Breathing methods
Ways of breathing practised in kumdo. The Korea Kumdo Association lists three: ordinary breathing, slow and long inhalation and exhalation, and holding the breath after inhaling with force in the danjeon.
How to say it
- Korean
- 호흡법hoheupbeop
- Spanish
- Métodos de respiración
- English
- Breathing methods
- Japanese
- 呼吸法こきゅうほうkokyūhō
Breathing methods (호흡법, hoheupbeop) is the kumdo term for the ways of breathing practised in training.
The Korea Kumdo Association (대한검도회) distinguishes three kinds:
- Ordinary breathing, the life-sustaining breath that happens without one noticing.
- Lengthening both exhalation and inhalation: breathing in slowly and deeply, and out slowly and for a long time.
- Leaving a pause between exhalation and inhalation: after a full inhalation, force is put into the danjeon (단전, the lower abdomen), the breath is held for a while, and then released.
A popular source says the second and third kinds are not done while moving. They help regulate the breath and clear the mind, and are best practised during seated meditation (jeongjwa, 정좌).
For striking practice, the same association says that in yeongyeok (연격, continuous striking) and intensive drills one should hold the breath to some degree, like a 100-metre sprinter, to strike hard. It says breath control then comes by itself and giryeok (기력, spirit and energy) grows.
The association's textbook sets as a principle that the series of strikes in yeongyeok is done in one breath, with another inhalation taken after a strike to the head.
One source says that in yeongyeok the correct breath is a large inhalation at the distance of one step and one strike, then holding the breath and exhaling slowly while striking the head. One does not inhale until the side-head strikes are finished, and since the current drill has nine of them, one breathes in around the second or third repetition.
Another source says danjeon hoheup (단전호흡, breathing from the danjeon) is best done before and after training.
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