board breaking

[kchenault]

Amen! I know that kind of pain.

[karatekid1975]

OMG!!! I got kicked in the fingers so many times last week (breaking week)! My hand is still sore.

[IAMA_chick]

breaking is an adrenaline rush and it is just alot of fun to me. i am very proud of the boards that i break and i keep them all from my promotion test's. so, personally, i think it's just fun smashing my hand or foot through a board!

[KickChick]

.... actually I've saved on heating bills this winter with the number of boards that I have broken!

 

Makes good kindling for the fireplace!!!

[karatekid1975]

Same here, Kickchick! I love breaking week Free firewood. We heat with a wood stove, so any wood we get for free is a good deal

[tommarker]

I personally think someone trying an advanced breaking technique who hurts their holders should fail the test.

 

Kyuck Pa should be a demonstration of focused power and control. If you can't do a jumping spinning kick reliably, then testing is a very poor time to pull it out.

 

I'd rather see a well placed 3 board stepping side kick on the first try than someone who whiffs a tornado kick 2-3 times first.

[KickChick]

I believe that failing a student because strikes a board holder "accidentally", only adds to the apprehension that a student already faces when he attampts a board break.

 

I believe the broard breaking we may be referring to is during class time such as board breaking classes ... but you do bring up a good point. Our school gives you a grade on whether or not it took a 1st, 2nd or 3rd strike in order to break and the difficulty of the break.

 

I have seen black belts striking their boards until their hands were swollen, bruised and bloody until boards were broken. (Fortunately I did all my 4 required breaks with 3 boards each in my first attempt)

 

True focused power and control can only be learned through consistent board breaking practice. Visualizing yourself executing the technique properly.

 

One thing that we all failed to mention is attitude. A positive attitude can make up for a lot of bad technique. You can have the best technique going but if your attitude is poor, your chances of are poor.

 

Board breaking just takes practice!!!

[tommarker]

I think we're more or less on the same page. In some of our testings, we give the students the breaks we want to see. Sometimes it's harder than what they're expecting, and we wouldn't be so hard on the grading in that case. We're probably looking more for attitude and spirit than anything else.

 

But sometimes we let them choose whatever the heck they want. A lot of times, ego gets in the way and we choose stupid breaks, or breaks we haven't practiced in an attempt to impress the panel. Too bad the panel has probably seen it all, and has definetely seen enough misses

 

Perhaps failing the breaking portion of the exam would be more fair, but for an advanced Dan level test, I think it would be fair to expect to fail if I hurt someone due to my lack of control.

[Treebranch]

Breaking boards was used to train warriors to fight against warriors in armor such as samurai. I think you'd do the trees a favor by punching bags, use the wood to build something. An effective way to train for puching as by having someone hold a pad and punch them if they can feel it through the pad and it set the person of balance you probably have a pretty effective punch.

[SBN Doug]

This is true. However, it will not guage your accuracy, only power.

 

Perhaps that is the reason they used to train in breaking for. In our art, however, in modern times, we use it to test our speed+accuracy. We are not big into the "power break" training, though. About 4 boards, with no spacers, is the most we usually go up to.