What do you think about board breaking?

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Some styles break boards, some styles don't. Even within the same system, some do, and some don't.

 

Personally, we don't (some dojo do however) and feel it isn't good for anything unless you have a wood stove and need kindling.

 

I feel it gives students a false sense of power and is only good for impressing novice spectators at demonstrations.

 

My class attended a 24 hour seminar to help raise money for a leukemia patient (a 16 yr old TKD black belt) about 15 years ago, and one of the classes they taught was board breaking. Since none of my students had ever broken a board before, they were eager to give it a try.

 

Every one of my 12 students in attendance, from white belts to black, broke all of their boards (up to 3 at a time) easily no matter what technique they used to do it with. Jenny, a 16 yr old green belt, wanted to break a board with a back fist. The TKD instructor teaching the class and holding the board advised her to try a stronger technique, but she insisted. She broke one board easily, and later, two boards (backfist also)on her first attempt at each. Everybody else from my class did likewise and came out of that particular class feeling board breaking was a total waste of time and effort. It was just to easy!

 

Roland, a 40 year old blue belt, just stood there, no particular stance or preparation, and demolished up to three boards without any effort at all. It wasn't even what I would call a good punch. He looked at me after he broke them and just shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes like "Well, that was easy!"

 

How do you people feel about board breaking? Do you consider it a waste of time, or beneficial..and why?

[DLopez]

I picked "other", because while not an absolute requirement, it is fine by me to break boards.

 

Shorinryu, you can always increase the thickness of the boards a little if the ones you used were too easy.

 

We don't break boards often, usually only during belt testing and demos.

 

The only reason we do it during testing is to show that the student has command of a kick or punch, and can aim and deliver the power on a specific target.

 

Granted, it doesn't have to be a board, it can be a padded target, but I've still seen plenty of examples where someone just can't aim correctly and fail to break the board. A pad will still "pop" when hit or kicked.

 

During demos, it is all about 'Wow' factor. Nothing wrong with that.

 

Besides, trees are a renewable resource!

[torris]

We had a board breaking Thursday and even though I didnt break any, I learned what I need to work on.

 

I think board breaking is to focus as kata is to form. They are both important.

 

As far as too easy. Tell it to my hand *ouch*! LOL!

[CloudDragon]

I feel it gives students a false sense of power and is only good for impressing novice spectators at demonstrations.

 

Save a tree, starve a logger

 

I agree that it can be deceptive and encourage students to concentrate on speed only and not proper penetration to their techniques.

[Monkeymagic]

What does it show when you break some wood? How strong you are, how focussed you are? What is a martial art for, breaking things? I don't think so.

 

I had to do it for my brown belt. I didn't make me better at karate.

 

[Shorinryu Sensei]

IShorinryu, you can always increase the thickness of the boards a little if the ones you used were too easy.

 

I believe they were 12"x12"x1"..that's pretty standard isn't it? When the TKD sensei was demonstrating the techniques before we had our chance to break, he went through this breathing, minute long prep "thing" and screamed as he broke ONE board. My people just went up to it and hit the boards and broke them just as easily. Same boards, same thickness, etc. Like I said, it didn't seem like a real big deal to us, and was easier than expected. Most of my people didn't even take much of a practice "swing" before breaking them. They just went up, looked at the boards, and hit them.

[aefibird]

Personally, I'm not a big fan of board breaking, but I can see how some people can say it's a useful training tool (plus, it's a handy skill to have if you ever need firewood!! ).

[Luckykboxer]

I put other because your poll was so biased towards your obvious opinion that it is ridiculous.

 

If you want to put a poll up it has always been my opinion that it should be impartial in its wording so that people can put their true feelings without outside interference.

 

Personally I see no problem with Board breaking.

 

In my style we do it only at the brown belt level, and at black belt we move on to bricks.

 

lower belts dont break anything.

 

not that its a bad idea and not that i have anything against other styles who chose to do that. There are definitely things that can be learned and gained from it

[Shorinryu Sensei]

I don't feel that the poll itself is biased..either you think breaking is useful, a waste of time, not sure or other. What's biased about that?

 

Yes, I did give my opinion on breaking after the poll, but how does that make the poll itself biased?

 

Is it my sense of humor you are objecting to? You're not a logger by chance?

[Drunken Monkey]

.....pah.

 

you japanese style wimps.

 

us chinese style guys break rocks!

 

big fat rocks,

 

with our balls,

 

whilst standing on a bed of nails,

 

on a board floating in a pool of water,

 

whilst being forced to listen to spice girls

 

and watching bey-blade...

 

my opinion,

 

breaking things is a demonstration.

 

as such it has a certain degree of value

 

but is not the be all and end all judge of power and technique.

 

forget 'boards don't hit back'

 

boards don't even bend or move.