breathing

[alexpollijr]

Gentleman,

Do anyone have any hint about breathing in kendo? I'm noticing that my 'lack of lungs' is playing a very negative role in my practice these days, and I think that it's due to poor breath coordination.

Practice runs for two hours, basically. It starts with about 200 - 300 suburi, different types nonstop (zenshin kotai shomen, sayumen, hikai/sakai, hiraki men and choyaku), then a little suriahsi to get along with the beginners, then we put men.

The 'advanced' practice begins them only with ikkyu and higher people, with kirikaeshi, ippon uchi, various nidan and sandan waza, taiatari and hiki waza (various & combined), then lots of uchikomi and kakari geiko, everything with 'okiku' movements (large) followed by 1 minute rest and then normal Keiko with sensei and after that with other people. The fact is that most practices I'm barely able to get to the end of it all, so if someone has tips on 'hoarding' air that would be fine.

Cheers,

Alex Polli

[John W]

Hi Alex,
I am no expert when it comes to breathing in kendo either.

I have read books and also heard by word of mouth that when you are short of breath it is better to inhale deeply through your nose filling your stomach up with oxygen then up through into your lungs. Then slowly exhaling through your mouth, this will help you to recover quicker than say what most people do which is to inhale through the mouth and out through the mouth in short bursts.
I have had asthma for the better part of my life and often doctors have told me that most people don't know how to breathe properly!! Your body will recover quickly when there is more oxygen in your blood making you last longer by taking those deeper breathes etc..
Of course that is why most runners train at higher altitudes to increase the level of oxygen that the red blood cells can take on before a major event.

Hope this helps.

[JSchmidt]

While our practice isnt as intense as yours appear to be, I found that I needed to practice more than twice a week, in order to 'keep up'. Once or twice a week doesnt quite seem to be enough. Once I started practicing 3 times a week, I found it a lot easier and recovery time was a lot shorter, despite practicing harder. (I had more energy, thus put more energy into the practice).
As for breathing, always breathe in through your nose and *push* it down. I've been taught to breathe in as you lift your arms (Although I'm not that good at it).
Also stuff like keeping your chin up high when you breathe out/kiah (So you dont have to squeeze the air out) and when ever you get a small rest, make sure you breathe in through your nose!.

On the other hand, if I don't feel like I'm struggling at the end, the practice hasn't been quite hard enough!. (Or I haven't given enough :P)

Cheers,

Jakob

[Hyaku]

Hello Mr Polli

I used to get deliberately pushed to the last at every practice. Now its the other way round but I still visit my Sensei when I can to get my medicine! Undoubtedly its the breathing that gives out first. When that gone the rest is a matter of course. There seems to be some automatic message that tells the brain that fighting comes with tension and it takes years to educate the body to relax and fight.

Also the Kiai that is associated with expelling air in Kendo need lots of practice. My students with about seven years continuous daily practice still Kiai with the voice and not from the hara.

Try to do as much as you can on one breath as you can to increase your capacity.

I also have a rescue divers licence and considerable amount of experience with air conservation in that field. There are a few points that could help in kendo.

We have unlimited amounts of air to consume but underwater we don't Therefore lung capacity and air consumption is of the essence and way we use our air

Related to this its not just the tension that gets you. Even getting excited uses considerable amounts of air. Heavy drinking the night before will also cut down your capacity!

As Mr Schmidt says lifting the head helps. We do this in first aid to open the airway. Unfortunately in Kendo we have to keep the chin tucked in a bit. But the open cavity inside the head is very large. You should be able to get more than enough though the nose

In Kendo its difficult to stay calm cool and relaxed but if you can work on it will help.

Hyaku

[durrell4]

I think that we are talking about conditioning not breathing. When we speak about breathing in kendo we should be focusing on the breathing in the “zen” sense of the word rather than the need for more oxygen.

I have often heard that you should match you breathing with your opponent to understand him/her and understand when they are vulnerable. To this point we are talking about the state of being winded. The cure for that is simple aerobic exercise to build up conditioning.

Training to control your breath and focus your kai should be the focus of your kendo training. If you find that you’re getting winded early in practice you need to ask yourself two questions. Are your in good condition? Are your relaxed?

[zmcnulty]

In my experience, just...practice more. After about 2 months of daily kendo at high school in Japan, breathing was the last thing I was thinking about. Breathing problems are usually fixed through conditioning. Here's some of my other problems, and I imagine that everyone else has experienced them at one time or another.

1. I get a headache (this happens when keeping on men for 2+ hours, also when you put it on and don't get hit...it has to do with the how tight you tie it)

2. General tiredness (this also gets better as time goes on)

3. being HOT (Unfortunately, Hiroshima, where I went to high school, is the hottest prefecture in Japan)


The easiest way to avoid getting a headache is to GET HIT. It seems like a bit of a contradiction, but it's really not. You're probably better off tying your men too tight to begin with. Once your opponent(s) start hitting you in the head, your men will loosen itself to be comfortable.

There isn't much to be done about getting tired. You just need to practice more...as time goes on, you will find yourself less and less tired throughout practice, and have more energy at the end.
One thing that I found really helped my legs be less tired is doing 50x2 toe lifts before each practice. For those who don't know, toe lifts consist of standing with your feet roughly shoulder width apart, then lifting yourself so that you are standing on just your toes. You will know when you're doing it right once you get to about 30.

Being hot probably doesn't apply where most live. Chances are, you are practicing in a gym or exercise facility of some sort with air conditioning, so you shouldn't be too bad. At my school, we did not have heaters or air conditioning where we practiced...
For those that do need to worry about overheating, the best way I found was to bring something cold to drink. There isn't much you can do during practice to help, other than to make sure you don't pass out. If you start to feel dizzy, I'd recommend getting the men off and sitting for a kyuukei

zmcnulty

[alexpollijr]

Gentleman,


I thank you for the kind and most insightful posts into this subject. I have found that Mr. Hyaku has pointed out what I find to be key to the matter. I have thought about how relaxed I go through practice and, in fact, most of the time I am tense - not in the shoulders but overall, and this is probably sucking air and energy away from me. I will try to ease down the tension on tomorrow's practice and see the results.

As for the problems pointed out by zmcnulty, I never really got a headache. My ears hurt a bit sometimes after a long while with Men on. Tiredness, occasionaly. It depends on how much rest I got before practice.

But for the HEAT factor, I can speak from experience. I live in southern Brazil, where we have the four seasons strongly divided.
So winter is very cold and summer is extremely hot. Not hot as the legends and myths of Brazil say (like, say, Rio de Janeiro or the Amazon, which are both two and three 'Japans' away from where I live. But usually it's very very hot, and we have only some fans in the ceiling to chill it out. In Japan, people are said to practice 'kangeiko', or cold practice. Here in Brazil Tsushima sensei says we do hot practice, something like (sorry for the bad spelling) 'shungeiko' or something like that.

Cheers!

Alex Polli

[Hyaku]

Hello again Mr Polli

When you finish practise pull the wings of your men across the front of the megane and tie them.

Sounds like your men is a bit out of shape. When you buy a new one the wings need to shaped up a bit like “wings”. There should be a bit of a gap behind the ears if its well shaped. This also acts as ventilation.

Here in Japan my Dojo reaches 38 celcius in summer.

The kangeiko is a joke. Don't even have to defrost the car to go to it.

http://www.bunbun.ne.jp/~sword

Hyaku

[alexpollijr]

Dear Hyaku,

Drop the 'mister' ok?
In fact, you again got it straight, I just bought a brand new bogu, that's why my ears hurt. Nothing to worry though, I'm already tying his wings up.

Applied the principles we discussed in today's three-hour practice I was clinging to conscience in the last 10 or so minutes, but overal it was ok.

38 celsius is quite high. It's as much as we reach down here. Where in Japan is your dojo located?

Best regards,

Alex Polli

[KhawMengLee]

I remember one of my earlier trainings where I was dying of lack of breath after about 6 sets of kirikaeshi (yes I am unfit) and my senior said to me breath in through your nose and out through the mouth. It did help a lot.

Breathing control helps, notice after high suburi you take a deep breath while raising the shinai and then exhale as the blade decends.

[Nullzero]

Hey all...

I was taking a class at the local community college about physical health and stuff. Anyway, the instructor there does a lot of personal research and things about improving physical fitness through different techniques, nutrition and many other aspects.

One time I remember we were discussing breathing, and the best way at efficiently using oxygen. And he said he had come across a research report in some journal about the best technique for breathing (used by long distance runners).

He was telling us that you get a 10-15% more efficient use of oxygen if you sort of "puff-out" your cheeks a bit when you exhale. My instructor explained something about the puffing of the cheeks creating a slight back-pressure on the lungs, which somehow allowed for more efficient oxygen usage. I didn't really understand the physics behind it, but it sounded like a good method to try.

It would probably take a little bit of practice, since puffing out your cheeks while breathing isn't a natural occurance, but if you could get it to the point where it became automatic, it could be useful.

-----
Nullzero

[ben]

Might be hard to puff out your cheeks and yell "meeeeennn!" at the same time!

[ian woods]

". But the open cavity inside the head is very large. You should be able to get more than enough though the nose

In Kendo its difficult to stay calm cool and relaxed but if you can work on it will help.

Hyaku"

Air head?...sorry hada to say it...lol

[samurai999]

I tried doing that after a long round of kakari-geiko and my lungs were burning so bad that I couldn't breathe. i thought it was my conditioning. I started running and some wind sprints and it did go away a bit, but it was still there.

Tim

[Danny Boy]

Well, concentrate on developing a kiai that is "generated" in the gut not the voice box. It will take time and wont happen right away, but it gives you something to work on.
Might be that you're also too tense to begin with (and get tired more quickly). When you are not cutting, your shoulders/arms should be relaxed.
Thats all i can think of for now.