Does your art break? Why or Why Not?

[Kacey]

We break (1" pine and roofing tiles) to demonstrate focus, technique and power - although power is definitely last in line. I have a father and daughter in my class - he's 5'11", and she's 4'11", and I'm much more impressed when she breaks than when he does, because her breaks are all technique, and his are power based on his greater height, weight, and musculature.

Boards don't break back, true - but they do let you see what you can do against an ideal (non-moving, perfectly aligned) target. Also, once you get past the basics, it's fun to play around with it.

 

[Cryozombie]

but they do let you see what you can do against an ideal (non-moving, perfectly aligned) target.

Do you really think so? I'd be interested to see what the comparison between say a 1" pine board with the grains perfectly aligned to be broken and a femur is... Or Ribs, or a Sternum...

I would bet these statistics are around somplace... Oh, good job, now you made me THINK... do you know what that is gonna do to my reputation?

 

[bignick]

Oh, good job, now you made me THINK... do you know what that is gonna do to my reputation?

What Reputation? :uhyeah:

I've posted earlier in the thread I believe, but to me breaking is a simple matter, and just plain fun...

 

[beau_safken]

Breaking is all good....

Just think you are walking down the road and have a ARMY OF PINE BOARDS!!! Holy hell call in the karate kid backup squads. ROGER ROGER..We have sighting of misc. ice blocks and some clay tiles in route to our position over!!! OH DEAR GOD!!! There are some flaming concrete pavers popping up all over the place. DONT GO THERE!!! THere aare some ice blocks over there WATCH YOUR ***...

Oh yea..sorry. Just got thru that torrent of hell back there. Breakin is good f or those situations.

 

[FearlessFreep]

I'd be interested to see what the comparison between say a 1" pine board with the grains perfectly aligned to be broken and a femur is... Or Ribs, or a Sternum...

He *did* say 'ideal'. The comparison is that most places won't let you practice against real ribs or sternum, so you train with what's available because you can't really train with what's real


Just think you are walking down the road and have a ARMY OF PINE BOARDS!!! ...

Now go through your situation and replace 'pine board' and 'ice block', etc...with words like 'heavy bag' or 'practice mitt' or 'kicking shield' or any of the other targets you train to strike against. Why do you train reps of elbows against a heavy bag? You're not goig to be attacked by a heavy bag, and likely not a paraplegic, on the street. It's just anoher training tool to work on improving technique.

That some places use it as a demonstration/competition is another matter

 

[Kacey]

Do you really think so? I'd be interested to see what the comparison between say a 1" pine board with the grains perfectly aligned to be broken and a femur is... Or Ribs, or a Sternum...

I would bet these statistics are around somplace... Oh, good job, now you made me THINK... do you know what that is gonna do to my reputation?

1 1" board = 1 rib
2 1" board = 1 arm
3 1" boards = 1 leg
4 1" boards = 1 spine
5 1" boards (or more) = ostentation ... although that doesn't stop people from breaking more than that.

Or so my seniors have told me.

Actually, boards are more flexible than bones - also, I would be aiming for knees, not legs... and knees are REALLY easy to break. Breaking boards is designed to teach you to hit a target that doesn't flex like a focus pad. Too many people I know who only practice on 'soft' targets such as focus pads don't know how to hit a solid object. Boards and tiles (cement roofing tiles) are solid objects. They don't move, and can be set at the perfect height - thus the 'ideal' - but they are more solid than anything else I have ever practiced on, including focus pads, heavy bags, and so on - except for the padded portion of the wall, which I try not to do, as it hurts my knees if I hit it too hard (no flex at all).

Oh, and by way... I'm a she, not a he.

 

[Cryozombie]

Oh, and by way... I'm a she, not a he.

Sorry... did I call you a He? Oh, no, that was Freep, sorry. I missed that.

Freep... I was asking out of genunie curiosity... I want to know statistically how close those breaks are. Not out of any sort of "Ha, Im right and thats a stupid notion"... I really want to know how they compare because I think its an interesting thing.

 

[Simon Curran]

Coming in a bit late on this one, but I answered no, although that would actually be better put as "not to the best of my knowledge"
I must admit the idea of breaking did initially confuse me, and I posted a question some time back in the TKD section as to the whys and wherefores.
I still don't claim to fully understand it, but if some see it as a valid training tool, then so be it.

 

[bushi jon]

Yes we break, I broke me arm, my knuckle,two ribs and my tail bone

 

[Miles]

We break-it is mandatory for all ranks.

BTW, boards do "hit back"....it's called reaction force.

Once a month we have a breaking class where we work on proper technique for holding and breaking boards (we use the Century plastic boards and the rebreakable roofing tiles from Sang Moo Sa). It is one of the most popular classes.

Miles

 

[Makalakumu]

One of the things I've been dying to find is an actual physical study that measures the forces needed to break various materials and then compares them to real world objects. If anyone is privvy to this information, I think that it would lend a lot of validity toward the practice of breaking and it would greatly aid this discussion.

 

[tradrockrat]

way late, but "NO" as a rule. there are some training aids that higher belts use when trasining animal styles that involve destroying some inanimate object, but thy are usually to condition the weapon rather than simulate an attack of some sort.

 

[TraditionalTKD]

We have mandatory breaking for 1st-3rd Dan testing. Sometimes the students get into showier breaks (ice blocks, patio blocks, aerial breaks), but for the most part the breaks are done to show the effectiveness of basic technique. Our Grandmaster doesn't like us getting too fancy. He would rather see effectiveness than fanciness.
And breaking is as close as you can get to demonstrating the the power of a technique on a human body. It's one of the reasons why we do it. No, pine boards and patio blocks are not exactly the same thing as ribs or a skull, but it's as close as we can get. It's not supposed to be super realistic. It's supposed to show what your technique is capable of.

 

[Brandon Fisher]

Yes we do not on a large scale but we do.
Wood
Concrete Patio Block

We use hand, forearm, and elbow strikes. As well has some kicks.

Recently I have started showing breaking using a Nunchaku.

 

[Anti-Theory]

I'd say it would vary from school to school. But here at my Choy Lay Fut academy, those learning the Iron Palm technique break several concrete blocks seperated by popcicle sticks and i've also seen them break blocks with their forehead (only) and another dangerous technique that only Sifu has done is put the block on a students head then break it with a sledgehammer :ultracool

 

[cali_tkdbruin]

I'm a TKD dude so yeah, we do a lot of breaking stuff. It's a part of the curriculum at the dojang where I train. Generally, breaking is a big part of belt rank advancement tests, and also in demonstrations in the Taekwondo world.