When a person is taken off his breath, he can’t use his power. Aiki is to take off the opponent’s breath. Take off the opponent’s breath so that he can’t move, and throw the opponent maintaining that condition. This is a basic principle of kokyuu aiki. If you can take the opponent’s breath off, you don’t need a special form of skill to throw him.
The important thing is that the thrower should not clog his own breath. If you clog your breathing, your body will become stiff and you will not be able to move. It tends to block the breathing when throwing the opponent. But this is trying to move the body while hardening the body. The breath and the movement of the body are opposed each other. When you practice like this, the chances of getting injured increase.
Naturally, muscles must be used to move the body. We put a lot of force on our shoulders when we do something with enthusiasm, but our breathing will go up and our breath will clog. Therefore, it is often expressed as relaxation to pull out the power of the shoulder. However, relaxation means not to clog breathing. In short, to use the muscle without clogging the breath. For that purpose, you can use your breath to move your body. Suppose that the body is a balloon, you breath in, then the balloon spreads its arms, and exhales, they go down. In this way, you use your breath to raise and lower your arms. This is the basic technique of kokyuu aiki. The power used in kokyuu aiki is called ” Kokyuu Ryoku ( 呼吸力 ）”, power of breathing. In fact, everyone uses this power when moving their body naturally.
Mind appears in the breath. The distortion of the mind becomes the distortion of the breath. The distortion of the breath is physical stiffness of muscle used for the breath. The practice of kokyuu aiki tries to take this stiffness out, and restore human’s original appearance to the mind.