Rebreakable Boards--Two Questions

I'm involved in boxing, actually, but these seem like they might be useful. Please enlighten me.

1. Are these useful in giving a fairly good idea of punching power increases over time? While I realize that they are NOT REMOTELY a substitute for sparring, do they provide more objective feedback on punching power than (for instance) a heavy bag would?

2. What is the best brand? I've heard that UMAB's boards are the best on the market because they don't wear out for a long, long time--is this true?

 

I thought they were just to show people you could break boards, but then again my dojo doesn't focus on smashing wood, so I wouldn't know

 

Waste of time, stick to the heavy bag and your trainer' feedback

 

I second what MartialJac says. Besides, if it's anything like the rebreakable board I used to have, you won't be punching it twice anyway. Not without several months in between to rehab.

Waste of money. I'd stick with the heavy bag personally.


Stuart

 

Lmao, I second what ap Oweyn said and third what MartialJac said.
I have a UMAB black board to show the students why it is important to focus on the target, which in the case with re-breakable boards, is the break line because if you dont hit that line, it wont break.
If however you decide to buy one I strongly recommend UMAB.

 

We messed with these things years ago in preparation for tournament competition. We thought it would be less expensive to use the rebreakable boards that were advertised to be the equivalent of one-inch pine boards. Yeah, RIGHT! One training session with the damned things - and a bunch of tender knuckles - and we put the plastic boards away . . . forever!

 

I can't understand how they could give more objective feedback than a heavy bag.

With a board, either you can or you cannot break it, which would be at best tell you if you are above or below the power level needed to break it. You could say it's a binary measuring device.

A heavy bag, while not exactly precise, will have many "shades" of power. It's more of an "analogic" measuring device.

So unless you have a lot of time, and many sets of different toughness of boards, it's not going to tell you anything a heavy bag couldn't tell you.

 

I have a blue and a black board.

I use them to focus on punching straight....very hard for me to do with my left hand.

Like GeeMac said, if you do not punch straight...your punch has a little curve to it....well you going to loose a bit of knuckle skin.

 

I bought a couple of the UMAB boards (black and brown) simply to save money on pine. They are DEFINATELY more difficult to break than wood, not only because of the accuracy isssue, but because the aren't quite as brittle, per se, as wood. You have to basically hit it in the perfect spot with the right amount of force, or you just bounce off.

As for punching them, I've never dared to try. All I know is, everytime I break one, I think of the money it would have cost to break pine, and I smile.

Funny story, when I went to test for my black belt last month, I took my boards up to practice on. A few of the black belts there asked if they could try, took the board, and came back very frustrated.

Now, getting back to the original thingy:

1. I don't know if you could us them to gauge your punching power. It'd more show how conditioned your hands were (you know, whether you come out with broken knuckles or not). Chances are, your knuckle conditioning will fail you before your strength does. Waste of cash in the case.

2. UMAB boards are the only ones I've tried personally, but any boards with the same structure should be good. There are other designs for RB boards that wear out after a couple hundred breaks, so avoid them.

 

1) You can get the rebreakable boards in a variety of strengths.

2) It appears to me like the heavy plastic ones (equivalent to 1" pine) need to be "broken in", they're frickin difficult at first.

 

Yeah I have all the UMAB boards and I can break the black with a punch, if it is in a holder with no give, but my knuckles didnt thank me for it, thats for sure and I wont be doing it again. There was definatly more testosterone and less common sence flowing that day. :bang:
The green on the other hand I break on my head to give the kids a laugh.

 

They wear out too fast though, we had one and before I knew it I bet I could break it with one hit of my tallywacker. If I changed the board position from a side kick to a turning kick, and only held one side of the board, the other side dropped on my toe.

 

I intended to use bag gloves and handwraps rather than do it bareknuckled:

 

Thanks for your thoughts.

My reasoning behind concluding that the rebreakable boards could be a little more useful is that judging power from a heavy bag is somewhat subjective. Yes, it gives a pretty good idea, but at the same time there are other variables--how much the bag was in motion already when you hit it, whether you "pushed" it rather than snapped the punch into it, and so on. With boards, you can either break them (and thus are at that power level, as you indicated), or you don't (and aren't).

Of course, there could be something I'm missing due to my inexperience with board breaking. If so, please point it out to me.

 

Hmm....I had considered this.....is it absolutely necessary to have the board firmly anchored and to "wind up" prior to hitting it, or could you do drills that incorporate some amount of movement? (For instance, incorporating some form of fast footwork on the approach to the board rather than just standing there)? Also, I would think that it would be useful in teaching proper biomechanics, assuming that you're hitting it the same way and from the same general stance as you would be in a real fight (as opposed to widening the stance and setting yourself).

As I mentioned to a previous poster, I am not experienced using these, so perhaps my assumptions are mistaken here. I appreciate the time you're taking to explain this to me.

 

Also, assuming that I do get boards, what grade of resistance would you recommend to start with? (I'm around 150-155 lbs.)

 

Don't need them if you hit it right but they are not a boxing aid, you will have a bit of fun for 1 afternoon and never use them again. If you need to know how hard you can hit then find somewhere that can meaure the force of a punch or make one. I tried one at seni04 really good, I thought I had won a Fairtex boxing ring until they found out the body weight calculations were wrong.

 

Huh. Alright.

That could well be. We inherited ours from some earlier iteration of our college martial arts club. No way of knowing how much they actually used this thing. I know we only hit it once or twice before deciding it wasn't really worth it.

It should be noted, however, that the "we" in question were my college roommate and me. An aikidoka (him) and a former taekwondoka (who always hated breaking) turned eskrimador (who don't really do the breaking thing).


Stuart

 

Interesting. Could you give me more details on power measurement devices? Where you get them, how you make them, etc.?

 

You are on your own there. Try a big boxing academy or the internet, if you only want to measure improvment it might be worth it to you to travel now and again. As to making one I would guess that a spring scale (for weighing fish) and a small shield might work, try a new post for better ideas.

I have a Slam Man that has an adjustible impact sensor, forgot about him (not easy to do as he lives in the lounge and is called Oscar) that would work