Pad Work, is it essential?

[brickshooter]

IMO, it's extremely useful. The reason I say this is that if you take a perfectly capbable practicioner who have never hit a solid object for the first time and have then hit a solid object, they will often behave contrary to their training. They stiffen up. Then tense up. And they'll try to muscle though a technique and "push" the target.

I think it's a real psychological effect. Pads trains a person to realize that there's no real difference in punching air and punching a solid object, mechanicalliy speaking.

[DWx]

We have a whole session per week dedicated to just pad work. It is a great tool as people have already explained. But only as long as you are using them effectively (i.e. tallgeese's article). For me things like hanging bags, makiwaras, wall mounted bags are for developing good technique and power. Focus pads (+ training partner) are for developing tactics and ways of using your techniques against a moving target. Then board breaking you mentioned is for demonstrating raw power.

I personally wouldn't use them as your school does to demonstrate an effective technique, I'd use board breaking for that. Personally I think pad work can hide a lot of small errors: incorrect attacking tool used, poor conditioning, pushing rather than striking etc. if you get those little bits wrong when trying to break, it'll be apparent straight away.

[Harkon72]

After a while, you can feel if your technique against the pad is good; you don't just move your opponent, it's the snap, the kime, the satisfying sound the contact makes. Again, relaxation is the key, mental visualization and physical focus.

[newbiekata]

we do use pad work,but we also concertate on the fundamentals of punching,various styles of kicks in our style of karate,blocks,hyung(forms) as well as self defence techniques as well as sparring.Each particular lesson is different.

[barryives]

I spent many years training without hitting pads. In the last year I have started training with pads. The first time I hit a pad let me know enough about my form to realise that you can't learn to hit anything without actually hitting anything.

So yes, imo Pad work is essential