Board Breaking

[Wastelander]

Good on you for your first break!

I enjoy breaking boards, although I do not do it very often--maybe once every couple of years. My biggest problem is that I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to pain, so I can elbow, punch or chop through two boards, but I can hammerfist through three or palm heel through four, and I feel like I could probably palm heel through five if I really tried. Bony parts hitting wood doesn't feel terribly pleasant .

Interestingly enough, I've never been able to break a board with a kick, unless you count stomps, despite being a hard kicker.

[JusticeZero]

How are you defining "hard"? There are two mostly different kinds of force determining how "hard" a strike is, and board breaking is only affected by one of them. If you kick "hard - I push the bag all over the room, and I launch people out of the ring", then you aren't doing anything to help the one that breaks boards.

[Wastelander]

How are you defining "hard"? There are two mostly different kinds of force determining how "hard" a strike is, and board breaking is only affected by one of them. If you kick "hard - I push the bag all over the room, and I launch people out of the ring", then you aren't doing anything to help the one that breaks boards.

The way that I kick hard isn't conducive to breaking boards either way--I can't pull my toes back far enough to kick boards with the ball of my foot, my instep/shin is not an ideal striking surface for hitting boards with, and my side kick is too slow

[JusticeZero]

How do you view the application of your kicks, then? Boards are a proxy for bones on a live target for application of peak impulse based strikes.

[Dobbersky]

How do you view the application of your kicks, then? Boards are a proxy for bones on a live target for application of peak impulse based strikes.

Agreed, hence why baseball bats and pool cues are better as I've never hit a flat square bone before, the ribcage is close but .....

[Wastelander]

I can do snapping kicks to the knee and lower that I suspect could break boards and, in theory, bones. I haven't quite worked up the nerve to try kicking through a pool cue (though I think I could do it) or a baseball bat (I get visions of breaking my shin on that one) as Dobbersky suggests. I have broken plenty of boards and tree branches with stomps from various angles, though.

As far as how I view the application of kicks, it depends. For self defense I am confident that the snapping kicks to the lower legs that I can do would be effective, although it is difficult to know for certain until I go ahead and start breaking baseball bats or people's legs, and I won't have many training partners left if I choose the most "realistic" option .

For combat sport applications I mostly use my kicks to maintain distance (thrust kicks) or deal soft-tissue damage to the legs and body (roundhouse and hook kicks). Very rarely do I kick to the head and I try not to take the Muay Thai approach of kicking through people's arms, so I'm not generally intending to do any damage to bones. I will admit, however, that for the past 9 months, or so, I have been using a low oblique heel kick to the shin in sparring, so I guess that's kind of doing damage to bones, in a way.

[JusticeZero]

Maybe you can do some breaking with the boards being located at the low target levels you are favoring, then?

[DWx]

Congrats on your first board breaks PaulS.

I love breaking Just the feeling of smashing things up