I was just wondering... After your first break, how does your style increase complexity? Different types of breaks? Different breaking material? Different numbers of items being broken? Different spacings?
Just curious!
Just curious!
After your first break, what is next?
- Thread starter mrhnau
- Start date
After the first break you can break something else or move onto the next technique. If it's a leg, well, "You can run faster than he can hop."
Oh, you were talking about boards and bricks and suchlike. We tend to use hammers and saws for things like that. Why would you want to hit them with your fist?
Oh, you were talking about boards and bricks and suchlike. We tend to use hammers and saws for things like that. Why would you want to hit them with your fist?
CuongNhuka
Senior Master
First required break (this is for my weight): Three boards, one direction (can go straight down, only time you are allowed to do that)
Second reuiqred break: three boards, one direction (required to be differnit technique)
Third required break: 2 directions, 3 boards each (techniques are required to be new)
Fourth required break: 5 directions, 4 sets of four, one set of 2.
All other required breaks are 15 boards total, the number per set is up to the individual, but is required to demonstrate techinque, speed, power, and creativity. This means if you do 15 sets of one board breaks with palm heel, you will likely fail. If you do 15 sets of one board breaks with flying/spinning kicks, and spearhands, you will pass. And I have seen someone do both before. You can also do one set of 15 boards, if you really want to.
Also, you are not allowed to use spacers. Using these is an automatic fail. Boards are also inspected to check that you aren't using prohibited wood, or that you have baked your boards, or done anythign else that would make breaking easier.
Cuong Nhu requires board breaks based on weight, I'm in the highest weight catagory, so these are the hardest. At the point were 15 total boards are required, it remains constant.
Second reuiqred break: three boards, one direction (required to be differnit technique)
Third required break: 2 directions, 3 boards each (techniques are required to be new)
Fourth required break: 5 directions, 4 sets of four, one set of 2.
All other required breaks are 15 boards total, the number per set is up to the individual, but is required to demonstrate techinque, speed, power, and creativity. This means if you do 15 sets of one board breaks with palm heel, you will likely fail. If you do 15 sets of one board breaks with flying/spinning kicks, and spearhands, you will pass. And I have seen someone do both before. You can also do one set of 15 boards, if you really want to.
Also, you are not allowed to use spacers. Using these is an automatic fail. Boards are also inspected to check that you aren't using prohibited wood, or that you have baked your boards, or done anythign else that would make breaking easier.
Cuong Nhu requires board breaks based on weight, I'm in the highest weight catagory, so these are the hardest. At the point were 15 total boards are required, it remains constant.
kidswarrior
Senior Master
:lfao: Beautiful. I was going to attempt some clever reply, but then saw your post and thought, no reason, Tellner took care of it. :ultracoolAfter the first break you can break something else or move onto the next technique. If it's a leg, well, "You can run faster than he can hop."
Oh, you were talking about boards and bricks and suchlike. We tend to use hammers and saws for things like that. Why would you want to hit them with your fist?
We don't emphasize breaks as part of the curriculum so much; they're there in the tests, but not a big deal. It's pretty much left to the individual to work out how much breaking you want to work on, and what kind. Since I think that breaking is a very useful tool for both measuring and improving power delivery, it's something I work on, but not in any particularly systematic or complex way. When I get confident with a break using one board, I add another, no spacers. When I move up a board, I experiment with increasing the frequency in a single session: instead of just one three-board break with a knife-hand, do a second one ten minutes later, maybe add a third half an hour later when the second break during the same session starts coming easily. The idea is to try to acclimatize yourself to doing the break so that it doesn't seem like a complete miracle each time it happens. That shifts your expectations so that whatever you're currently doing is no big deal, and you feel confident about increasing the stack. Pretty basic, really...
Breaking is required at testing - as the rank increases, more difficult techniques are used. Boards (12x12x1 #3 common pine boards) are used through red belt; at black belt, tiles (1" thick concrete roofing tiles) are added for hand breaks. We don't use spacers. The number of boards varies based on the person's age, size, gender, and weight, as all of those factor affect your ability to break.
We don't do breaking until we get ready for our 1st Dan test (we're at brown belt, 2nd/1st kup). We have to do a 2 inch board break with a side kick, and at each test afterwards, it increases to station breaks, more boards, etc. It's been a while since the last time I had to do a break with the side kick... I almost forgot how to do the break the first time I was doing practice breaks!
