Hulk SMASH!

[sensei8]

I was recently invited to judge a tameshiwara (The Art of Breaking) competition, but, I quickly turned the invitation down. Whether my reason had sound merits to it or not, I still declined it!

In the days that are upon us now, it's no longer quality in tameshiwara, but it's quantity. It's not unusual to see stacks of concrete slabs higher than an house. If the competitor has to climb a ladder to get to the top of the stack; that's way overkill for me.

I'm not fooled by a stack of 20, 30, or 40 slabs of concrete because I'm of the opinion that the weight of the crumbling slabs will cause the entire thing to break, aka, the domino effect. Now, take the spacers out and try those towering stacks, I'm sure that the stack will laugh right back at the competitor.

For example...

Tameshiwara should be simple because I'm not going to judge on the basis of how high ones stack is. No! It's the quality of the techniques that's used in any said tameshiwara. Solid techniques will always win, over flash, to me that is.

So, Hulk SMASH isn't for me!

[isshinryu5toforever]

Hahaha, I like the way you put things. I am in total agreement with you. Seeing people break huge piles of roofing tiles or boards might seem cool, but the technique isn't always sound. It's the same with creative breaking when they use the 1/2 inch balsa wood focus boards. They started stuffing them with extra saw dust too, so the "effect" would be more "spectacular." Imagine if you had to give a technical score based on technique as well as looking at the number of boards broken. I have a feeling, we'd see much smaller stacks.

[Jeffrey]

Useless technique. Maybe not totally useless. You might get lucky and have someone hold your opponent perfectly still while you hit him/her.

Ok pure sarcasm but on the cover of my very first martial arts book is a guy who is smashing 1 ton of ice. I would have let it melt. Patience is my best virtue.

[isshinryu5toforever]

Breaking does have its virtues. True, your opponent will never stand truly still and let you hit him, but correct breaking does allow you to hone technique to a point. If you're breaking with no spacers, using correct technique, instead of just trying to break things, you can hone your skill a little bit.

Also, if you step on your opponent's foot, they might stand still haha.

[bushido_man96]

I understand where you are coming from, Bob. It makes you wonder when the weight of the other bricks starts to be the result of breaking. At any rate, there still has to be some good power transfer to keep the break going.

I think it tends to rank up there with creative forms and other XMA types of skill. Fun to watch, requires some athleticism/skill, yet still a bit displaced from the Martial part of the Martial Arts.

[DWx]

Do you always do stacks? I like the way we do it in our comps, have to break boards which are held vertically in front of you and 3 or more out of 5 judges have to score it as a good technique.

BTW that vid is a little bit ridicuolous

[sensei8]

I understand where you are coming from, Bob. It makes you wonder when the weight of the other bricks starts to be the result of breaking. At any rate, there still has to be some good power transfer to keep the break going.

Absolutely! In the video where this guy breaks 35 or 36 bricks in one swooshing movement, I'm sure he hit hard enough to maybe break 5 - 10 bricks, and then came the domino effect.

I think it tends to rank up there with creative forms and other XMA types of skill. Fun to watch, requires some athleticism/skill, yet still a bit displaced from the Martial part of the Martial Arts.

Yepper, I concur.

[sensei8]

Do you always do stacks? I like the way we do it in our comps, have to break boards which are held vertically in front of you and 3 or more out of 5 judges have to score it as a good technique.

Define a stack please! Sometimes I do a stack, and sometimes I don't. Circumstances determine whether I do or I don't. Do you always break one board/brick? As I mentioned in my OP, quality is superior to quantity. If the technique isn't there, big deal that someone can do a abnormal stack.

BTW that vid is a little bit ridicuolous

Yes it is, completely! But it demonstrated the point I was trying to make in my OP. These type of stacks are what I'm starting to see when I judge breaking competitions, and this is why I won't score when I see a stack requiring a ladder. I'm almost at the point where I just won't judge breaking competitions anymore.

[DWx]

Do you always do stacks? I like the way we do it in our comps, have to break boards which are held vertically in front of you and 3 or more out of 5 judges have to score it as a good technique.

Define a stack please! Sometimes I do a stack, and sometimes I don't. Circumstances determine whether I do or I don't. Do you always break one board/brick? As I mentioned in my OP, quality is superior to quantity. If the technique isn't there, big deal that someone can do a abnormal stack.

What I meant was I'm not too familiar with non-ITF breaking competitions. Are the boards/tiles whatever always stacked (held horizontally) in these comps and you break downwards, or are they held like this: http://www.taekwondo2009.com/gallery/17-10-09-1/pages/%20677.htm

I wasn't asking about quantity. And I agree about the technical aspect. That's why I said I like the way our competitions are run. You can break and still not be awarded points for it if it wasn't a good technique.

[bushido_man96]

Now come on, Bob, how can this not be useful????

Sorry, everyone. Guys my hero!!