Why is breathing important? Simply put, if you don't breathe (at all), you'll die! If you don't breathe correctly, you may not die (at least not from lack of oxygen) but you'll tire much faster. So, what is the proper way to breathe?

Have you ever watched a little baby breathe? Try it sometime. Aside from being really cute, you'll see that the natural way to inhale is with the diaphragm. Don't breathe by moving the chest. When you inhale, your stomach should move in and out. Don't move the chest up and down. Breathing from the diaphragm allows for deeper and fuller breaths. This allows more of the lung to pass oxygen to the blood. Chest breathing does fill the lung as completely as diaphragm breathing. As for breathing through the mouth or nose, that is a personal (and/or physical) preference, however, the nose WAS made to filter the air that passes through it, but inhaling through the mouth allows for quicker breaths. OK. now that you know how to breathe, what does it have to do with Shotokan?

Proper breathing while practicing/using karate will add strength to the movements and help you not tire as quickly. Whenever possible, you should exhale when executing a movement and inhale between movements. Exhaling on the move helps in various ways. One is that it helps keeps you relaxed. Holding your breath will cause you to tense up and thereby slow down any technique you try. Secondly, exhaling on ANY move will empty the lungs so that if you get hit due to a missed block, it should not be as easy to "get the wind knocked out of you".

Now, in some instances, it is not feasible to exhale on a move and inhale between. Throwing multiple techniques quickly, for example. In these cases, try to do one long exhale over as many of the techniques as you can and inhale quickly at a break.