Breathing

BREATHING

Shin Ki Taiso

We now the action of breathing is something natural, it is independent of our brain. Automatically we breathe, but we can try many different exercises to breath for different reasons, health, sports, yoga, diving, running and for Traditional Karate too.

In India, China, Okinawa, Japan and occident this idea was always a big subject to study and develop.
Was Nishiyama Sensei who wrote in 2006 a very deep research of breathing, I want only to collaborate in this matter using Sensei’s work as a starting point.

Of course we need to try different kind of breath and adopt the one our body accept mostly. But Buddhist breath using tanden and kami tanden connection is the one who can help us mostly in my opinion for Traditional Karate practitioners.

To achieve this I recommend of course, kata, kihon and kumite training, but before this we must develop the correct use of our breath using exercises to increase lung capacity and function.

Thoracic Diaphragm is a very important muscle, which operate in the process of breathing. This muscle we must train, when we inhale the diaphragm contract and relax when we exhale. So it’s necessary to study body exercises and movements to develop this muscle in the profit of our health and by consequence for Karate purposes.

Karate practice collaborates in our health but many instructors don’t know how to explain the breathing process carefully, for that reason I recommend Nishiyama Sensei article written in 2006 for ITKF Instructors Seminar.

But individually we can investigate to have more knowledge about breathing and in my case I am studying this subject since 1996.

In my opinion to develop breathing techniques we must practice how to use all elements, which are implicated in the process, principal muscles as I mentioned before as the diaphragm, low stomach, back, and lumbar, pelvic region, etc.

We train first all of the totally and then by individual groups. As soon as we can control the exercises we transfer to the Karate training.

Old Yoga masters use to say we must think about breath for that reason they have many different methods of training breathing and majority of them are with physical movements. But in Karate we do not have so many and the purpose is different.

The Shin Ki Taiso System will guide the students to develop many ways to control the muscles and the breathe at the same time, by consequence when they train Traditional Karate their body system is more comfortable to perform the techniques.

In the next Winter Gasshuku at Stara Wiess Dojo in Poland from February 2^nd to 6^th, we will practice Shin Ki Taiso System; I would like to share this with all Karate people in during the event.

Nelson Carrion

Why Iori ashi?

Why do we need to train Yori Ashi? All instructors know that most Shotokan kata movements are executed in characteristically long stepping-in movements (oi ashi). The main reason for such is that the first kata movements were essentially originated as a protection system against the use of long weapons like the bo, jo, katana, and others. The effective distance or range involved in defending against such long weapons was great and required long range movements in order to be effective. Now, of course, we don’t see people walking down the street with these kinds of long traditional weapons, mainly because they can’t be concealed. Times have changed, and because of such, we now see people carrying knives, guns, and other short weapons that can be concealed and kept out of sight until needed. Since the distance or range involved in defending against short weapons is slightly shorter than the one existing against an opponent armed with a long weapon, one long step is simply too much and not very effective in applying defensive techniques at relatively shorter distances. Because of such, a shorter version of the original stepping-in movement can be effectively applied. Such a movement is known as

Yori Ashi - (sliding, gliding movement).

(1) First of all it is necessary to maintain total body control and balance, as well as fully understanding the biomechanics of ground contact and the action-reaction principle stemming from Newton’s third law of dynamics.

(2) Yori Ashi is initiated when the back leg exerts pressure backwards towards the floor and simultaneously thrusting the body’s centre of gravity - and the rest of the body - forwards. This movement coincides with a short forward lunge of the front leg as well as a turning of the hips.

(3) Greater pressure can be exerted backwards thus producing a sharper forward movement of the body if the centre of gravity is maintained low.

Exercises which will improve the execution of yori ashi:

(1) Walk gently forward as if walking upon a thin and fragile sheath of ice.

(2) To execute this technique correctly simply control the internal pressure of the body, making believe - and feeling - that it is suspended from above from a thin chord. At all times the body must be maintained perpendicular to the ground.

(3) Each step must be controlled with the abdominal muscles of the tanden making believe - and feeling - that one is walking on a thin and fragile sheath of ice. (4) From that point on, and in the kamae position, one must exert pressure with the tanden and simultaneously glide the body forward executing a clean yori

ashi movement. (5) The ground forces of acceleration

and deceleration are used twice in each yori ashi. The first occurs simultaneously with the initial acceleration thrust of the back leg towards the ground, and the second is when the front leg; e.g. decelerates and completes the forward movement.

At all times it must be kept in mind that in regular training sessions traditional karate techniques are stopped just short of making full contact upon the opponent. This technique is known as control. However, the application of control does not mean the energy transference capacity of the karate technique remains low - all to the contrary. All techniques of traditional karate are controlled with a high degree of precision due to their extremely high energy transference capacity.

Such transference of energy or momentum is known as kime - the essence of traditional karate. Though a karate practitioner does not make full contact upon his opponent, he must conceive the technique as real and fully delivered upon its target. The technique stops physically but not mentally. An important component of internal energy must be transmitted even when the technique is pulled short. The technique stops externally but not internally - the external component is known as zanshin.

Nelson Carrion
www.karate-institute.net

Shin Ki Taiso

Parte fundamental del entrenamiento personal es la adecuada preparación de nuestro cuerpo. En el siguiente link intento compartir con vosotros mi trabajo:
http://www.shiatsu-zen.fr/shinki.html

KARATE SE ENTRENA TODA LA VIDA

A comienzos de los años 70 inicié mis primeros pasos en la practica del Karate Do.
Han pasado casi 40 años y me parece que haya sido ayer.