Striking and Breathing

A topic that has been around for many years in the martial arts is the correct way to breathe when striking. Some say that when striking, you should force all your breath out fully on impact, which will create extra strength in your stomach muscles allowing for a more powerful and accurate strike. Although this creates a strong strike, if you force all your breath out on impact, surly if you are doing combination striking, after 2 maybe 3 strikes, you shall be out of breath and shall have to breathe again while striking, and this is extremely difficult. But then there is the argument that if you breathe in and exhale on impact, fast, then this should not be a problem. Walk into a Mauy Thai school and the first thing you shall notice is short fast and sharp grunts, which occur on nearly every strike. The grunts, which are in fact the fighters breathing out, are short and small, and because of this they are able to breath out on each strike even when throwing 5 or 6 strikes in a combination. On the other hand, watching an impressive breaking display by some karate or kung fu fighters will leave you dazzled, not just by the breaking, but with the loud and world renowned kiais. A kiai is a way of releasing tension and adding focus and power to each blow, and it is done by a shout coming from the stomach via a strong exhale of breath. This kiai would not be possible without the exhale.

It seems that there are various ways of breathing out depending on how you strike. In a fight, you are not always going to be throwing combinations, and you are not going to be always looking for the most powerful strike. The story of the fight is constantly changing and because of this the way you breathe should also change depending on the nature of your movements.

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