Breaking Boards

One of the finest and most fun rites of passage in martial arts like Tae Kwon Do or Karate, is the practice of breaking stuff with some kind of kick or punch. If you have done it enough then it is generally an easy thing to do. (That is if you are breaking a simple test piece of pine.) There are a few basic principals for breaking a piece of wood.

1. Aim for the middle.

2. After aiming for the middle, actually hit the damn thing.

3. Hit it hard enough so that you break it.

These are guidelines for a simple side kick break, but they are generally applicable to other techniques as well.

Now I tried to make these principals easy because when breaking boards there is a lot of other stuff that gets all messed up in the heads of people breaking boards. It is usually pretty funny to watch over bearing parents stress out their kids when the kid is trying to break a board.

"Tyler now just focus."
"Hunter, just think that the board is your sister."
"Porter, you aren't screaming loud enough, just do what master Lee told you two weeks ago when he had that balloon."

It is also kind of interesting to watch people try to break boards with speed breaks. A speed break is when someone holds a board in one and tries to break it with the other, or they try to hold the board with two hands and try to break it with their foot. Basically, one side of the board isn't supported by something. Anyway, I remember watching a poor guy attempt one of these breaks one time.

He was a big strong guy with a military hair cut. (I don't think he was ever in the military though.) He grunted, hemmed, hawed, and screamed, but he never broke the board. The reason for this was a mental block.

Sometimes we make or own martial arts endeavors harder than they have to be. Attempting a speed break by grunting and making faces at the board, only gives the board too much respect. In reality, a speed break is really quite easy after you have done it once or twice, however if you attempt to do it five to ten times and then don't break the board, your hand will hurt for about a week later. Most importantly you have to decide that the board will break.

There is a difference between hoping that the board will break, and deciding that it will. This decision is made before you even pick the board up to break it. It doesn't require any psyching up or anything. Don't make any faces, grunt, or try to stare the board down, just break the damn thing. It goes back to the three principals from before, hit the board in the center, actually hit the thing, and hit it hard enough so that it breaks.