Martial Breathing and the "The Six Skills" by Steve Lewis

[scuba-flea]

I just purchased "The Six Skills and Other Discussions" by Steve Lewis and am on the breathing chapter. In it he talks about how he has 30'ish years of martial training and such, as do I. But I am a tad bit less experienced in SCUBA. Ok, well, a ton less experienced. I am still a newbie with around 50 dives. The opening paragraphs in this chapter discussed things I've known and practiced for years in the martial arts. What I've found is one major difference in the two, my nose.

In all the martial arts practice over the years I always breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth. For maybe 35 years this has been my practice which only leaves about 12 years of my life not breathing that way. I actually can't really remember how I breathed prior to budo. I distinctly remember my first SCUBA class, when we hit the pool after our breathing discussion, thinking "Uhhhhhh, my nose is in the mask." I know I have only had a limited time breathing underwater, but each dive I find myself having to think IN THROUGH THE MOUTH.

Out of curiosity, have any other martial artist experienced this same thing and has it just taken time in water to get over it? It still 'feels funny' which leads to not feeling as comfortable under the water as in the dojo.

Lee

 

[Remy B.]

Get you a full face mask and problem solved

 

[RJP]

 

[decompression]

That's awesome!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PfcAJ]

I just purchased "The Six Skills and Other Discussions" by Steve Lewis and am on the breathing chapter. In it he talks about how he has 30'ish years of martial training and such, as do I. But I am a tad bit less experienced in SCUBA. Ok, well, a ton less experienced. I am still a newbie with around 50 dives. The opening paragraphs in this chapter discussed things I've known and practiced for years in the martial arts. What I've found is one major difference in the two, my nose.

In all the martial arts practice over the years I always breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth. For maybe 35 years this has been my practice which only leaves about 12 years of my life not breathing that way. I actually can't really remember how I breathed prior to budo. I distinctly remember my first SCUBA class, when we hit the pool after our breathing discussion, thinking "Uhhhhhh, my nose is in the mask." I know I have only had a limited time breathing underwater, but each dive I find myself having to think IN THROUGH THE MOUTH.

Out of curiosity, have any other martial artist experienced this same thing and has it just taken time in water to get over it? It still 'feels funny' which leads to not feeling as comfortable under the water as in the dojo.

Lee

I'm far more conscious of my breathing rhythm during training than on scuba. During scuba I just breath. Imo thinking about breathing is why people end up hoovering through gas.

 

[RJP]

I'm far more conscious of my breathing rhythm during training than on scuba. During scuba I just breath. Imo thinking about breathing is why people end up hoovering through gas.

I always laugh when the question "How can I improve my gas consumption?" is invariably followed by a slew of responsed saying "Concentrate on your breathing..."

 

[scoobydrew]

As I understood it from my martial arts instructors in the past, the technique of breathing in through the nose is to reduce inhalation of dead (recently exhaled) air as much as possible.

Of course without a full face mask it is not possible to breath in through your nose when scuba diving. It can cause problems sometimes when people try mask clearing exercises as inhalation through the nose then causes the diver to nasally ingest water and what happens after that isn't going to look pretty at all.

It just requires a bit of conscious thought. Your martial arts can be considered a discipline, you can also think of scuba diving as a discipline. Depending on the style of martial art, you have varying available mental capacity to give to your breathing e.g. internal like Tai Chi you can focus very heavily on breathing whereas something external like Muay Thai it is intended that you practice breathing technique so fluently outside of actual combat that when you are in the high speed throws of a bout that your good breathing skills are a second nature, as you say, in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Scuba should be calm and controlled. Your development should be paced in such a way that your comfort zone expands gradually. As you start to develop characteristics like breathing without having to think about every breath so you can start to work on other techniques.

Don't over think this, it is unlikely that your inability to breath in through the nose will result in you suffocating, it is just about becoming accustomed to something a little different. If scuba is new to you then it makes sense that you will have to use your body in different ways, like muscles that were previously little used are now taxed harder with the introduction of new equipment like fins etc.

Same as anything man, it takes a little time so just try to enjoy the learning period.

---------- Post added April 25th, 2015 at 10:42 AM ----------

That is pretty good

 

[dmaziuk]

In all the martial arts practice over the years I always breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth

a) You breathe out through the nose in taichi. With wushu and, as I recall, vovinam you breathe out through the nose as much as you can. So I'd say breathing out through the mouth is not universal in martial arts.

b) I swam before (and after) I kicked ass and there you normally do a short fast inhale and long(er) exhale. So no problems with "in through the mouth, out through both" -- also keeps my ears popped.

(PS. also, even a slight negative pressure in your nose gets you chlorine all the way into your sinuses, so not breathing in through the nose is usually no problem for swimmers. Also no problem when it happens cause you're used to it.)

 

[Storker]

In all the martial arts practice over the years I always breathed in through the nose and out through the mouth.

Kata, sure. Before rei, absolutely. During randori or shiai? Fuggedaboutit. Same thing with SCUBA. Do what works.

 

[rmssetc]

I'm also new to SCUBA, but have done a very energetic yoga practice for about 7 years (intensely for the last 3) that strongly emphasizes deep, full breaths in and out through just the nose.

The discipline of breathing fully and calmly during strenuous exercise has been good training for SCUBA, but it has really taken a conscious effort to breath through my mouth.