Snarling, growling, etc,

Hi Dave, I've got a couple of questions for you......

Through many years of TKD I'm used to the Kiup (Kiai), but mainly (99%) on a formal 'finishing' move. In my SD/SP training I've recently became conscious that I snarl and growl all the way through an attack, even starting with a pre-emtive'.
Out of interest I went back through video clips of myself training and it dawned on me that I only started doing it after your seminar at JS's place last year. If I remember rightly, I got it from you.

Whenever I attack I want to inflict as much damage as possible, as easily as possible and as quickly as possible. When hands on, I'm inflicting damage, pain, trauma, etc, with the tools at my disposal, and the snarling, growling, etc, can only help psychologically, right?

Is the snarling, growling you use part of your formal Goshinkwai training?

Is the snarling and growlin simply a Kiai for each individual move/technique?

Can 'over doing' the snarling, growling, etc, cause your body to be over tense and less relaxed? (something I'm conscious of)

How important is it to snarl and growl throughout an attack?

Take care,

Garth.

Ha Ha ha!.. "I only started snarling and growling after meeting you".. loved that..

I genuinely believe there's a big place for verbal and breathing aggressions within combat techniques.. so yes we emphasise that aspect quite heavily as Chris will no doubt verify..

The 'switch on .. stay on .. switch off" phase is 'governed' to some degree by the verbal..

Breathing in and out at the right moments is important, so co-ordinating snarling with physical is necessary.. but the switch off phase is more so..

Its more than just kiai.. its a'mood' enhancer and a study in its own right..

provided you exhale 'downwards' at the end of a movement then tension wont be a problem

I've come to think that "correct" breathing and to a certain extent verbals are fundamental.

Just a few random thoughts on the topic.

On a basic level time and time again I have seen people work and neglect to concentrate on their breathing. End result is someone breathing out of their backsides within about ten seconds. When the adrenaline hits people hold their breath and exhaust themselves.

Verbals force correct breathing. If you are training verbals in the correct way they will force the lungs to work correctly and give you the best chance of utilising whatever physical fitness you have.

Explosive Exhalation lends itself to power. You watch any explosive athlete and they explode that first breath out along with the exertion.

Verbals can feed emotinal state and changes. Switches on and off through correct links to emotional states. Very NLP but it WORKS. For me it was an eye opener... took me a few years but I think everyone who trains with me now sees the difference and just how deeply the switches are bedded into me. I started with verbals linked to a physical and emotional state then moved onto breathing without verbals and trigger words.

Deep emotional response reflects itself in sound. Not words. Sounds. No animal does the three f's in silence. Feeding, Fornication and Fighting. Humans are exactly the same... we will vocalise emotion during the strongest emotional experiences.

Sound and breathing are building blocks. We should all examine their part in our training.

Interesting post Chris.
By the way, I'm sure the 3 F's used to be referred to in Rotherham as fighting, feeling and f*cking. Were you just being polite, or is stuff being taught in a more civilised way these days..?

Paul