Practicing for board breaking at testing

[TKDmel]

I was asked by a fellow BB tonight if I was going to practice my board breaking for my II dan test in a couple months. I was at a loss for words, cause I have never practiced any breaks. I just do them. I have never missed a break before, so it never seemed important. Does anyone else here "just do it"? Or do you practice it beforehand.

 

[exile]

I was asked by a fellow BB tonight if I was going to practice my board breaking for my II dan test in a couple months. I was at a loss for words, cause I have never practiced any breaks. I just do them. I have never missed a break before, so it never seemed important. Does anyone else here "just do it"? Or do you practice it beforehand.

I practice. I need the reassurance that I still can do it. And after a while I need to reassure myself again that I can do it. So I'm capable of going through fifty bucks' worth of boards in the week before a test...

I'm not saying it's rational, OK? :wink1: But you asked...

 

[Kacey]

I was asked by a fellow BB tonight if I was going to practice my board breaking for my II dan test in a couple months. I was at a loss for words, cause I have never practiced any breaks. I just do them. I have never missed a break before, so it never seemed important. Does anyone else here "just do it"? Or do you practice it beforehand.

It depends on my level of concern about the break. For IV Dan, I broke 1 tile (12" x 18", 1" thick cement) with each hand, simultaneously, and 1 board each with a side kick, front kick and downward knifehand, in immediate sequence (1-2-3, without stopping) - both without practice - and 1 head-high board with a twist kick, which I practiced for months to be able to get my foot that high with a twist kick and still have enough power to break - but I didn't practice on boards, just on focus pads and heavy bags. When I need to do speed breaks, I practice those - I'm better at power breaks. It all depends on what I'm doing.

 

[wade]

TKDMel, agree with you, just do it. It's the way I have always done it and it has always worked. Do not fix something that is not broken, ok?

 

[IcemanSK]

With heavy breaks (concrete, etc.) I do practice. With boards, I just make sure I have good holders.

 

[K31]

I'm curious as to whether the people who don't practice breaking on their own ever practice it in class?

For the first time ever we did breaking in class last week without it being part of a test. I was surprised the first time when the instructor was going over the criteria for my first test and it was "Okay, if you're a white belt you have to use a push kick and if you're over 100 pounds you have to break two boards..." We had never even seen board breaking demonstrated much less done it.

 

[bluekey88]

I find I'm in the middle of the responses here.

I tend not to do much in the way of wood breaking when preparing for tests. If i do my breaks, it will be one one's that are more complicated that I have not done before. I may do one practice session on wood before the test just to see how I do.

Basically, I practice in class on focus pads, at home on the heavy bag. I tend to not worry about hand techniques as those are bery easy for me. I tend to work more when the technique involves jumping and/or spinning (at 6'2" and 240 lbs...I'm simply not built for flight ).

Peace,
Erik

 

[Shaderon]

I don't have to break for another two grades, but I've started already. We practise in class for a few minutes just to make sure our technique and distanceing etc is right but once the board is broken we leave it. My instructor is practising really hard for his 2.5 Dan test this Sunday, with an inside knife hand break right now but I think that's more because he enjoys it and wants to condition his hands rather than technique practice.

 

[searcher]

I don't exactly practice. I do train it quite often by continually conditioning my breaking surfaces. You should look into getting a makiwara for some great conditioning and invest in some dit da jow. These two items work wonders. JMO.

 

[Bret Hinds]

I do not practice breaking boards because I do not know what the breaks will be. Instead i work out on the heavy bags and focus pads at full power on every kick, punch, strike that i can think of. each dan test the breaks were done to push the comfort zone so to speak. Talk about pre-test nerves. All the best in the arts

 

[Miles]

We regularly have a breaking/kyukpa class. It is one of the most popular things for the students (especially the kids). We use rebreakable boards, tiles, and one of my black belts has a rebreakable red brick. Lots of fun and it is good conditioning (physically from the standpoint you are striking something very hard, mentally from the standpoint you get a sense of accomplishment).

Miles