During the NSW State Championships today I was lucky to be sitting with a Sensei from one of the clubs. I really respect him and his technical knowledge and experience is amazing, well worth paying attention to.
He told me that the useage of kiai was very important in scoring your points, but also part of your zanshin. I originally thought I knew that but I was wrong. In the context, we were talking about non-Japanese players using Korean terms for the cuts they were performing (in this case it was one person using "Hori" for Dou cut) and this Sensei said that would not ever count as a point if they were playing in the World Championships because you had to use Japanese terms.
More specifically, you had to actually kiai where you were attacking. While it is something that is taught to Beginners that you kiai Men when hitting Men, Kote when hitting Kote, Dou for hitting Dou, it was never, to my knowledge, imparted exactly why you had to do this. To this effect, I am familiar with a lot of people whose kiai in zanshin is just gutteral sounds. This Sensei said no, that is incorrect use of the kiai.
You must indicate intent of cut and the sucess of the cut in using kiai. If you went for a cut originally with Men in mind but accidentally hit Kote, you do not show your intent of hitting Kote if you do not actually say Kote in kiai. To this effect, this is why you kiai where you intend to strike.
Naturally, you should actually kiai as the cut is made and not so early that your opponent knows where you are aiming for. I questioned this slightly further because much kiai does simply not sound like Men, Kote or Dou. While I am familiar with people saying "Teh" for Kote, it was harder to hear "Men" or "Dou" in bastardised forms but this Sensei said it is there, like a "eeeeeeeeeeehhn" is Men and a "Ooooooh" is Dou. Perhaps a little far fetched for a skeptic but I have taken his word for face value.
So, conceptually, when you kiai for just kiai, e.g. generating seme, psyching yourself up etc, you can use whatever you want. When you kiai as part of your cut and zanshin, you should kiai in some form, where your cut intent is.
He told me that the useage of kiai was very important in scoring your points, but also part of your zanshin. I originally thought I knew that but I was wrong. In the context, we were talking about non-Japanese players using Korean terms for the cuts they were performing (in this case it was one person using "Hori" for Dou cut) and this Sensei said that would not ever count as a point if they were playing in the World Championships because you had to use Japanese terms.
More specifically, you had to actually kiai where you were attacking. While it is something that is taught to Beginners that you kiai Men when hitting Men, Kote when hitting Kote, Dou for hitting Dou, it was never, to my knowledge, imparted exactly why you had to do this. To this effect, I am familiar with a lot of people whose kiai in zanshin is just gutteral sounds. This Sensei said no, that is incorrect use of the kiai.
You must indicate intent of cut and the sucess of the cut in using kiai. If you went for a cut originally with Men in mind but accidentally hit Kote, you do not show your intent of hitting Kote if you do not actually say Kote in kiai. To this effect, this is why you kiai where you intend to strike.
Naturally, you should actually kiai as the cut is made and not so early that your opponent knows where you are aiming for. I questioned this slightly further because much kiai does simply not sound like Men, Kote or Dou. While I am familiar with people saying "Teh" for Kote, it was harder to hear "Men" or "Dou" in bastardised forms but this Sensei said it is there, like a "eeeeeeeeeeehhn" is Men and a "Ooooooh" is Dou. Perhaps a little far fetched for a skeptic but I have taken his word for face value.
So, conceptually, when you kiai for just kiai, e.g. generating seme, psyching yourself up etc, you can use whatever you want. When you kiai as part of your cut and zanshin, you should kiai in some form, where your cut intent is.
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