KD Jones
04-08-2006, 02:03 AM
I've been thinking a lot about the concepts, realities and practices touching on the maxim "stimulate, don't simulate."
I've also (still, and slowly) been working to really understand - internally and intelligently - the complex simplicity of breath in CST.
Tonight, I stumbled across this, which seems to me to be a mixture of the two... what seems to me to be a perfect example of the need for stimulation rather than simulation regarding breath (link to the full text follows). Thought it might be worth a read for anyone who might not have seen it...
I initially suspected that I had to have clients consciously apply the control pause in developmental drills, because observation of masterful/significantly experienced clients all exhibited the control pause under stress as the most efficient form of breathing. (The criteria I use for determining the most efficient form of breathing is the total score of tactical effectiveness, power generation and energy conservation/lack of superfluous effort.)
If masterful clients exhibit the control pause as the most efficient form of breathing under stress, then one should develop that breath in practice drills, right? That's what I thought. However, what I found was that the conscious application of control pause was fine in practice, but when adding multipliers of friction the conscious application broke down under stress. The clients would come to a saturation point in stress where they would literally down-shift their breathing to either the basal level of fear (passive inhalation on perceived effort/threat; and brace / breath hold) or the more experienced would downshift to the level of anger/force (active inhalation on perceived effort/thread; and pressurize, release just slight air - AKA "power breathing.) Fear and anger breathing were both 'effective' but lacked the efficiency of disciplined breathing (active exhalation on perceived effort; passive inhalation on cessation of perceived effort), flow breathing (passive exhalation on compression; passive inhalation on expansion), as well as obviously the most efficient - masterful breathing (activity on the control pause.)
Over time I began a series of pseudo-scientific experiments which eventually through consistent, repeatable and productive results demonstrated that breathing development lies on a scale: what I named the Breath Mastery Scale.
No need to detail all the permutations I attempted (breaking beakers, as it were.) Suffice it to say that I discovered the following: When I would have my clients focus upon disciplined breathing (see above) in practice, they would often exhibit flow breathing (see above) under stress. And the more that the began to allow flow breathing to happen (when they began to bracket conscious application of breathing, and just let it happen) they would begin to act more and more within the control pause!
http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6414
I've also (still, and slowly) been working to really understand - internally and intelligently - the complex simplicity of breath in CST.
Tonight, I stumbled across this, which seems to me to be a mixture of the two... what seems to me to be a perfect example of the need for stimulation rather than simulation regarding breath (link to the full text follows). Thought it might be worth a read for anyone who might not have seen it...
I initially suspected that I had to have clients consciously apply the control pause in developmental drills, because observation of masterful/significantly experienced clients all exhibited the control pause under stress as the most efficient form of breathing. (The criteria I use for determining the most efficient form of breathing is the total score of tactical effectiveness, power generation and energy conservation/lack of superfluous effort.)
If masterful clients exhibit the control pause as the most efficient form of breathing under stress, then one should develop that breath in practice drills, right? That's what I thought. However, what I found was that the conscious application of control pause was fine in practice, but when adding multipliers of friction the conscious application broke down under stress. The clients would come to a saturation point in stress where they would literally down-shift their breathing to either the basal level of fear (passive inhalation on perceived effort/threat; and brace / breath hold) or the more experienced would downshift to the level of anger/force (active inhalation on perceived effort/thread; and pressurize, release just slight air - AKA "power breathing.) Fear and anger breathing were both 'effective' but lacked the efficiency of disciplined breathing (active exhalation on perceived effort; passive inhalation on cessation of perceived effort), flow breathing (passive exhalation on compression; passive inhalation on expansion), as well as obviously the most efficient - masterful breathing (activity on the control pause.)
Over time I began a series of pseudo-scientific experiments which eventually through consistent, repeatable and productive results demonstrated that breathing development lies on a scale: what I named the Breath Mastery Scale.
No need to detail all the permutations I attempted (breaking beakers, as it were.) Suffice it to say that I discovered the following: When I would have my clients focus upon disciplined breathing (see above) in practice, they would often exhibit flow breathing (see above) under stress. And the more that the began to allow flow breathing to happen (when they began to bracket conscious application of breathing, and just let it happen) they would begin to act more and more within the control pause!
http://www.circularstrengthmag.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6414