ki cho jah ki before breaks

[JSun]

What's the purpose of doing ki cho jah ki #1 before breaking with a kick? I was under the impression those breathing exercises where to bring "ki" to the hands.

[Silentmonk]

I look at it as mental preparation. When i played soccer I would warm up without my strip top on. I would walk out without my strip top on and when I got to the line I would put it on. It was a mental switch to concentrate and switch on to the game. I look at it the same way, its telling you to concentrate and focus your mind at the task in hand.

[JSun]

I can buy that. I wasn't sure if there was some physical reason for it or not. So, for you it's really about mental preparation. "Clearing the mind" so to speak.

[psbn matt]

also think how in ki cho jaki, you tense up on the kihap, and the relax all muscles on the breathe out.

a very good exercise, in making a nervous student relax just before they ram a part of their body through an inanimate object.

also a large lungfull of air, will help oxygenate the blood and provide a bit more energy to the muscles.

[ember]

PSBN David also suggests using that time for a visualization exercise, to picture yourself breathing in fog, and directing it to whatever appendage(s) will be doing the strike.

Originally Posted by JSun

What's the purpose of doing ki cho jah ki #1 before breaking with a kick? I was under the impression those breathing exercises where to bring "ki" to the hands.

This is a great question. why is one of the first and supposedly most important skill/concept in ksw and it remains sorrounded in mystery. isn't it interesting that virtually no one knows. People try to explain it, they call it fancy words like "experiential" etc.. But who actually knows.??

[JSun]

Originally Posted by psbn matt

also think how in ki cho jaki, you tense up on the kihap, and the relax all muscles on the breathe out.

a very good exercise, in making a nervous student relax just before they ram a part of their body through an inanimate object.

also a large lungfull of air, will help oxygenate the blood and provide a bit more energy to the muscles.

Great ideas, PSBN. I noticed on the European tournament DVD I picked up from AirNick one gentleman couldn't pull off a hand strike and complete the break after two or three trys. He looked extremely nervous. Perhaps if he'd tried to relaxed during his ki cho jaki he could have focused more on the break than what was going on inside the arena.

[JSun]

Originally Posted by Choiyoungwoo

This is a great question. why is one of the first and supposedly most important skill/concept in ksw and it remains sorrounded in mystery. isn't it interesting that virtually no one knows. People try to explain it, they call it fancy words like "experiential" etc.. But who actually knows.??

It's not really a concept exclusive to KSW, though, is it? I've seen these breathing exercises practiced in hapkido. In taiji we would focus the breath in the dan tien as well.

A friend and I were conversing this evening and he called the human race "sheople". I thought it was a pretty profound term. I haven't personally felt any significant advantage in terms of my performance doing the tanjon breathing, yet I continue to do so in some hope of one day being able to say to myself, "Hey, that wasn't a bunch of crap I've been repeating over and over again because some told me to do it." I think if I just adapt my perception of why I'm doing it, it might make a difference. Matt's response really made a lot of sense to me, as an individual practictitioner, anyway.

Some empirical evidence of an improved physical manifestation of power like some people would have us believe would be nice...

[JSun]

Originally Posted by emberKSW

PSBN David also suggests using that time for a visualization exercise, to picture yourself breathing in fog, and directing it to whatever appendage(s) will be doing the strike.

Do you think that helps? Has it made a difference for you personally?

[Buckeye Blue]

It strikes me what you want to do prior to a break is get control of your nerves (clearing one's mind) and focus on the task at hand. Ki cho ja ki is one of several methods that can be used to do so. However, I have not found it any better or worse than some other methods of mind clearing/focusing.

I am very skeptial of the claim that it "directs ki" to any part of the body. That explanation seems a little too mystical for my mind. It could be that "bringing ki to the hands" is the act of mentally focusing on the break.

Or it could be that directing ki is very much a real concept and I have not been doing it properly. If someone breaks a stack of ten bricks and tells me they did it through directing their ki, who am I to argue with them.

[PopeCoyote]

This is something I've always wondered about myself. Personally, I don't find KCJK very useful at all. I understand focusing on your breathing to help relax, but KCJK for me is counterproductive to doing that. The motion itself gets my mind out of the idea of focusing on my breathing.

[ember]

Originally Posted by JSun

Do you think that helps? Has it made a difference for you personally?

I haven't tried the visualization in that particular way.

Ki cho cha gi before breaking does help me, I can feel a difference.

[hwarang cl]

But who actually knows.??

Ive heard KSN explain it in his seminar, atleast once. If you have questions, you should write them down and ask him, when he comes to town, or ask him when you go to BB training.

[Mung Kee]

At a seminar it was mentioned that each Ki Cho Jah Ki was designed to send Ki to different parts of the body. So no.1 is used for kicks, think no.5 was for hand strikes etc. They are not used to just send ki to your hands. But again, who really knows?

[coc716]

I wondered that myself.... bring ki to hands, then break with foot. Uh.... ok.

But then in Mung Kee's post, #1 is used for kicks? #5 for hands? I should have used #5 then for my break during my BB promotion demo. Wish someone would have told me that YESTERDAY!

If there'd be some way we could request seminar topics, I would LOVE if we could have seminar talk about all the ki development stuff in Kuk Sool. From Ki Cho Jah Ki, to the Dahn Jun Ki Bup positions, and all that. To really explain it in depth, where it comes from, why men would be in this position but women in an opposite position (and what would the effects be if each gender used the other's position). And of course, perhaps some explanation of where KSN and/or KSW views Ki from, especially for those of us skeptical or perhaps not fully understanding of the notion.