Berjaya Taekwon-Do Schools - Parent's Information Page

Good Reasons to Keep Your Child Training in the Martial Arts
by Joseph Galea & Bert Casiano (NAPMA)
 

There are many reasons to enroll your children and keep them training in the martial arts. Martial art builds self-confidence and teaches discipline which will provide a solid foundation from which your children will develop strong character. While studying the martial arts is fun, children will be learning important lessons in values and respect that will shape how they view the world around them. And even though we teach to avoid confrontations, if the need arises, your children can be secure in their knowledge of how to defend them from physical harm. This is the power derived from the martial arts.
Martial art builds self-confidence.
It is a physical and demanding “sport.” Children who participate and progress in the martial arts will develop a positive attitude that they can take with them to help accomplish other important tasks and face other challenges in their lives. Our school is dedicated to making your children feel accepted as well as motivated.
We focus on providing children with a positive atmosphere where they can build their confidence, even after a bad day at school or playing a sport. It’s a place where they’ll find support when they feel down or discouraged. We are ready and able to give your children the additional support to face life’s challenges and stay on the right path.
In addition to the structure you provide at home, martial art also provides your child with discipline. This involves coming to class on time and following school rules and policy. It also concerns learning to respect themselves and others, which is an important
goal that we strive to instill in our students. We teach children not to feel that they can’t complete a task because it’s too hard or because they’ve failed the first time. Instead we teach them to relax, regroup and give a100-percent effort again. The discipline
that they learn helps them to stay focused and work hard to accomplish their goals.
Martial arts is a tool that can help your children in other sports, as well as keeping them in shape and healthy. Many drills that we practice enhance skills they will need in other extracurricular activities.
For example, proper balance and hand-eye coordination are skills that are essential in sports such as baseball, football, gymnastics and soccer.
Martial arts training can give your children the competitive edge.
Knowing that they can defend themselves if a problem arises is another benefit that your children derive from martial arts training. Martial arts does not just teach kids how to defend themselves physically, but more importantly, how to avoid dangerous situations.
Avoiding the situation rather than being in a physical confrontation is an important concept that instructors teach both indirectly and directly.
Through the martial arts, your children will learn many valuable lessons that will help them throughout their lives and the best thing about it is that it’s fun. They may not even realize that they are learning all these “values.” It’s not only enjoyable for them learn new skills and watch them improve will fill you with pride.
Why stay on the sidelines? Martial art is an activity that you can do as a family. It’s a way of spending more quality time with your children, and that’s invaluable in today’s hectic world. Martial art is an art form that has existed for many centuries and is taught around the world today. Its teachings are inspiring and unique. The values and lessons of martial arts can assist your children in becoming better citizens and becoming better equipped to handle the many situations that they will face in their academic and personal lives.

The Martial Arts Yell!
What is it?

By Master Dennis Rodriguez and Mr. Rick Coscarelli

Some of your first question should be: What does Kiai (Kiyop in Korean) mean? Where did it come from? Why use it? How do you do it correctly?  The article that follows will provide you with answers to these questions and a better understanding of when and how to use this mysterious technique.

A Special Note

We have used terms from several languages in this article.  This article is not about a language, it is about a concept.  So, if we do not translate every term to the language of your choice please forgive us, we are not language experts.

Kiai, Translation

Kiai (pronounced key-eye in Japanese) translates as follows: Ki means “life force” or as the Chinese would say, ”Chi or Qi”, which means “internal energy” or “life giving force”.  Ai means, “to blend” or “concentrate”.  Literally translated, Kiai would mean to “concentrate one’s life force or energy”.  Some call it the “Spirit Yell”.  So the word Kiai is used to describe the yell or shout that you hear used by many martial artists when they train.  It is, however, important to note that a Kiai can also be silent, because it is not the sound that is made that defines a Kiai.  More on this later.

Where did the Kiai Originate?

Well here is a bit of folklore, but it sure sounds good.  It has been told that in the early days of martial arts a village would have one individual who would proclaim themselves  “King of the Hill” or in other words, the one to beat.

When a courageous challenger decided it was time to test their skills against the village Master a challenge match was sought.  Here is the way it went.  The challenger would encounter the Master somewhere within the village.  The challenger would issue a challenge to fight by using a Kiai yell.  The Master if he chooses to accept the challenge to fight would approach the challenger and would then issue in response a Kiai yell.  The fight would end when the existing Master beat the challenger or, if he did not win, the village had a new Master. 

Truth or fiction?

From this we can see why we use the martial arts yell in our training during “one-step”, “two-step” or “three-step” sparring.  The challenger steps back into a low block front stance and issues the martial yell (Kiai).  The one challenged would then accept the challenge by reciprocating with the martial arts yell (Kiai).  The challenger, upon hearing the yell, would initiate the attack with a punch, and the challenged would block and counter attack.

Kiai can more seriously be traced to early T’ai Chi (East Indian – Chinese origin) training.  The concept of Ki/Chi/Qi or internal energy was developed through proper posture, breathing techniques and movement.  Ki will be explained in more depth later in this article.

Why Use the Kiai?

There are a number of reasons to use Kiai. For advanced students, Kiai can be used to heal oneself, heal another or to injure a person. In the discussion that follows we will concentrate on the use of Kiai in a modern martial arts setting.  There are many reasons, but here are three that we would like to present:

First; with or without a yell, to focus all of your energy at the exact moment your strike or block makes contact with the object being struck,

Second; with a yell, to startle your opponent, if even for a second, giving you a possible advantage,

Third; with or without a yell, to activate your breathing, something that during a stressful encounter will stop and to protect yourself should you be struck.

Let’s discuss each of these reasons in more detail.

To Focus One’s Energy

This is the essence of the Kiai.  It is your ability to focus all of your internal energy at the moment of need.

Pretend that you are going to hit a heavy bag with a punch.  Before the very moment that your fist will make contact with the bag, envision your internal energy, starting from your lower abdomen, rushing up and through your arm exiting out of your fist.  The Kiai yell is the audible of your energy striking the bag at that exact moment of impact, while your mind sees this internal energy flowing up and through your body and out of your arm.

By envisioning this movement of energy, you are focusing all of your strength and will toward a singular point.  This is the spirit of the Kiai whether you use a yell or not.

Ki is believed to be located approximately 3 fingers below your navel and just in front of your spine (called the “tan t’ien” in Chinese and “saika tanden” in Japanese).  This energy is believed to be the “life force” of an individual.  It can be used for good purposes or bad.  Ki is used to improve ones own health, that of others or in self-defense.  It can even be used to injure others with ones voice or stare as practiced by ancient martial artists in a discipline known as Kiai-Jutsu “the art of ki-ai”.  We know that sound of the appropriate volume and frequency can kill.  Is it possible for a human to use only their Kiai sound to kill or injure another?  Can a stare be so intense that it may kill? Some believe this can be accomplished.  If so, it must be learned and used with care.

By the way, you can apply Kiai with any technique like a, kick, elbow strike, punch, etc.  By doing the Kiai properly, it will improve your power, speed and overall technique. 

To Startle Your Opponent or Attacker

Another reason is to use this martial arts yell to startle an attacker.  Yelling can be used as both an offensive force or as a counterattack.  A forceful outburst can be used to strengthen your block or counter attack and also to “startle” an attacker causing them to freeze temporarily, if only for an instant.  This may give you that important moment of time that can be used to your best advantage. It has also been proven to scare off not only a human attacker but also an attack by an animal.  Isn’t it better to “scare off” an attacker than to fight? 

The audible yell will also cause a “psych” effect that will be evident to anyone who is watching.  This is especially important if you are participating in a tournament.  During forms (Kata) competition, it is essential that you portray to the judges the focus and power of your techniques, enhanced by a powerful Kiai (yell or expression).  During sparring, an audible Kiai can direct the judges to your technique rather than your opponents.  If they see your technique strike a point zone because you drew their attention to you by issuing a martial arts yell then you may get the point first.

To Activate your Breathing

Asians have noted westerners as poor breathers.  Westerners breathe with their chest rather than with their diaphragm and in-fact many western medical practitioners are taught in medical school to teach deep breathing by moving the chest in addition to the stomach.  The Asian medical community is in stark contrast to western concepts.  Have you ever watched a baby breathe?  You will notice that the belly moves in and out rather than the chest.  One wonders how we could forget such a natural behavior?

To perform an affective Kiai, it will be necessary to learn how to breathe with your diaphragm.  First find out how you are breathing now.  Try this experiment.  Place your right hand on your belly, little finger on your navel and your thumb at the point where your ribs come together (solar plexus).  Now place your left hand on your chest with the thumb on your left collarbone.  Notice which hand moves up and down.  If it is your right hand only then you are breathing diaphragmatically and correctly.  If both hands are moving then you are not breathing completely with your diaphragm.  If only your left hand moves then you are breathing with your chest muscles only, which is incorrect.

So what does the Kiai do for your breathing?  When you perform the Kiai you are exhaling from the abdomen (diaphragm), expelling the majority of the air held in your lungs, as a result of tightening your abdominal muscles.  This does a number of things.  By expelling most of the air in your lungs you will be forced to breath in, rather than to hold your breath.  It also removes used air from your lungs that is critical should you be kicked in the chest.  If you are holding your breath and your lungs are full of air at the time of impact to the chest, it causes a rise in pressure in the chest cavity, which in turn could cause the heart to go into fibrillation.  That is, your heart stops beating rhythmically and could result in the heart stopping.

Also, by having the air expelled from your lungs and your abdomen tight, you can sustain a blow to the stomach with less chance of injury or having “the wind knocked out of you”.

Making the Kiai Sound

How do you correctly do a Kiai Yell?  Remember we said that the Kiai comes from the lower abdomen.  Also remember that you do not have to make a sound to perform a Kiai.  But traditionally, a sound is made and therefore here are some ideas.

You can use any number of variations when sounding out the Kiai.  Try some of the following:  “ya”   “oh”     “I-yah”    “orya”  

Remember that the Kiai originates in the lower abdomen and so should the sound originate from there.  A properly executed Martial Arts Yell will not come from the throat and therefore will not cause you to get a sore throat (All orators, speakers and classical singers know of this method.).  Do not think that the movie version of the Kiai Yell, as performed by Bruce Lee in “Enter the Dragon”, as being the sound you should make.  If it feels and sounds like it is coming from the throat, then it’s wrong.

In Summary

The Kiai is definitely a technique that requires long years of mastering and should definitely be emphasized during training.  We believe that through the focused use of Kiai, your martial arts will be stronger and more effective.  Knowing how to use this technique is beneficial to all involved in serious martial arts.

Now get out there and practice.

References and Contributors:

"The Fighting Spirit of Japan: The Esoteric Study of the Martial Arts and Way of Life in Japan"
E. J. Harrison

"Living the Martial Way: A Manual for the Way a Modern Warrior Should Think"
Forrest E. Morgan

“The Essence of T’ai Chi”

Waysun Liao

“The Zen Way to the Martial Arts”

Taisen Deshimaru

Numerous articles from the World Wide Web (Search for; Breathing, Kiai, Kiyop, Martial Arts Yell, TKD Vocabulary, Karate Yell.  You get the idea.)

Conversations with

Dr. Eugene A. Humesky, Ph.D., 9^th Dan, Founder and President of Universal Tae Kwon Do Brotherhood and Professor of Martial Arts, Eastern Michigan University

Dr. Rick Giovannone, DO 

About the Authors

Master Dennis Rodriguez has been involved in the martial arts for more than 30 years.  He has owned his own martial arts academy (the Black Dragon’s Den) for 11 years and now has 4 locations to include training in Adrian Michigan, Tecumseh Michigan, Adrian College and Sand Creek Elementary School. The Adrian College program is only one of a few colleges or universities that offer martial arts as not only a club sport but also as a “for credit” course.

Master Rodriguez is a 7^th degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, Chief Instructor and has recently received the prestigious degree of Professor of Martial Arts.

Mr. Coscarelli is a 2^nd Degree Black Belt who studies under Master Rodriguez.  He is also a nationally certified instructor in T’ai Chi, QiGong.

To read additional articles on martial arts or to visit our web site link to http://www.blackdragonsden.com  .

Making champions of your children

1st, Work to build your children’s self-esteem.
From the day they are born, affirm them a great deal, believe in them and give them lots of positive feedback. Always express confidence in them and their potential. Try not to compare them with other children or with other people. The way people feel about themselves inside is the real key to using their talent and releasing their potential. And how they feel about themselves is largely a function of how they are seen and treated by others, particularly their parents.

2nd, Encourage primary greatness.
Teach them that there are two kinds of greatness: primary greatness which is principle-centered character and secondary greatness, which is greatness that the world acknowledges. That’s been a constant theme. Try to inspire them to go for primary greatness first and not to compensate for character weakness by substituting or borrowing strength from a secondary source (popularity, reputation, possessions, natural
talents, and so on).

3rd, Encourage them to develop their own interests.
When you detect real talent in your children, you should encourage them to develop it.

4th, Try to create an enjoyable family culture.
Create an atmosphere for your children to get more fun and satisfaction from the family than from school or their peers or any other outside influence. Make your family culture fun and affirming and have many
opportunities associated with it. Try to have regular dates, at least one a month, with each child and do something that is special to that child. Try to keep many positive and encouraging events like birthdays, etc. Always express why you love or appreciate each other.

5th, Plan ahead.
Plan several major family events at least six months in advance. Many parents fail to make champions of their children by not planning fun family events-events that become traditional.

6th, Try to set an example of excellence.
Try to excel in what you do so that excellence becomes an unspoken, unwritten norm. You will never have to tell your children to study or to do homework, if they constantly sense the value of reading and learning through your actions.

7th, Teach them to visualize to help them realize their own potential.
Visualization is based on the principle that all things are created twice: first mentally and then physically.

8th, Adopt their friends.
Individual champions are often part of championship teams. That’s why you should invest so much in the teams, clubs, schools and classes your children belong to. When family, friends, school and church are all aligned, it makes a powerful training system. Anytime something gets out of alignment-like when there’s a problem with a peer, just adopt the peer. It’s better than trying to get your children to drop the peer.

9th, Teach them to have faith, to believe and trust others, and to affirm, build, bless and serve others.
Empathy is the key to influence. You’ve got to be very sensitive to the feelings and perceptions of others.
If you are going to build champions, you’ve got to take an interest in people, especially the downcast and the outcast. The key to the ninety-nine is the one.

10th, Provide support, resources and feedback.
Give honest feedback based on results and teach your children the value of feedback. Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

From the book, Principal Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey.