I second that! All I seem to think about recently is ‘relax’ ‘breath’ in through the nose out through the mouth and stay aware of my surroundings… it has become part of my daily conditioning and it seems to be starting to help!
I am sat here with Book II and finding it incredibly helpful thank you for going to the effort for the sake of those you train! I for one feel privileged to have such top rate training!
I am beginning to really appreciate the value of this. It’s easy to understand that excess tension is unhelpful in a self-defence situation, but that sort of alert relaxation (or relaxed alertness?) is perhaps a bit counterintuitive, and not easy to access without practise. I experienced it with my training partner yesterday, though: when he really relaxed and his face went deadpan he was way faster, the blows were heavier, and it was altogether more intimidating. The calm was kind of chilling and I got the impression peripheral vision was working. The intense psycho focus is momentarily alarming, but it’s really easy to see where the attention is aimed and the tunnel vision means less awareness of counters, other threats, concealed knife hands and so on?
Quick question: since I’ve converted (almost completely) to nasal breathing, I find myself exhaling through the nose as well. I use mouth taping at night and it’s becoming ingrained as a habit. I see it is possible to breath out through closed teeth as well, but I am also really focusing on keeping my mouth shut in training, and it’s a bit easier if I breathe out through the nose. Is this wrong?
Ultimately, the only wrong type of breathing is not to be breathing - I believe many studies confirm that it's bad for us!
As far as nose breathing - fighting will tax the CV system massively and it's unlikely that you would retain the ability to breath through the nose.
Adrenaline effects alone from the start of confrontation may have diminished this ability.
If the nose was broken this would be impossible.
Having the jaw closed (read "chin down, bite down " from the new book for applications of this) is protection from various aspects of fighting.
Breath patterns change depending on circumstance and it's a large area of study to take on - the experiencing of the relaxation response early in training and the ability to consciously access it will profoundly advance new students if they put the time in to practice and apply it.
Ah, yes, good fundamental point about not breathing. I think I have also read those studies about the negative effects on longevity of stopping breathing.
And of course, most definitely, nose breathing only takes you so far under exertion. As I ascend a hill on the bike I notice this: can start off nose breathing, move to in through the nose, out through the mouth, and finally panting like a rabid dog as the hill goes on and on.
I was thinking primarily about drills. During BPP practise last night we were playing around with the breathing patterns and the movements. Really just as an observational exercise. We experimented with breathing patterns that fitted the movement (so breathing as described above with the cycle of in and out breath matching what we were seeing as a 6 beat BPP), and also experimented with keeping the breathing tempo the same whilst increasing the tempo of BPP, and also fixing a more emphatic exhale to the strike or block phase, and so on.
For me, I feel like there’s definitely mileage in exploring how the breath does or doesn’t make me feel - what’s the word? Engaged? Involved? Sucked in? - to the action. There’s an emotional reaction to being hit and to hitting, and staying connected to a breathing pattern, even if that changes according to circumstance, seems to modulate that response. It’s not about disassociation, but it’s something to do with staying emotionally detached from trying too hard. And really I’m thinking of this applying in training rather than in a real confrontation situation. But that the training provides the opportunities to practise relaxation in more chaotic scenarios. And that if we can’t stay moderately relaxed in training, the escalation of adrenaline in a real situation would be challenging.
Does that make sense? I think I’m just beginning to appreciate what relaxation means in this context, and the similarities and differences to how it applies with my work with difficult horses.
I second that! All I seem to think about recently is ‘relax’ ‘breath’ in through the nose out through the mouth and stay aware of my surroundings… it has become part of my daily conditioning and it seems to be starting to help!
I am sat here with Book II and finding it incredibly helpful thank you for going to the effort for the sake of those you train! I for one feel privileged to have such top rate training!
Looking forward to tonight!
Thank you!
I am beginning to really appreciate the value of this. It’s easy to understand that excess tension is unhelpful in a self-defence situation, but that sort of alert relaxation (or relaxed alertness?) is perhaps a bit counterintuitive, and not easy to access without practise. I experienced it with my training partner yesterday, though: when he really relaxed and his face went deadpan he was way faster, the blows were heavier, and it was altogether more intimidating. The calm was kind of chilling and I got the impression peripheral vision was working. The intense psycho focus is momentarily alarming, but it’s really easy to see where the attention is aimed and the tunnel vision means less awareness of counters, other threats, concealed knife hands and so on?
Quick question: since I’ve converted (almost completely) to nasal breathing, I find myself exhaling through the nose as well. I use mouth taping at night and it’s becoming ingrained as a habit. I see it is possible to breath out through closed teeth as well, but I am also really focusing on keeping my mouth shut in training, and it’s a bit easier if I breathe out through the nose. Is this wrong?
Ultimately, the only wrong type of breathing is not to be breathing - I believe many studies confirm that it's bad for us!
As far as nose breathing - fighting will tax the CV system massively and it's unlikely that you would retain the ability to breath through the nose.
Adrenaline effects alone from the start of confrontation may have diminished this ability.
If the nose was broken this would be impossible.
Having the jaw closed (read "chin down, bite down " from the new book for applications of this) is protection from various aspects of fighting.
Breath patterns change depending on circumstance and it's a large area of study to take on - the experiencing of the relaxation response early in training and the ability to consciously access it will profoundly advance new students if they put the time in to practice and apply it.
Ah, yes, good fundamental point about not breathing. I think I have also read those studies about the negative effects on longevity of stopping breathing.
And of course, most definitely, nose breathing only takes you so far under exertion. As I ascend a hill on the bike I notice this: can start off nose breathing, move to in through the nose, out through the mouth, and finally panting like a rabid dog as the hill goes on and on.
I was thinking primarily about drills. During BPP practise last night we were playing around with the breathing patterns and the movements. Really just as an observational exercise. We experimented with breathing patterns that fitted the movement (so breathing as described above with the cycle of in and out breath matching what we were seeing as a 6 beat BPP), and also experimented with keeping the breathing tempo the same whilst increasing the tempo of BPP, and also fixing a more emphatic exhale to the strike or block phase, and so on.
For me, I feel like there’s definitely mileage in exploring how the breath does or doesn’t make me feel - what’s the word? Engaged? Involved? Sucked in? - to the action. There’s an emotional reaction to being hit and to hitting, and staying connected to a breathing pattern, even if that changes according to circumstance, seems to modulate that response. It’s not about disassociation, but it’s something to do with staying emotionally detached from trying too hard. And really I’m thinking of this applying in training rather than in a real confrontation situation. But that the training provides the opportunities to practise relaxation in more chaotic scenarios. And that if we can’t stay moderately relaxed in training, the escalation of adrenaline in a real situation would be challenging.
Does that make sense? I think I’m just beginning to appreciate what relaxation means in this context, and the similarities and differences to how it applies with my work with difficult horses.