KIAI!

Kiai is the name given to the shout used in the martial arts. Unfortunately, most people think of the whining howl used by Bruce Lee in films such as 'Enter the Dragon' as being the sound that martial artists make. They do not think of the grunt or snort boxers' use as being a more apt illustration of the technique.

A Kiai is an exhalation caused by a tightening of the muscles of the abdomen, and any sound that accompanies it tends to be of secondary importance. It is useful for a number of diverse reasons.

The main reason it is taught is to provide an escape route for air during major exertion.

If one tenses the body at the same time as holding the breath, blood pressure increases enormously. For example, I've seen weight lifters that have burst blood vessels in their eyes due to this rise in pressure - clearly not healthy. That is one reason why people grunt and growl and exhale instinctively when lifting heavy objects.

However, fighters face an additional threat. If an attacker who is holding their breath is kicked in the chest then the rise in pressure in the chest cavity can cause the heart to go into fibrillation. That is, the heart muscle starts trembling instead of rhythmically pumping, which is potentially fatal unless treatment is immediately available. In fact, there is a technique or trick one can do to oneself to temporarily stop the heart. It involves holding the breath and compressing the ribcage using a particular posture. Usually the heart restarts without any problems. Usually.

Note that I said 'attacker' - this is quite important. When you are the attacker you are generally moving forward. If you are hit by a counterattack you cannot 'ride it out' - you absorb a far greater force than if you were retreating under the blow or even standing still. It's the difference between a rear shunt and a head on smash between cars. Also, there is no way you can attack someone without 'opening up' and becoming vulnerable to such a counterattack. This is why we teach students to Kiai particularly when they are attacking.

Another reason for Kiai is to use the shout to 'psyche out' your opponent. It's more disconcerting to fight what appears to be a screaming madman than it is a 'normal' person.

However, when we teach Kiai and practice in the Dojo we often do so with the mouth open. It makes for a good shout, but is bad practice when swapping punches. It's an invitation to lose teeth at best and your whole lower jaw at worst. So we also teach the semi-silent version called 'Fukimi Kiai' - much more like the boxers grunt.

Kiai is also an interesting psychological technique for releasing maximum energy.

Normally people cannot consciously use their entire bodily strength or power, especially if they are untrained. It has been estimated that the unused portion could effectively double the strength of some people. However, there is a very good reason why such strength is not normally available.

Consider the lifting of a heavy weight, one far heavier than has been encountered before. So, you start to increase your effort towards your maximum. What is that maximum? Generally most people would at some point tell you that they could exert no more force and give up. What they mean is that (usually unconsciously) they have reached the point at which the weakest part of their body, the weakest link in the chain, is going to fail. Fortunately for most, that weakest link is muscle strength more often than not, but it need not be.

I recall trying to lift one of the weights my brother trained with a few years back. I could feel the pressure build in the knees and in the back as I went beyond 150kg and I decided to stop well within the capability of my muscles. I was quite conscious of the fact that I had never lifted anything so heavy and that the weakest link might very well turn out to be my vertebrae. In a nutshell, it is DANGEROUS to exert ones full strength in a way that one has not built up to through training, and the mind knows it and provides suitable inhibitions geared to that weakest link. There are, however, two common ways of circumventing the body's good sense.

The most obvious one is panic, or being 'hyped up'. The urban myth variety that everyone has heard of is the story of a mother who sees the jack holding up a car that has her son underneath it fail. So she rushes out and lifts the car off of him. Now, that may be just possible (I don't really know). What I do know is that she would not be in very good health afterwards.

The other method is to use some types of drug. The most notorious one is PCP, which is not common in Britain but not unknown in the USA. It started life as an anaesthetic for animals. Its effects on people include psychosis and an inability to feel pain. There are two stories I recall being told by US police making arrests. One concerned a man who was handcuffed actually snapping the cuffs (and breaking his wrist in the process); the other was about a fourteen year old girl on the drug who picked up a police officer and threw him through a plate glass window.

So, this is the final effect of Kiai. It momentarily blots out the fear, indecision etc from the mind long enough to put maximum force into the technique being executed. In short, it cuts out the 'safeties' for a fraction of a second. This is not usually harmful in the context of martial arts because the full strength is not being exerted for very long, it is not being exerted against a significant opposing force, and because it is part of a progressive training regimen.

Finally, it's good to hear a class producing a good Kiai - it boosts the spirit.