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The importance of breathing in combat

Breathing is a fundamental task during any type of struggle and can make the difference between prevailing and losing. Good management of respiration is the signature of the expert fighter.

Note – This article has been asked by one of our Core Course practitioners on Patreon (see how to attend our home study classes here Learn Kung Fu online: a beginner-to-expert course).

The first rule is that every action that we perform (attack, defense, movement, etc.) should be assigned and synchronized with the correct phase of:

Inhalation
Exhalation

A note by Master Kongling – Although it may appear a simple process, the bigger part of the beginners, do not implement breathing correctly. In the live moment of exercise or combat, they completely forget to breathe: they remain in apnea (unconsciously thinking that it is a less important action, that it slows down them, etc.), the consequence is that they remain without energy in a matter of seconds.

The infinite possibilities of modulation of the breath

Breathing can have a myriad of variants and each of them has a different effect (positive or negative, depending on the context).

Breathing can be:

Long or short
Regular or irregular
Controlled or uncontrolled (read Correct breathing)
Deep or shallow
Abdominal, diaphragmatic or thoracic (read /// Subscribe (it's free!) or Login to see this content ///)
In increment or in decrement
Fast or slow
Loud or silent (read Breathe Yoga: the warrior’s breathing)
…

Combat applications of breathing

In 6 Dragons Kung Fu, we use breathing for a variety of purposes (read Breathing exercises) but in specific terms of fighting, it could be used to:

Release energy / power against the opponents
Decrease the damages (read for example How to breathe when I get punched)
Sync the elements of a muscle chain (read The Muscle Chain (for martial arts) [MINI-GUIDE])
Give / maintain / change (even abruptly) our timing
Cool the body
Save energies
Quickly alter our state of mind (at our will, read for example Breathing for immediate relaxation)
…

In a few words, to say it in traditional Kung Fu terms: to manage our Qi (read The use of Qi in the 6DKF’s meaning).

How to start to take control of our breathing

As we have seen, the applications are many but before deepening them one by one, we have to impose our respiratory system some “preparatory” mechanics.

Here are the first 3 steps of 6 Dragons Kung Fu preparation:

Inhale and exhale at the same time – We need to train ourselves to inhale and exhale at the same time, with nose and mouth (naturally, effortlessly, slowly or fast at our wish)
Sync movements and breathing – We must learn to synchronize the more effective breathing phase with the movements of opening / closing that our body performs (eg. we inhale while loading a kick, we exhale throwing it, see also The secrets of a perfect front kick)
Sync speed and breathing – We must become able to connect the speed of our movements to the one of our breathing; once we acquire a certain familiarity we will become able to do the opposite (to impose the pace of our controlled breathing to our movements)

A note by Master Kongling – This is our “base” but in martial arts, when we use this word, we never refer to something “easy” or “for beginners”, instead to something that is fundamental. This is to say that it is not easy at all to follow this path, it is something that will come, gradually, with time. We have to understand that these 3 are not tests to try once (this way anyone could do it) but a constant conditioning that slowly becomes second nature.

How to reach the 3 goals

In order to achieve an effective combat breathing capability, it is necessary to be aware of how we inhale and exhale:

In the beginning, we should not perform any specific training (this could in fact damage the quality of our martial preparation, too many things to think about); each normal session of practice, each effort is an opportunity to improve our combat breathing
Our first goal should be to avoid the biggest errors (performing movements in apnea, without coordination, etc.); we must take the 3 mentioned steps as a direction of our training, experimenting with the effects of different breathing (eg. performing the fundamental technical exercises, read Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises)
The only type of breathing control practices that are good even for a beginner, are those related to meditation (read A meditation mini-guide: how to start)
…

A note by Master Kongling – One day, if we will have perseverance, we will obtain those results without even being aware of it, as it happens for all the skills that we truly have acquired (read All the skills of 6 Dragons Kung Fu).

Final notes

A few conclusive thoughts:

To become capable of breathing simultaneously with the nose and mouth in a real context is not easy; the best way to learn to do it is to work on low-intensity mouth breathing to gradually add it a small intervention of the nose
To breathe with nose and mouth in sync is not a constant of our breathing methods, it is simply a possibility to manage a greater amount of oxygen but it teaches us to dose it
It is not secondary to stress that, during combat, when we are at close distance (read Ideal distance from the opponent during a fight), the upper and lower dental arches must touch (especially if we are undergoing an attack on the jaw, a throw, etc.); no matter how we are breathing (this does not preclude the possibility to implement the mouth, as in the photo, a small opening is more than enough)
…

In the next articles of this series, we will deepen the bond between speed, power, Qi and respiration.

In-depth video courses

Breathing methods and exercises – A step-by-step path toward the fundamental breathing methods of our schools
Basic 6 Dragons Kung Fu Exercises – How to correctly execute the core practices of 6 Dragons Kung Fu
Mind self-control hacks – How to improve the quality of the work of our brain and reach our goals
Meditation: how to start – A guided path toward meditation for those who have difficulty to approach it

In-depth articles

Diaphragmatic breathing – What is, how it works and why it is so useful
Exercise 1 for the abs to develop the muscle chain – An exercise that can help us to work on our breathing

Questions

Reply in the comments and share your experience:

What is the most complex task while trying to control your breathing?

Author: Master Kongling

Founder of 6 Dragons Kung Fu.

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