What is the point/reasoning in MA's or TMA's behind breaking ice/wood/etc?

As you all know many different types of MA's (usually TMA's) are fond of breaking things for demonstration purposes.

Everyone has their specialty... the one I always remember from being a kid was that TKD students had to break a pine board.

To this day I still see pictures of guys breaking things like stone pavers, ice slabs and of course - more timber than you can imagine. There have probably been dozens of attempts at even more exotic objects.

None of the MA's I've studied or study have the tradition of breaking things like wooden planks or ice... so I am bit curious as to what the whole deal is all about. Can someone give me a run down behind the different schools of thought behind the whole breaking thing.

1) How many of you take it seriously?

2) How many of you laugh it and shake your head?

3) How many of you don't give it much thought either way?

4) What are the advantages of it?

5) What were you taught the purpose behind it?

Please feel free to post any breaking vids that you feel are good, bad or just plain downright hilarious.

Heck feel free to post your own vids/pics as well.

 

Hi 'slipthejab' and All,

Never been a member of a club where breaking was a big thing - but have done a bit.

NOTE: Under 18's and morons please ignore this message!!!

Wood is good, breakable boards are fun as long as you choose ones that are not too hard to break, punching china plates seemed like a good idea at the time that I did it but bits of china cut (OUCH) ditto with plate glass - NOT one of my cleverest ideas ever - could have gone VERY VERY badly!!!!!

Don't try the punching glass - and if you do the trick is to do exactly the opposite of a normal break - with a normal break you focus on punching several inches past the target with glass you have to go for a lightning quick strike that impacts the glass enough to shatter it but pulls back WITHOUT going past where the glass is.

YEAH do what I said the first time and leave glass to loonies like me - Practice breaking pine wood or breakable boards - that's sensible (well sort of).

As to the usefulness of breaking - probably very little if any - looks C00L is all.

All the best.

Robert.

 

I broke tiles before... It was for a performance in school and we did not have enough budget, so what my friend did was to go around to contractors to ask for samples of floor tiles pretending to be interested in renovation so we got a whole stack of floor tiles to train for performance. I guess it can be used as a form of conditioning for ur hand and probably to condition it to the point when u use ur fist to punch u can "break" someone's ____ (anything u wanna hit) and not break your hand. Thatz my take on it.

 

We do break, but it's not taken overly serious. The way I view it, it's a good exercise in focus. If you're not focused on your target, it usually won't break. This is then followed by lots of pain that further reminds you that you should have focused on what you were doing. After that, different breaks can be a good measure of technique (though certainly not necessary). As an example, breaking a single board with a spinning heel kick when the board is held stationary with two hands is not a difficult break at all. However, if you change the grip so that the board is held only between the thumb and forefinger this becomes much more difficult as the board will just fly away unless it's hit with significantly more speed. In the end though, breaking, at least for me is just practing my strikes on a different (less forgiving) target. It's also really satisfying to hear the crack .

 

Breaking things is inferior to breaking people, since "board no hit back."

However, I do see some advantage to learning how to punch/kick properly when you're not wearing gloves and wrist wraps by breaking things.

The problem is, though, that most people who break do it as a demonstration (either for a test or for a demo/competition), instead of doing it progressively like lifting weights or cardio work, where you keep working up and NOT using spacers (come on...).

 

Breaking serves several purposes:

1. (The most important for younger, beginning students, IMHO) It builds self-confidence in your ability to apply the techniques you've been taught.

2. It helps with focus and control of distance. Just like with focus pads, targets, and mits, only you also have to apply power to your hit, in order to succeed with the break.

3. It helps beginning students learn to aim and hit through a target, instead of just tapping the surface of a target. This is the opposite of what lots of folks accuse us TKD'ers of doing in sparring.

4. It aids in coordinating speed/timing with your power. 'Speed breaks' are some of the more difficult breaks to accomplish well. These are breaks where only one side of a board/target is held, or where the board is thrown or dropped instead of being held. In these cases, the only way to succeed with the break is to have lots of speed, coordinated with your proper technique, control of distance, and power.

5. It provides a very crude measure of proficiency in a given technique. Granted, it doesn't take a lot of power to break a one-inch pine board, but it does take enough to do some damage, if the technique were needed. I know which techniques I can personally use to break a board, which I can use to break two or three boards, and which I couldn't use to break a board if my life depended on it. This gives me some idea of what I should use as my primary techniques (if my life ever really does depend on it), and which I need to work on a lot more.

6. It looks cool and it's a lot of fun.

Just my thoughts, anyway.

 

I see no point in it. You should be training to hit thru someone even in training.. Doesn't necessarily mean you have to kill your training partner all the time, but I see no point in having junior students not gradually working up to breaking. Doing so otherwise just leads to messed up hands, arthritis, all sorts of crap I don't want later in life. Sure later on I'll get to try my hand at it, but only after time spent properly conditioning the hand to accept that kind of abuse.. not "oh look I think I'll put my fist thru a slab of ice so I can make mixed cocktails later"

 

I totally forgot about the messed up hands. Nevermind, breaking things other than people is a waste of time and dangerous.

Yes, magic TCM creams can help your hands and all that, but is it really worth the time if your goal is to hurt people, not trees?

 

So then I take it from your posts that you are not down with the whole breaking inanimate objects.

So pictures like the one below (which is what inspired me to start this thread in the first place) of this bloke smashing through ice hold no truck with you?

Source:http://hometown.aol.co.uk/sjkarateinfo/index.html

 

Or perhaps this one?

 

The first guy is using GIANT spacers.

Second one, looks like they lit off some fireworks on the guy's head. They both look in pain. I can't tell what's going on, really.

 

and then there is the extreme (or overproductive?) end of it...

note: supposedly 5K boards this guy went through

source: http://www.blackbeltworld.com/masterlee/gallery/gallery01/03.htm

 

Slip, you say that photo made you start this thread.

Would it have anything to do with the fact that it is Punisher's Sensei in the pic?

I'm pretty sure it is anyway...

 

errm... it could Judy Garland really. It's pretty irrelevant who's sensei he is to speak frankly. I am sure there are plenty of dudes with '80s haircuts breaking ice. Just as there are plenty of bald Chinese monks and nutters who go for 5k worth of woodage. No big deal.

The point of the thread is that he is breaking something and it's that picture that got me wondering. I would have thought connecting those dots would have been easy enough no?

 

Seems that there are greater threats to the forests than plastic shopping bags.


Jesus. I think we get the point already.
Note - he has a small video of him busting his way through some serious woodage on his site.

source: http://www.mikereevesonline.com/

 

That man HATES wood. HATES it. What's next? Viagra headquarters?

 

Ok peeps - more questions.

1) Does anyone ever break any other kind of wood that is not soft pine?

2) What about the whole baseball bat with the shin deal...
as in the Kyokushin boys and the likes of Andy Hug ?

3) What about wood/ice/any material with on spacers?

 

possibly one of the funniest things ive ever read on MAP.

 

I'm not too fond of the "let see how many I can break at one time" or "look how many I can break in 45 seconds" because.. well thats just silly.

BUT

I have seen some pretty cool stuff where a guy is only breaking about 2 or 3 boards at once, but using all different types of fists. Like he would use 2 fingers, his big toe, second knuckles, thumbs, etc. Thats more impressive to me... Bad arthritis later, but I guess thats the price you pay for being able to punch 2 fingers through a guys cheek bone.

 

1) How many of you take it seriously?
No, but then i don't do it.

2) How many of you laugh it and shake your head?
Usually

3) How many of you don't give it much thought either way?
*Put's hand up*

4) What are the advantages of it?
Maybe it can help condition your hands and feet?