I have always been fascinated by these people who have been trained in karate or tai quon do or whatever who can break boards with their hands and feet. I can’t imagine how one could do such a trick. Does everyone have that ability, or does it require special skills? Does it hurt? Does it help your mind? I bet Tanya can break boards. Maybe she knows.
June 21, 2005
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Nah, no special skills required. Concentration to make sure you hit the middle of the board (weakest area, I believe) helps, but that’s about all.
I broke a lot of boards with kicks and elbows, but only a couple using my hand – and then only with my palm. I wasn’t so good at hitting with a punch, ‘cuz that hurt WAYYYY too darn much.
Comment by tanya — June 21, 2005 @ 3:28 pm
Three things contribute to that, from what I understand. Focus, conditioning, and stengthening. Focus is obvious, conditioning means that you constantly work on building up the calluses on your hand until it’s become a tough slab that inhibits pain (think the calluses on your fingers that keep the guitar from hurting), and finally strength whereby you actually toughen your bones by repeated conditioning so that each bone can absorb and transmit considerable damage without breaking or fracturing in any way.
Basically, it just takes practice.
Comment by Daniel Poth — June 21, 2005 @ 11:31 pm
firstly, ” tai quon do” is spelt taekwon-do just for future reference
someone earlier mentioned three things, focus, conditioning and strength. Apart from conditioning, the components necessary to break a board are outlined in the theory of power. They are balance, breath control, focus, (use of) mass, concentration, energy and speed. Although I won’t go into much detail, if use can utilise all of these things to your maximum ability – 100%, you will be able to learn to break boards with a variety of body parts. So the basic answer to the original question, ” Does everyone have the ability or does it require special skills” is that it comes from within and anyone can be trained to break a board.
However I strongly recommend joining a taekwon-do school as there you will be able learn in a safe and productive environment instead of going to your local DIY store and by some 2″ by 2″ and damaging yourself.
Comment by fred — July 26, 2005 @ 8:25 am