telsun Posted July 18, 2003 Posted July 18, 2003 I would like to retain the sensitivity in my finger tips. Destroying the nerve endings would reduce this, wouldn't it? I keep asking God what I'm for and he tells me........."gee I'm not sure!"
AnonymousCoward Posted July 18, 2003 Author Posted July 18, 2003 PeteT from the ITF board had this suggestion involving drywall: I started by hitting anything and everything with my fingertips, trying to numb them, it doesn't work they are still very sensitive. Then I cut drywall slats 14" long and 4" wide and set them up on two blocks. Push slowly any they will break with no pain, hit fast and you will begin to experience the feeling. When ready add one more then two more. You will soon learn to cut your finger nails short, keep a slight curve to the fingers, if you straighten them they will dislocate, I have had this happen, you will be unable to practice for several days. next cut a 1x12 4" long and hit it hard and fast, the slightest hesitation will keep you from breaking. [/Quote] I like the candid mention of the high probability of dislocating your fingers! But I think that drywall and a bag of stones might be a good place for me to start. I've also chatted to some more TKD practitioners who have broken speed break boards with a fingertip strike. All of them said that it really hurt! Maybe I should stick with an arc hand strike for neck attacks rather than thinking about sticking my fingers through people's tracheas?
John G Posted July 18, 2003 Posted July 18, 2003 Thanks for the reply. Has anyone here actually performed a finger tip break? After seeing my instructor speed break a board with a straight fingertip strike I thought I would give it a go (after all I was an experienced 4th gup). The only thing I broke was my middle finger and sent my fingernails through the quick (sp) of my fore, middle and ring fingers. Next time (yeh right) I ill try flat fingertip instead of straight. BTW: thanks for the tips from PeteT. ... John G Jarrett III Dan, ITF Taekwon-Do
ZR440 Posted July 18, 2003 Posted July 18, 2003 Hope that is a good lesson to those who think it won't hurt. It's happy hour somewhere in the world.
LordBucket Posted July 30, 2003 Posted July 30, 2003 I had a kempo instructor who practiced this. His recommendation was to start out doing fingertip pushups against a wall, and then very slowly over several months lower your height on the wall until you can do them on the ground. A fingerTIP strike is very different from a claw or raking strike. If you want to develop the fingertips, then be sure when you do your pushups that all the bones in your finger are perfectly aligned in a straight line, and never let them bend at any joint. Getting the alignment and the balance down is much harder than developing the strength. I never saw it myself, but he claimed that the Grandmaster of the style was able to poke finger-sized holes in two inch thick pine boards. At least...until he failed to properly align the finger and snapped it backwards at the middle joint. I did however, see a related trick which was very cool: I witnessed my instructor put out candles from a couple feet away with a 'fingertip' strike. No...no ninja magic or anything, it was just that he was able to generate a current of air, and his aim was good enough that he could perform a little circular whipping motion with his wrist that ended in a forward thrust (sort of like the rotation of a traditional karate punch) with an extended pointer finger directly at the candle with no 'swishing' motion whatsoever...and put out the candle with his fingertip still two or three feet away from the candle. Very cool to watch. I tried learning it myself, but lost interest pretty quickly. Give it five minutes and you should be able to put the candle out from a few inches away. Bucket Man --------------------------------------------- http://www.freewebs.com/ocmartialarts ---------------------------------------------http://www.freewebs.com/ocmartialartsOrange County Martial Arts Social Club
TangSooGuy Posted September 22, 2003 Posted September 22, 2003 I currently break one board using a spear hand strike, and am working my way up to breaking two boards this way. I didn't do any special conditioning to do this, other than striking the palm of my other hand to develop an understanding of how to hold my hand and what part of the fingers to strike with. The real key is to do the strike very quickly and at the correct angle, with your fingers perpendicular to the board, creating a better penentrating surface. The idea is to create as much force as possible on a very small surface area- speed is what accomplishes this force, not strength. If you don't do it very fast and try to penetrate as though the board wasn't even there, you're just going to hurt yourself. I also tried to do the break in a very rushed manner once, and hit at the wrong angle, nearly breaking my fingers. One other thing- it hurts. Every single time I do it, so as you can imagine, I don't do it all that often...
Yet another TKD guy Posted September 22, 2003 Posted September 22, 2003 One question: WHY? AKA Os3y3ris/Osiris
TangSooGuy Posted September 22, 2003 Posted September 22, 2003 i knew someone would ask that... if you're asking me why I do it, to prove to myself that I can, mostly, like I said, I don't do it all that often. Every once in awhile I'll do it at a demo as an attention getter, with the whole 'don't try this at home' caveat... I did it at my 4th Dan test earlier this year because they asked us to do a 'specialty' break...but that was in March and I haven't done it since... It's more something to show how mental preparedness and belief that you can do something, combined with corecct technique, is more important to sucess than physical strength...
OldRookie Posted September 28, 2003 Posted September 28, 2003 I watched a 6th degree do this break on 2 boards today (Saturday)@ a tournament in Lufkin,Tx......impressive! *1st Dan Oct 2004*"Progress lies not enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be.""It is better to deserve honors and not have them than to have them and not deserve them."
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