Demo afterthoughts.

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 12:39pm

I think that this is bs, FUNKtastic. One board is easy, but if you can grab a ten year old and get him or her to break four boards (standard 1 X 12 DRY doug fir is what we use here - and boards that haven't been razored! - emphasize dry - once no one testing could break so the head bb got disgusted and got up and lo and behold, the one damn board wouldn't even break for him - he finally actually ripped it apart, as it was wet) I'll give Phrost a hundred bucks.

We did breaking in Kyokulshin and I found it to be a good confidence builder for youngsters. Last time I broke it was cement tile and I think that that is the last time I'll break anything, my hand hurt for weeks. Sensei said that doing much breaking wasn't worth the arthritis (he knew Oyama, of the injured hands fame; at the end of his life he'd sleep with his hands outside the sheets because the contact hurt too much), but he'd have us break once a year. I also found that very few people, including grown men who hold black belts in hard contact arts, can break more than three boards. The most that was EVER done in the Kyokushin dojos that I attended was five. No one ever could do six. Done correctly, no spacers or other cheating, of course. I'm not going to get into bs debate - and yes I think I know by now that breaking doesn't teach MT style roundhouse kicks and breaking doesn't teach single leg take downs and so forth and so on ad nauseum. But if you can break four boards or a base ball bat, or a 2 x 4...

**Dr. Fagbot Q. MacGillicuddy, PhD** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 12:48pm

GOOD POINTS I SHALL RETIRE TO THE OVERSTUFFED CHAIR IN MY THINKING CHAMBERS TO MULL THEM OVER PATFROMLOGAN AND ALSO I WILL DON A SPORTY TWEED JACKET PERHAPS WITH LEATHER ELBOW PADS HARUMPH.

**Teh El Macho** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 1:14pm

Originally Posted by FUNKtastic

I have to get this off my chest because it was bothering me all day.

I watched a demo today where a guy with so many patches on he might as well have been a nascar racer (or car) broke a few boards to the sound of honest applause from the crowd watching.

Now he had about 4 boards, could have been three, and he positioned them on two similar vertical boards which had to be held by other students since they couldnt stand on teir own. I honestly thought, from a purely physics perspective, that the boards being held at the very edges made the break easier than say when the boards are placed on bricks but none-the-less.

He did break all the board (after 3-4 windups) with his elbow and recieved pretty enthusiastic applause. Before this performance I saw a couple of the students in typical Jea-Claude poses where they held their legs extended though they held it for a short time and much lower but this was being presented as self defense. I don't know what the boards and outstreched legs contribute to self defense and it occured to me that I can take a 10 year old kid from my dojo who never took a striking art, tell him to break those boards and am willing to bet that he would break them just the same.

I then began wondering if I actually presented said 10-year-old during the demonstration and had him perform the same feat, would the crowd infer that what the martial artist well in his 20's was not impressive in the least bit or assume the 10-year old to be the next Bruce Lee...that's been bothering me all day.

Do you really believe that? Have you even seen the hands of an average 10 year old kid, even a relativelly fit, strong one?????

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 6:24pm

Originally Posted by Dr. Fagbot Q. MacGillicuddy, PhD

GOOD POINTS I SHALL RETIRE TO THE OVERSTUFFED CHAIR IN MY THINKING CHAMBERS TO MULL THEM OVER PATFROMLOGAN AND ALSO I WILL DON A SPORTY TWEED JACKET PERHAPS WITH LEATHER ELBOW PADS HARUMPH.

Dear me, shall I bring the crumpets and croissants? Tea? Oolong, jasmine, green or black? Or Glenlivet and cigars?

My students say that I have a tendency to be verbose. Are you predisposed to concur?

**Dr. Fagbot Q. MacGillicuddy, PhD** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 6:50pm

SHHHH STILL MULLING

**FUNKtastic** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 8:02pm

Ok, a couple of people have been questioning my assertion so I won't quote individually and just respond.

Patfromlogan,
I don't know the kind of board you use but they probably vary in thickness because I remember when I was 9 and taking TKD, I used to break them by twos with an open palm (striking perpenduclular to the board) and had done three on one or two occasions. Keep in mind I was not striking how the fella in question was since he used his elbow and since the boards were so low to the ground fell more than hit the boards--->he used gravity more than the strike. Also in terms of thickness I remember two sizes that we used, could have been 1/2 inch, 3/4 and 1 inch and I remember one was twice as thick as the other (we rarely used the middle one). Now the boards in question were definitely not the thick variety used by the adults in my class, he positioned the other boards to help the break and used gravity instead of a strike. As far as their training, I talked to one of the students today and he said all they do is streches, forms and no-touch sparring (had a hell of a time explaining to me how that works), nothing about board breaking included in the regimen so the guy was bascially trying to entice the crowd the way I see it.

El Macho

You're right not every kid can break these boards though I remember a grossly out of shape 9 year old in my old TKD class breaking one broard(thats all they gave and no I don't know if he could have broken more) and having myself broken more (I grant you they were probably the thinner ones, WHICH HIS GUY USED) I feel confident that the kid from my dojo, who is probably stronger than the average 10-year old since he does Judo, and I emphasised no striking, can break these boards.

Overall it doesn't even matter to me if he could have broken all three, I could have given the weak out of shape 9-year-old from my old TKD place who I have seen break one board and have him break it. In such a case I am pretty sure the crowd that found the 3 board black belt amazing would think no less of the kid since he is smaller, younger and has little to no training. What I was most concerned with was if they got so excited about the guy breaking those boards what they would think of the kid I would present who could match the act (I still maintain) or come close, would they think the adult was full of **** or decide the kid was an MA prodigy since they find boardbreaking to be indicative of some kind of talent...not to say that it is easy but what I saw was a load of crap.

**colonelpong** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 9:40pm

I watched a fake TKD demo once.
They had large "blocks of wood". What these really were were boxes made of particle board or balsa or something like that. These were filled with sawdust. The tkd merily kicked their way through them, causing explosions of sawdust and fragments of wood.

The crowd goes wild. It appears that the majority ACTUALLY BELIEVED that the tkd clowns were shattering huge solid blocks

**Dr. Fagbot Q. MacGillicuddy, PhD** · Posted On: 2/23/2007 9:55pm

Originally Posted by temppong

I watched a fake TKD demo once.
They had large "blocks of wood". What these really were were boxes made of particle board or balsa or something like that. These were filled with sawdust. The tkd merily kicked their way through them, causing explosions of sawdust and fragments of wood.

The crowd goes wild. It appears that the majority ACTUALLY BELIEVED that the tkd clowns were shattering huge solid blocks

vry imprtnt did u alurt nashinul medea outletz,, ???

:icon_salu :kermit: :confused2 :happy6: :icon_boun :XXbunny: :new_olymp :turban: :brave:

**patfromlogan** · Posted On: 2/24/2007 12:20am

Dr., even my slightly drunked up self can't understand what teh hell u r communicating!

But to the thread. In my horror and shame, I was once upon a time helping (not KK) at a testing/breaking Caratey Class and this FIVE year old testing for brown couldn't break a board and the instructor kept running a razor along the grain, over and over, deeper and deeper, until it finally broke... and the kid quit anyway. He was a tiny prodigy, a super serious brainy little intense twerp who could do all the techniques and still basically sucked (so sad), and his mother told me that he wanted to quit karate and she wanted him to at least get to black and I told her that it didn't matter at all, just follow his desires and try to make him happy, don't pressure him to do some weird martial art, because a bb isn't a terminal degree, it's (working out) something that you do if you want to do for happiness, and if he's lost that desire, free him up.