Breathing in Kendo:
How to Breathe in Kendo

Breathing in kendo is not so complicated. There are probably several ways of breathing such as zen breathing, yoga breathing and so on.

Benefits of Breathing

As mentioned above, there are more than one method of breathing. Why do we see the way we breathe so important? What are the benefits of "proper" breathing?

It is said that "proper" breathing will

• improve immunity so we do not get sick often,
• make us feel more energetic,
• help our brain to function well,
• help to concentrate (intensity and duration),
• increase physical endurance,
• help us not to get tired/fatigued easily,
• help us to calm down,
• help us to control our emotions and

so on.

There may be more.

So breathing has great benefits for us. If you think about it, it is very obvious.

Oxygen plays a great role in our life. So it is needless to say that breathing is directly related to our health. The polluted air makes us sick. But clean air makes us healthy or at least it does not make us sick.

Are There Any Benefits of Breathing For Kendo?

There are several benefits of breathing for kendo. As mentioned above, the proper breathing helps us to concentrate, increase the physical endurance, calm down and control our emotions.

From a budo point of view, the proper breathing helps us to survive. If you breathe properly, it makes harder for your opponents to strike you and to know when you strike.

Generally speaking, we become vulnerable when inhaling. That is it is difficult to react to an attack when breathing in. This is one of the opportunities to strike. That is why we do not move our shoulders up and down when inhaling.

Breathing in kendo looks important, right? So It seems like a good idea to know how to breathe properly.

Luckily, we have breathing methods in kendo too. We have mainly three ways of breathing; one for mokuso, one for training and one for kendo kata.

Probably the mokuso breathing is a basic method. The breathing method for training is quite similar to the mokuso breathing. The breathing for kata is a bit different from the first two.

The main difference between the first two breathing methods and the kata breathing method is the duration of holding the air. In kata we hold the air for a long time. That is the main difference.

We do not have to learn them all at once. First, learn the mokuso breathing. You will learn how to breathe while training. When you start learning kata, first you learn the forms and then learn the breathing next.

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