Hiyah in karate WTF?

Question

Ok when ever you hear someone trying to depict martial arts, mainly karate, they like to scream hiyah where does that originate and what does it realy mean?

Answer 1

You don’t like Kiai in Karate? You aught to here the Kendo guys, they Kiai all practice long.

Kiai has a few other benefits too. The strong exhalation of air tightens your abs and back muscles. This makes you normally flexible spin more stiff, and you transfer more power into the strike. Power that would normally be dampened by your body.

It also focuses your mind. In archery they have a saying “one shot, one life”. When you act as if you only get one chance at anything, the situation takes on added gravity. You focus on perfect execution. The Kiai has a similar unifying effect on your mind. The Kiai strike IS the only strike that matters.

Answer 2

kiai or whatever the person hears it as, is called like a spirit shout, its basically like a war cry to intimidate the person at the moment of the strike so their defences go down, some people take this a little too far and say that the kiai alone if done right will KO an opponent that most karateka dont believe this

Its aplication is also in haveing the right breath, when you practice with kiai you breathe out on every technique which is important in a fight as well otherwise you will run out of breath. You can hear boxers doing the same thing but its not as loud, and weightlifters also when they push out that extra rep,its that sameprojection except in karate its a kiai

Answer 3

The origin is in what is called a "kiai" in Japanese--translated as a "spirit yell" or something similar. For some styles/practitioners (at least in the Western world) it's just a way of yelling for ferocity...a psychological effect, like a battle cry. But more traditionally minded Asian schools of thought suggest this as a way of utilizing and expelling energy. There are styles that have developed the kiai into a literal method of attacking. You can knock out an opponent by using your kiai as an attack.

In Kenpo, we were taught to kiai as a way of taking a strike, pushing out our air in time with being hit so that we wouldn't be debilitated by having the wind knocked out of us in a fight. An interesting use of kiai, but it seems to help a bit.

Answer 4

A Kai has several reasons behind it although the one that the general public seems to focus on is to scare or intimidate your opponent. There is some truth to this also-if you intimidate or beat your opponent mentally then it becomes much easier to beat them physically. Other reasons for a Kai are it helps to focus your effort and make your strikes, punches and kicks stronger and more accurate. It helps summon your inner strength or Ki and it to flow into those techniques as you execute them. Also if you are close enough to hit or kick you are also close enough to be hit or kicked. It becomes much harder for you to get the wind knocked out of you if you Kai because you don't take a breath to do it you just forcefully breath out the air you have as you yell. At the same time you flex your stomach and torso muscles so you don't get the wind knocked out of you.

I use the example of lifting something heavy to help demonstrate this to my students. You will find it much easier to lift a weight if you breath out and/or yell than if you breath in or hold your breath. Many of the the body builders, weight lifters, and gym rats that have studied or trained with me have always agreed with this.