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Originally posted by bujin
Do you teach khiai in your dojo?
How would you describe the role khiai plays in aikido?
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Some schools teach kiai as an active component of training, others don't. Whether or not it's taught, it happens.
Ki = Spirit/energy/intent
Ai = Meeting/harmonizing/joining
It does not mean 'spirit shout' and it doesn't necessarily have anything to do with sound at all.
Some folks say kiai is the same as aiki, but I think it's really more an obverse and complement of aiki.
I've heard one explanation that I like, we create an aiki (spirit/energy converging/meeting/joining) situation and kiai (a meeting of spirits or energies) happens. Some define kiai as the moment of domination of the opponent's will.
To me, kiai is a fully focused spirit, and is connected to the ideas of zanshin and kokoro.
A sound is often produced, sometimes quite involuntarily, and by training to produce specific sounds, you can enhance your ability to find and use those moments, but the sound itself is not necessary nor always desireable.
In our system, we do include theory and practice of kiai and have a handful of drills designed to teach proper sound (and there are particular sounds associated with particular events (Yah! Toh! Eiiii! Ho!), but again, the sound is kind of like a mnemonic, it's a placeholder for what you DO, not the event itself.
OK, rereading that, it's clear as mud, but that sort of thing is really better dealt with in the dojo rather than with words and electrons.
Chuck