Kiai from the hara?

[neko kenshi]

I always hear kiai is supposed to come from the hara and not the throat, but I don't really understand it. I believe I have a loud kiai, and I don't usually hurt my throat using it excessively, and I've never had it been corrected either. And yet, I don't necessarily feel any more taughtness in my abs when I do it than when I'm just shouting, and I don't quite understand how I could do it otherwise. Obviously it can't literally come from your stomach, given that there's no connection to your trachea, so I figured it's just flexing your abdominal muscles as you shout or something, but my using those primarily, I wreck my posture and lose half of my volume. Now, I do have 2 kiais. One is roar-ish, and it would definitely fall under the 'using only the throat' category, but it's fun to bust out every now and then, while the other is just pure voice focusing mainly of volume. And it's that one that I'm not sure if it's ok or not. So, I guess all this rambling is just me asking for an elaboration on how kai comes from the hara. Thanks for any input.

[MikeW]

What is meant is that your kiai is driven by your diaphragm which is a muscle that is at the bottom of the chest cavity. Nothing to do with the stomach actually. Movement of the diaphragm is what is most used for normal breathing and the movement of air into and out of the lungs. Therefore is important for forceful movement of air such as shouting. You can also get a degree of air movement by tensing the upper abs and throat muscles but this is not 'proper' technique and can eventually hurt those muscles as this is not what they are designed for. Opera singers and professional speakers such as stage actors all know about this and use the diaphragm to project the voice and protect the vocal chords. It is the same for kiai. Better and more effortless kiai comes when you are using the diaphragm to project with. This is what is meant by using the hara.

[shred_lord]

You are probably using your diaphragm to an extent.

It's quite noticeable when somebody isn't engaging their diaphragm because they need to expel quite a lot of air to make a big kiai.

If you engage you diaphragm, you can make a hell of a lot of noise with relatively little air. The more you learn to use you diaphragm, the less air you need to expel. This means you can make a big kiai and not need to breath in again in order to attack. You can then use this store as a "battery" to operate on and this "battery" of pressure in the hara gives you a certain explosive kick. If you don't do this and you opponent reads it, it means they can cut you as you finish you kiai because you have expended your battery with the kiai and need a second to recharge.

That's my impression anyway.

[JoDuncan]

Ki ai coming from the hara....

Have you ever heard (in MA) of "tension in the abdomen" ? It is the key to where the power comes from in a lot of arts. Ki ai coming from the hara fascilitates this... you can do a silent ki ai ;)

...not for ippon though. :p

[Newbie]

Neko - have you ever done any singing or singing excersises? If you have any friends who do singing, they will be able to explain it by showing you better. One I can explain is to put your hand on your diaphragm. When you breathe in, try and "push" your hand with your diaphragm and let the air swell deep down there, then as you breathe out, feel your hand move in as you deflate. Err.. hard to explain in text.

[hl1978]

look up something called reverse breathing or buddha breathing, which is common to many martial arts (both internal and external) and yoga, which might be useful if you are trying to engage the diaphram. If you watch babies, it is how they breathe, then at some point we all stop doing it and it has to be relearned.

Essentailly when breathing out, "expand the stomach", and when inhaling contract it, the exact opposite of how most people normally breathe.

a proper kiai is much like singing, public speaking, or issuing drill commands. if you can't do it from the diaphram, your voice will get horse and sore, and will become quieter as the day goes on.

here are some links which may be usefull

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/397/
http://listserv.uoguelph.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9602&L=iaido-l&P=1327