Breathing properly while sparring

[JR 137]

Sanchin kata. Teaches you how to take a hit and coordinate your breathing with it. Also teaches you how to breathe when delivering a hit. At least if it's practiced correctly.

Cardio training. The best way to get in shape is interval training - shorter periods of very high intensity exercise followed by relatively longer periods of lighter exercise. Think all out sprint for 30 seconds, followed by slowish jogging for 90 seconds. Repeat. Doesn't have to be running though (I hate running), you can do intense bag work followed by very light bag work. Or anything else; the key is heart rate.

Experience in sparring. There's no substitute for experience. None whatsoever. Fear and uncertainty will get you breathing very hard, very fast, and it'll happen quickly. The more you spar, the better you control those emotions.

 

[Juany118]

My Sifu was just talking to me about this. He told me to look up the technique "long breathing," I think. Haven't had a chance yet.

I believe that is essentially the same thing as what is sometimes called dantian breathing, tactical breathing or "belly breathing." When you inhale you focus on allowing your belly to expand vs your chest. You also try to control the "rate". The way I practice for doing this with a high heart rate is basically inhaling for 3 seconds, hold for 3 second, try to exhale at roughly the same rate you inhaled, while running.

 

[wingchun100]

I believe that is essentially the same thing as what is sometimes called dantian breathing, tactical breathing or "belly breathing." When you inhale you focus on allowing your belly to expand vs your chest. You also try to control the "rate". The way I practice for doing this with a high heart rate is basically inhaling for 3 seconds, hold for 3 second, try to exhale at roughly the same rate you inhaled, while running.

It reminds me somewhat of the way they breathe in one of the P90X 3 workouts: Pilates X. To this day I am still not really a fan of Pilates because I don't "Get" it. Then again, I had never done Yoga before P90X, and I didn't like that at first either.

 

[DanT]

During contact sparring matches, even just for training, when hit I find it difficult to keep breathing at a regular pace. The break in my breathing pattern slows me down and I have difficulty for the rest of the match trying to keep up with my opponent. Any suggestions?

Keep the rhythm steady, in, pause, out, in, pause, out. Don't hold your breath, don't let it all out in one strike, obviously if you're executing a really powerful technique you can exhale with it, but for the most part just keep a rhythm with it.

 

[wingchun100]

I am trying to put a better breathing pattern to use with the way I am practicing Sil Lum Tao now. I am working on sinking into my stance, and the trick Sifu London gave me for that was to sink so that it brings my knees together and I can pinch a softball between my knees. However, I find this is making my quads SCREAM. So last night, I started to inhale and exhale deeply. Then I was focused on the breathing instead of the pain.