Slate Is For The Roof...ONLY!

[sensei8]

Here's another true story by yours truly...

The year is 2001. It was in the mid-summer, the heat and humidity was unbearable, thank God I was in a nice air-conditioned building.

I had been asked by a charity, The Special Olympics, to do a Tamashiwara (breaking) demonstration for them at one of their fund-raising events. I jumped right on the opportunity to help out this fantastic organization.

I set up all of the materials for my 30 minute demo. This demo of mine was in 3 stages. Stage one was the largest of the 3 in both materials as well as surface area; this was my Phantom Of The Opera demo. Lots of pyro, lots of movements, lots of drama, lots of music, lots of costumes...the whole shabang. Stage 2 was height orientated...simply meaning that the higher the stack, the better...ice blocks and fire were part of it. Stage 3 was more traditional...simply meaning that every station was more geared towards small and familar types of Tameshiwara...stacks/holds of 5 or less of boards, bricks, and roofing tiles.

Stage 1 and 2 went off without any problems whatsoever. Stage 3 went off without any problems...until...the roofing tiles.

Key to this is to never, and I mean never let anybody purchase any of the materials for breaking; this can lead to problems, as you'll see very soon. Trust nobody on selecting materials because one miscalculation on materials will seperate the man from the mouse...quickly! Only a fool has himself for a lawyer, therefore, only a fool has someone else select Tameshiwara material. Let me introduce you to that fool...me! Why would I have broken my own rule? Can anybody say...DUH!?! Yet, I did my own set up...1 out of 2 rules obeyed isn't too bad...WRONG!

Had a relative small stack of 5 roofing tiles. I hit this stack, WHAM! Nothing! I hit this stack again, WHAM! Nothing...wrong...OUCH I said loudly to myself, fighting the grimice on my face. Only an idiot would keep hitting this stack until something breaks...and something did break...about 2 bones in my hand went...SNAP...one at a time because I hit this stack many times until FINALLY, my pea-brain went...STOP...the other side of my brain said...break this stack and break it now...what do I do?...I stomped on it with the force and penetration necessary to not only break this stack, but, to demolish this stack of roofing tiles into dust.

Meanwhile, my hands quivering, I'm still not letting anybody know that I'm hurt...macho or dumb I'm not sure, but I bowed out to a thundering applause for a demo well done.

Why didn't the stack of roofing tiles not break with my fist? It wasn't because of an unsteady stack, it wasn't because of improper technique, it wasn't because of lack of power, it wasn't because of improper penetration, it wasn't because of a lack of focus, it wasn't because of doubt/uncertainity, and/or it wasn't because of fatigue. It was because of what those roofing tiles were made of for certain places on the planet. What were these roofing tiles made of?

SLATE!!!!!! Slate is like IRON! Iron isn't the choice of breaking by...anybody with half a brain. These roofing tiles were made of slate! This slate is part, mind you that it's an important part of these roofing tiles in order to protect roofs from breaking during a...HAIL STORM! Roofing tiles manufactured with Slate are resistant to hail and other impact damage. Come on! Who would buy roofing tiles and not ask and/or have been told by the salesperson, about these roofing tiles and its secret/important ingredient...SLATE!?!? My wife, that's who would buy roofing tiles from hell and not ask if these are ordinary roofing tiles or not. My wife doesn't even tell the salesperson that her husband, me, would be using these special roofing tiles for a Karate breaking demo using MY HAND! No, why tell the salesperson this? Only thing that this salesperson knew was that she wanted some roofing tiles, that's it, nothing more, yet, certainly less. This info would've have saved me pain, money, and a visit to the hospital. It's like my wife thought I'd look more manly and/or husbandly if I had, say, a cast on my hand. SHEECH!

Moral of this story is...ask important questions about the materials that are going to be used for Tameshiwara and...BUY/SELECT the materials YOURSELF!

Can anybody say...DUH! And the DUH is all ME!

[bushido_man96]

So, you are saying that you should buy all of the breaking materials yourself, eh?

Tough luck, Bob. But hey, you were a good sport about it.

[DWx]

nice story.

Another rule to add, if it doesn't break by the 3rd time,stop and save it for another day!

[white owl]

Man I thought I was accident prone. Thanks for sharing.