Breathing while recieving hits.

Hi, I'm new here and scumbled upon this forum accidentally, but it seemed reasonable place to settle in.

But now to the point.
I have heard two types of suggestions about breathing while u get hit:

1) Breathe out, it tightens your muscles to maximise the protection they can offer and squeezes air out of the tissues.

2) Breathe in, while tightening your core muscles, while air in your body helps to defend the organs and works as an air bag between the abs and organs. And while u breathe in, step closer to the attack so u recieve less fiercer blow and may knock opponent unbalanced (if leg kicks).

In both ways it's possible to tighten the abs, but I really need to know which way is better? Usually been breathing out, but now I'm confused.
Try to give your anwser with reasonable explanations.

Breathe out.

Breathe out - you're much less likely to get winded if you take a hit to the body.

Since it is impossible to know when you might get hit it is best to learn/practice how to deal with strikes during all 4 phases of breathing. On the most basic level the key is to maintain your breathing as normal as possible. Over tensing is likely to cause injury and make the strike worse than it really is. Note how the drunk tends to survive the ugly crash more often than the tense person.

If you are only dealing with strikers that do not know how to strike inside the body then it is not as important. However once you understand how to breathe, relax and adsorb strikes the traditional strikes you are likely to meet become rather boring even when the person is much larger than you.

Dealing with strikes is a large part of Systema training, you might want to check it out. The whip, fist and stick all feel differently and affect each person differently. Breathe and enjoy.

Mark J.

Out.

ok, thanx for the tips and info

For a beginner/intermediate student, out.

I practise my breathing independently of tension - in sanchin, etc. but I've only made it second nature in recent years.