Leading senior citizens to the "Dark Side" - Right or wrong?

Flying Crane

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If you throw right hook, left hook, right uppercut, left uppercut within 1 second, can you breath normally?

Old CMA saying said, "Fighting is like your shirt is catching on fire." To be able to relax in a life and death situation may not be realistic. When your body is moving in lighting speed, there is no way that you can breath normally.
Of course stress has an effect. You don’t need to exhale for each of those three punches. Could all happen with one exhale or one inhale, or whatever. So, breathe normally, don’t try to deliberately match breathing or exhaling with punch. Work is being done by the legs, don’t work so hard with the arms/
 
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Wing Woo Gar

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Because that is the only way you have ever trained it.

Like my Xingyi shifu said, if you can only hit with power while exhaling, he will attack right after you exhale
I am always looking for the in between beats(breath) to strike. I try to lead people into a motion for this reason alone. If I can catch people while they are extended and in between inspiration and expiration the strike tends to have some added effect (Interrupted rhythm).
 

Wing Woo Gar

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"Breathing during practice – to breathe naturally. Do not force your breath deeply. After many times of practice, your Tai Chi Chuan will reach the natural point. By that time, the breath will be balanced automatically." - Tung Ying Chieh
I never force breath. The body motion creates the breath on its own. If I move fast the breath moves with me, having rhythm is key. My pulse, my breath, my motion must play together. I have to be able to feel those things without paying too much attention, this is a tedious practice that pays big dividends. It took a long time to get everything to sync up and even longer to be able to freely change one without disturbing the others.
 

Wing Woo Gar

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I believe I can still do it. My best speed was 5 punches within 1 second.

In the following clip, I repeat 8 moves combo twice within 3 seconds.

8 x 2 = 16.
16/3 = 5.3.

Of course stress has an effect. You don’t need to exhale for each of those three punches. Could all happen with one exhale or one inhale, or whatever. So, breathe normally, don’t try to deliberately match breathing or exhaling without punch. Work is being done by the legs, don’t work so hard with the arms/
More than one way to do this, but I agree that it must come from legs or there isn’t much in it. The breath can match the motion so short quick strikes can create short quick breaths that serve just fine, or even several short exhales without inhale to pressurize the motion. A lot can be done in this regard. As Dirty Dog recently said, tuning a carburetor is tricky!
 

Kung Fu Wang

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And what was your breathing like when you did this?
When you jog, you use "section breath method" that you inhale 1/2, inhale another 1/2, exhale 1/2, exhale another 1/2.

I use sections breath method with partial inhale and partial exhale. I also try never to empty my lung.

The sections breath method is different from the Taiji full inhale and full exhale. IMO, the full inhale and full exhale is the perfect condition. In fighting, you never have chance to do that. You may exhale 1/3, exhale another 1/3, and inhale 2/3. That's the normal situation in fast moving speed.
 
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Kung Fu Wang

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Impressive, but not a right hook, left hook, right uppercut, left uppercut. And how powerful are those strikes?
That 8 moves combo require 3 forward monkey stance footwork. Without moving forward, if you just punch static, you should get better speed (you only have to move your arms and you don't have to move your legs).

Partial exhale mean partial power generation. It will take full exhale to generate the maximum power.
 

Kung Fu Wang

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You exhale when you take a break fall. When the outside pressure applies on your body, you exhale to adjust that pressure. I believe to take a punch is the same as to take a break fall.

Has anybody ever take a punch when you inhale? How do you feel?
 

JowGaWolf

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Like my Xingyi shifu said, if you can only hit with power while exhaling, he will attack right after you exhale
It's not because I was always trained that way. Here's why I think this.
  1. I can throw multiple strikes in one exhale.
  2. I can inhale in between strikes.
  3. I can inhale as quickly as I exhale. Do a short exhale burst with a quick jab and your next natural reflex is a short inhale that happens just as quick.
  4. I can turn my one exhale into short bursts. So I'm not fully exhaling.
  5. I'm not standing in one place. I'm using body movement and footwork so I can inhale in between moving my feet. Let off a 3 piece, 4 piece, or 5 piece combo and inhale while you recover from defense.
  6. My opponent isn't always engaging me 100% of the time with attacks. Unless he or she can defeat me within a few seconds withing a burst of strikes. Trying to sustain a long combo or attack will wear a person out. It's the concept behind "Rope a dope." Part of my training is to do continuous attacking for a minute. So I'm familiar with this on a personal level.
  7. My defense and footwork should have the effect of making it difficult to reach me for more than a few seconds. I should be a moving target and not a punching bag.
  8. Unless a person is gulping for air then trying to catch them breathing is going to be near impossible simply because breathing motion can be hidden inside regular motion.
  9. After I get a good strike on that person, the last thing they will be looking at is my breathing (unless I have bad cardio).
  10. I can inhale faster than my opponent can strike me
This is just a few things that I can think off the top of my head and with the exception of timing bad cardio, the intentionally hitting someone while they inhale will almost be impossible to do. All it takes is for me to punch a person hard in their face, kick them in their ribs, or sweep them and I'll guarantee that person won't be thinking about my breathing.

Even at this speed. Once can see how difficult it would be to try to intentionally hit someone while they are inhaling.


With all of this said:
Q: Can a person time a strike to land when their opponent inhales?
A: Yes. When breathing becomes a tell. Then it's most likely that this will occur. If an opponent takes a noticeable inhale right before they strike. Then that person will most likely get hit on the inhale. If the breathing is calm then I don't think anyone is going to pick up while punches and kicks occur.

Look a fighters and practitioners of all skill levels and you rarely see anyone purposely trying to hit someone while they inhale. In terms of striking vs grappling. Grapplers are probably more sensitive to their opponents breathing, even when they have great cardio. For me personally. I'm more cautious of my breathing with grapplers than strikes as they have more opportunity to take advantage of it.
 

JowGaWolf

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If you are muscling the punch, then you need to exhale sharply when you strike.

If you are relaxed and using full-body connection, then breath normally. Could either inhale or exhale on the strike, doesn’t matter much. Don’t exhale sharply.
Again this is like me telling you to run as fast as you can and breath normally. There's a difference between sharp breaths and tense breaths. Normal breathing is always in the context of the motion or activity you are doing.

Watch any professional fighter any athlete and you'll see the variation of breathing. If you muscling a punch it's usually because someone is tense, and they are usually tense because they aren't breathing.
 

JowGaWolf

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Has anybody ever take a punch when you inhale? How do you feel?
I've been kicked in the stomach while inhaling by an instructor who was explaining a technique. I wasn't expecting it so I had casual breathing. It wasn't a mean kick or a hard kick, but it penetrated. Didn't like it. There was no resistance to push against the kick. I rather take a punch with my muscles tense unless it's against a downward punch.

I think break falls are not the same as punches. Large area impact vs small area impact. Just like I wouldn't equate. Those things should be looked at within their own context. I personally wouldn't assume that what is good for a break fall is good for receiving punches.

But I could be wrong. Somebody try it out and lets us know how that goes lol.
 

Kung Fu Wang

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I rather take a punch with my muscles tense
This is why I don't understand why people think it's OK to inhale when you punch. When you punch at your opponent, your opponent can also punch you back. You are in the punching range. You should try not to let your opponent to punch you when you inhale.

Of course if you just train solo and punch into the thin air, you can inhale/exhale anyway that you want to. But the habit that you have developed in solo training may be difficult to be removed in fighting.
 

JowGaWolf

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Of course if you just train solo and punch into the thin air, you can inhale/exhale anyway that you want to. But the habit that you have developed in solo training may be difficult to be removed in fighting.
I totally agree with this and I think this came to light with the kung fu masters vs mma series of defeats. Not only did their strikes suffer but their footwork suffered big time too.

Tai chi is like this for me to certain extent because I don't strike pads with tai chi and I don't spar with Tai Chi. I have to mentally focus on trying to follow application and not just moving. Sometimes I find myself slipping between just going through the motions and focusing on the movement for application. For me I think this happens because I'm always trying to pay attention to my relaxation. Which is the main reason I do it.
 

Kung Fu Wang

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I don't strike pads with tai chi and I don't spar with Tai Chi.
The Taiji "double pulling - pull to your left then pull to your right" is a very useful skill.

In wrestling, if you can sweep your opponent's leading leg and pull his back arm at the same time, you can take him down effortless. But to sweep your opponent's leading leg is easy, to have opportunity to pull his back arm is hard. If you can pull your opponent's leading arm, when he uses his back arm to deal with your arms, it will give you a chance to pull his back arm.


https://i.postimg.cc/J7kctQkD/Chang-double-pulls.gif
 
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Xue Sheng

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That 8 moves combo require 3 forward monkey stance footwork. Without moving forward, if you just punch static, you should get better speed (you only have to move your arms and you don't have to move your legs).

Partial exhale mean partial power generation. It will take full exhale to generate the maximum power.

Would you be able to generate more power with 1 less punch in the sequence, thereby giving you more room to breath?
 

Xue Sheng

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It's not because I was always trained that way. Here's why I think this.
  1. I can throw multiple strikes in one exhale.
  2. I can inhale in between strikes.
  3. I can inhale as quickly as I exhale. Do a short exhale burst with a quick jab and your next natural reflex is a short inhale that happens just as quick.
  4. I can turn my one exhale into short bursts. So I'm not fully exhaling.
  5. I'm not standing in one place. I'm using body movement and footwork so I can inhale in between moving my feet. Let off a 3 piece, 4 piece, or 5 piece combo and inhale while you recover from defense.
  6. My opponent isn't always engaging me 100% of the time with attacks. Unless he or she can defeat me within a few seconds withing a burst of strikes. Trying to sustain a long combo or attack will wear a person out. It's the concept behind "Rope a dope." Part of my training is to do continuous attacking for a minute. So I'm familiar with this on a personal level.
  7. My defense and footwork should have the effect of making it difficult to reach me for more than a few seconds. I should be a moving target and not a punching bag.
  8. Unless a person is gulping for air then trying to catch them breathing is going to be near impossible simply because breathing motion can be hidden inside regular motion.
  9. After I get a good strike on that person, the last thing they will be looking at is my breathing (unless I have bad cardio).
  10. I can inhale faster than my opponent can strike me
This is just a few things that I can think off the top of my head and with the exception of timing bad cardio, the intentionally hitting someone while they inhale will almost be impossible to do. All it takes is for me to punch a person hard in their face, kick them in their ribs, or sweep them and I'll guarantee that person won't be thinking about my breathing.

Even at this speed. Once can see how difficult it would be to try to intentionally hit someone while they are inhaling.


With all of this said:
Q: Can a person time a strike to land when their opponent inhales?
A: Yes. When breathing becomes a tell. Then it's most likely that this will occur. If an opponent takes a noticeable inhale right before they strike. Then that person will most likely get hit on the inhale. If the breathing is calm then I don't think anyone is going to pick up while punches and kicks occur.

Look a fighters and practitioners of all skill levels and you rarely see anyone purposely trying to hit someone while they inhale. In terms of striking vs grappling. Grapplers are probably more sensitive to their opponents breathing, even when they have great cardio. For me personally. I'm more cautious of my breathing with grapplers than strikes as they have more opportunity to take advantage of it.
It would not be landed as you inhale, you strike, you exhale, he strikes, you just have to finish exhale, or miss during exhale. He was incredibly fast too. I never tie exhale to strike, don't care if it is inhale, exhale or somewhere in between. I can strike, with power, just need root and body unity. It also messed with people when I lifted weights. I simply breath normally and lift.

We basically do not agree, that is all
 

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