Kiais – Your noisy ally

A mammoth; probably about to stomp on a troglodyte's head - noisily...

Many new students are shy or embarrassed to shout loudly as they deliver techniques. It makes them feel as if they are being melodramatic or showy. However, the karate shout (or kiai) is a vital tool in self defence and kumite.

The kiai serves a number of important purposes:

It scares your opponent
Humans and animals are all afraid of loud noises. Perhaps it’s a genetic memory passed down from the times when a loud noise meant a mammoth was about to stomp on your face, or a meteorite was about to bonk onto your foot. Or perhaps it’s a learned behaviour picked up as babies, when we were vulnerable. With very few exceptions, loud means threatening; loud means danger. Almost everyone, even if they’re expecting it, will experience a feeling such as unease, queasiness, deep fear, or momentary paralysis at the sound of a loud, close shout targeted at them.

Furthermore, sane people don’t shout at each other. Therefore, the implication if you shout in someone’s face is insanity. Insanity means unpredictability and danger because insane people don’t necessarily have the same inhibitions or restrictions on hurting people that everyone else does. That makes you much scarier.

It gives you confidence.
It’s very hard to scream like a demented banshee, and still feel nervous. A kiai is an act of supreme confidence. There just isn’t room in your conscious mind for those two opposing emotions. Therefore, by kiaing whilst striking, you condition your mind to associate a kiai with positive action. Then if you kiai in a real fight, your subconscious interprets that as the action of a person taking action, and fear recedes.

It prepares your body for a counter-attack
You are never so vulnerable as when you are attacking. Why? Because your thoughts are focussed on attack, not defence, and at least one of your limbs is engaged in the act of attacking, so you have fewer limbs to defend with. Furthermore, you have had to move into striking range in order to attack. When you kiai, if you do it properly, your stomach should momentarily tense, thus at your moment of greatest vulnerability, without consciously preparing, your stomach muscles are tight and able to better withstand an impact.

Kiaing properly

Don't burst a blood vessel man!

It’s very simple, you shout loudly, expelling the air from the bottom of your lungs first. The shout should have a deep tone (relative to your normal talking voice), and should never sound like a shrill scream, regardless of your age or gender. If you hear a trilling sound, it probably means that you are shouting from your throat and this is wrong.

The exact sound is not particularly important – you don’t say a word, more of an ahhh or uhhh or eeeaah noise. Proper kiais never start with a consonant because that means that you have made an artificial sound, and it is most likely coming from your throat. The one thing that you never, ever say is “kiai!”

The sound should be short – perhaps half a second to a second in length. In tournament, some competitors have got into the habit of doing long kiais that sound like Tarzan impersonations. The correct martial arts term for these people is halfwits. They think that a long wailing kiai demonstrates their power and focus, but all it demonstrates is the depth of their misunderstanding. The duration of your kiai has nor correlation to its power.  In fact, it’s both infeasible and incorrect to maintain muscle tension for extended periods during striking. As with the limb doing the strike, the stomach should tense momentarily, then relax.

As you shout, your stomach should tense. Your mouth should not open wide as this makes your jaw vulnerable.

You must expel most of the air from your lungs during a kiai – but not all. If you expel all of the air, the effects of a powerful strike to you will be worse than if you retained some air.

Your kiai should be timed so that it is at its loudest at the precise moment that your technique reaches its target.

Get in the habit of kiaing or at least making a noise whenever you do sparring, especially tournament style ippon kumite. Even if you never need to defend yourself in real life, at least you won’t risk losing points in tournament by forgetting.