Hello everyone!
Thank you for reading the following blog post! I'm Kota Suzuki from Japan. I've been practicing kendo since I was seven years old in Japan－I am currently 3rd Dan. Right now, I am studying abroad in the United States and regularly practice at the university kendo club here.
Today's topic: Breathing Techniques. Breath is one of the important kendo topics. Doing kendo includes very hard movements, so many people struggle in making your breath stable. Today, I'm going to explain breathing techniques, that will help you improve the way you breathe.
1. Breathe out slowly
The basic breathing way is breathing out slowly as long as possible. Generally, people tend to stop moving when they take a breath, so you want to avoid stop moving while you're doing kendo. That's why, you should exhale as much as you can and make it short to take a breath.
We call stoping against opponents' seme or attack "itsuki" in Japanese. This is one of the main opportunities that an opponent get a point, so you should be careful about it. You will be able to avoid stopping by keeping breathing out slowly.
2. Make your voice long
One of the good ways to improve the breathing method is making your voice longer in the usual practice. For example, you can keep making a loud voice in the basic attack practices such as men, kote, kote-men, and so on. If you stop making a voice before you return after hitting, it might be too early. Through making a voice until you return, you can make the breathing way correct.
People who stop making a voice soon tend to take a breath many times during they practice and fight againt opponents, giving opponents a lot of chances to attack. You will be hard to practice in this way at first, but you will improve your breathing way step by step.
3. Build up physical strength
There are some ways you need to pay attetion to your breathing way. However, you will not be able to keep energy during a practice or match unless you build up your basic physical strengh. If you lack the energy very soon, the first thing you need to do is training.
Even if you take a breath in the correct way, it is diffiult to keep moving around without the phisical strengh. Through running for a short time every day, you can train the strength. Regular kendo practice is also a good way for training. Once you build up the strength, you will move more easily in kendo practices and matches.
Thanks for reading the blog post! I sometimes run out of my energy during practice, so I still work on my physical strength. The breathing technique is surely important and helpful for you, so please try this breathing way next time. If you have any questions, please ask me. I'm always happy to answer the questions.
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