Kiai and Aiki

As a quick refresher from my last post on this topic, I'll describe kiai.  It is  a powerful yet relaxed exhalation of air from the diaphragm, coordinated with movement, along with a simple utterance.  It is thought of by many as a "battle cry."  But, it represents a lot more.  Not surprisingly, there is a Japanese martial art entirely devoted to it, kiaijutsu.

Kiai can be translated from the Japanese as "concentrated or united spirit" or more simply as "spirit."  Thus, it is not the sound that is as critical as the realization that the kiai is the presence or even projection of one's own internal energy into an interaction with the environment.  If a karateka utilizes kiai correctly, it should be palpable to anyone nearby.  Without even hearing a sound, observers should experience a "disturbance in the Force" if you will.

While I am pretty confident in my use of kiai, recently I have been focusing more on "aiki."  The concept of "aiki" is the complimentary component to kiai that is rarely discussed and, in the past, had even been viewed as a "secret" component of the martial arts... unless you practiced  Aikido.  Put most simply, where kiai is a coordination of  internal energy into a concentrated and powerful emission, utilizing aiki is to coordinate with external energy.  

In a recent demonstration of Aikido that I attended, the use of aiki was described as responding  fluidly to the external energy of an attacker and returning their energy to them.  Instead of making a strong block against an attack, aiki would have you guide the attack past you and then "complete the circle" and counter-attack.  But, while this application of aiki is extremely powerful, I don't think it ends there.

Use of kiai can and probably should be draining over time.  You are taking the energy within and expending it.  While the above application of aiki should keep your energy level stable during an attack, I think that aiki can also be utilized to increase your energy level.  Lately, while I practice, I have been increasingly, consciously, imaging that I am connecting with the external energy that is in the universe itself.  Not only have I found that I can maintain myself through a very demanding one-hour-plus workout, I just recently experienced something compelling through my study of aiki.

We were going through our usual Thursday's intense workout which lately the shihan has been striving to make more physically demanding.  As a part of that work out, all of the openhanded katas are reviewed.  Towards the end of the evening, the more advanced katas call for scissor kicks.  Not only did I still have the ability to easily get through my katas last Thursday, I felt strong.  And, when it came time for a scissor kick, I flew!  Even I was astounded.  I think one of my scissor kicks took me over twelve feet forward when normally I might only go six to eight at that point in the workout.  And, it was effortless.  

I know many students of the martial arts struggle with kiai and their practice is thus diminished.  But, perhaps, providing instruction on aiki is what is needed.  As I have experienced, aiki can give you access to tremendous potential energy.  I believe that having the sense of the potential energy of aiki will make the application of its compliment, kiai, much easier and more natural.