could be. i know a guy who was disqualified in a traditional division of an open tournament for doing a kata that was too long as defined by traditional division rules. The funny thing is it wouldn't be too long where he usually competes and wins, at traditional tournaments. Maybe there shouldn't be a rule like that, but also any athlete should know the rules he's competing under.

Speaking of rules, I thought I'd seen a rule for a traditional division of an open tournament that limited the number of kiais in a kata. I'm thinking two. Might have been 5 or 6 years ago, so I could be misremembering.

[sifunovac]

I have to agree with this one... although I blame the commercialism of the martial arts on this.

A Kiai was made to "stun" your opponent, how ever if that's all your doing, it sort of takes away the surprise effect and therefore is not as effective!

[Blade96]

i once seen a youtube video where this kid was in competition supposedly doing a 'kiai' except that he was jumping around like a madboy and screaming at the top of his lungs so that he looked more like a screaming wild animal than a karateka doing a 'kata'

i agree. too much kiai looks bad.

and, as someone i know has in his sig on another forum, a kata is a collection of combat moves. technically you should project 'i'm gonna beat you up, you punk!' or at the very least, 'i'm gonna murder you!' not 'i wanna have sex with you' or 'i love you'

and not have a too screwed up face like fibre as someone else write.

[Lupin1]

We really don't kiai all that much at my school. When I was younger we learned to kiai on maybe one or two punches per kata and we just learned to yell "iiii". I never hear anyone kiaing in the adult class, though I find myself reflexively grunting a lot in my kata. I think it's because I played tennis in college and we learned to grunt to relax our muscles and give an extra push of power right at the moment of contact with the ball. I think I'm sort of absent-mindedly doing that with my punches...

[nanook660]

I know when my Karate Class does Pinan Sandan I am hearing 4 Kiais in it. Sometimes I've even heard 5. Kata should only have 2 Kiai. 3 is acceptable but after that you really do not need more than that.

[Blade96]

yeah, heian shodan only has 2 kiais and so does heian nidan.

[Throwdown0850]

IMO, Kias are a waste of time. so are kata's, its just my opinion.

[Lupin1]

Well, the usefulness of kata is a bit off topic here, but I disagree with you. Maybe you should start another topic about that so we don't derail this one.