Conditioning

[Wastelander]

Zaine, I couldn't agree more with you. I have bad joints from old sports injuries (knees and one elbo). I actually feel better after a session of makiwara training.

Was never sure why that was but after your explaination it does make sense.

I had never heard this before. The explainations of benifits have always been what I already knew from years of practice.

By using a makiwara the student learns the proper body alignment, proper angle, proper use of body mechanics (coming from the feet, through the hips, into the torso and extending out through the arm), and the proper way to meet the striking surface to the target.

If done inproperly the result is pain. Over years of training and hundreds of strikes in a session the student build confidence and begins to delive their full power into the strike. Once this is achieved it is almost impossible to strike incorrectly.

This is the main reason I brought up Tamishiwari (breaking). I can not imagine walking up to a target, let's say a couple of tiles (non-kiln dried) and striking it with enough force to break them without conditioning the striking surface first. Can you imagine hitting the air for years and then being asked to break something (hard target) for a test. Not me brother!

I was watching a program on TV I think sports science or something of that nature. They were explaining how the bone breaks down and fills in each time we condition that body part. Over time the bone becomes more dense and becomes harder to damage.

Simple logic tells us that if two objects meet one will give. If the target is stronger than your striking surface you will be the object that gives which translates to an injury.

Personally I think that conditioning so that I am not the object that gives is a good idea.

Wolff's Law

I completely agree with you, and we don't typically do any tameshiwari at my dojo unless we are doing a demonstration. That said, I think that the schools that do not do any conditioning but require breaks usually either kiln-dry the boards/bricks/blocks/tiles/etc., cut them partially, or only hit them with kicks, which are relatively safe to do, even for people who haven't done any conditioning.

[brickshooter]

I think that much of the body conditioning have been supplemented by weight lifting. You lose some paint tolerance. But you gain more safety. Frankly it's just easier to get students to weight lift than tolerate body conditioning.

[Zaine]

But you gain more safety.

What do you mean by this?

[Rateh]

We do not do any sort of conditioning. We break plastic boards regularly in class, and wooden ones at testing. The wooden boards are regular pine wood, no drying/kiln/etc. We break with feet only for students 14 and under, hands and feet for students 15 and up.

[bushido_man96]

That said, I think that the schools that do not do any conditioning but require breaks usually either kiln-dry the boards/bricks/blocks/tiles/etc., cut them partially, or only hit them with kicks, which are relatively safe to do, even for people who haven't done any conditioning.

We don't do any kind of body conditioning, nor do we "doctor" the boards we break. We do various hand and foot techniques, ranging from punches, knife hand strikes, elbow strikes, ridgehand strikes, or palm heel strikes, side kicks, round kicks, front kicks, and any in between.

The key to breaking for our testings is technique, not body callousing. Now, we don't advocate breaking large stacks of bricks, and usually not more than 3 boards on any one technique. So, body conditioning isn't as important as technique is. I think body conditioning is a good thing, but not a necessary thing, unless one is looking into doing more competive styles of breaking, or doing large amounts of boards and bricks for breaking.