On the island of Bawean in ancient Indonesia , so the storey goes , a woman nominate Rama Sukana was washing apparel in a brook when she noticedmonkeysfighting in the trees nearby . Fascinated , she take careful note of their fighting technique and began practicing them herself .
hone her sparring methods take time , and she terminate up getting home much subsequently than promise . Her husband was pacing back and forth waiting for his dinner party and was too craze with hunger and outrage to heed to her explanation . or else he attacked .
Rama Sukana immediately run short into imp armed combat mode and neutralized him . In fact , she liquidate him so often that he finally take stock of attacking her and asked if she could train him in the new technique of deal - to - hand combat that she ’d forge . Thus was borne the Indonesian warlike art known as pentjak silat [ source : Blackbelt Magazine ] .
In Japan , in the 16th and 17th 100 , the government was disturbed about armed uprisings and decided the logical matter to do was to attach all weaponry . However rebellious they might be , tyke would n’t defy confront sword - wieldingSamuraiwith their bleak hands . But the provincial had other things to worry about . Now that they were disarm , how were they opine to protect themselves from thievish bandit ? Their reply waskarate , which stand for " empty hand " [ rootage : Biryukov ] .
Perhaps it ’s no accident then that these are the fabled origins of two of the soldierly arts most closely associated with the practice session screw in Japanese as " tameshiwari , " the miraculous - looking feat of bust boards , brick and concrete slab with bare hand . Borne of the need to support against domesticated abuse and anarchic violence , pentjak silat and karate were design to fee the scales in favor of the vulnerable . In asymmetric fighting , the weak combatants must use strange methods to defend themselves . Tameshiwari provides an astonishing presentment of how such methods can result in the practitioner exert seemingly inconceivable ability .
Why chop wood with bare hands when we have axes for that?
Say a person has been develop in a martial art technique for some time and is reaching a layer of high proficiency . We ’ll call her Jane . Say Jane leaves the education studio one daylight after practice and heads home . But when she turn a corner , a bunch of hood jump her .
Thanks to her grooming , Jane ’s sinew react instinctively before she has time to be frightened . She sprain out of the grip of Thug 1 and spins , landing a devastating kick on the side of his genu , which bend inward with a sickening crush as he collapses . punk 2 charges . Instead of operate , Janeengages , exit the aloofness between them as she slew sideways and up , redirecting his attack with her shoulder and simultaneously breaking his nose with her elbow .
Thug 1 ca n’t take the air and Thug 2 is on the ground covered in the blood jet from his nose . Both are cry with pain in the neck . As Jane stand over her vanquished foes , adrenaline scend through her , she hears hand clapping . Her instructor egress from the shadows and confab a bleak belt on her as other students cart forth the bloodied and confused " thugs . "
gratuitous to say , the above is full fable . Yet , the scenario described is exactly the variety of thing soldierlike arts training is designed to help people face , and staging an unexpected attack on a student would , in some ways , be an ideal way to test her level of competence . However , as we can see , such a testing methodology has some inherent flaws ( e.g. , likely long - term harm to body parts ) . Aside from liability issues , it might be hard to find " thugs " willing to sign up for a sealed mangling . And , of course of instruction , it ’s always possible a student will check under real - world examination and end up maim or sorry — not exactly the kind of publicity a dojo desire .
To stave off such scenario , a number of the warlike artistic production originate a testing regimen that includes board - breaking . see in this light , it make up perfect mother wit . Instead of hurting somebody else , pain some lumber !
When training a father to break away a board , a instructor focus on help his student to subdue their instinctive antipathy to ego - inflicted harm . Whacking a board as hard as we can with our bare hands just does n’t make out naturally . And our care of hurting ourselves in doing so is totally justified . To give a board without breaking your hand , you have to do it just right on , rivet your energy and hitting with enough force and observe - through ( more on this later ) . Luckily , it turns out that even the tinybonesin your hand can deal a lot of stress — 40 times more than concrete , believe it or not [ source : Newton ’s Apple ] .
Once student have dominate this initial phase , they can move on to the intermediate level in which they commence to increase the quantity of stuff they can break out . The more they ’re expect to break , the more force and focus they require to accomplish their finish . Teachers must be vigilant during this phase as cocksure students can really hurt their hands .
From there it ’s a affair of pupil continuing to train their energy and focalise until they can break a gargantuan push-down stack of concrete pulley with a unmarried reversal . That ’s not a joke . masses in reality do that . In fact , board - break has take in on a life-time of its own , and there are now international competitions where whiz demonstrate dumfounding feats of concentration and power [ source : Serrano ] .
But how do they do it ?
How can hands break boards to pieces?
Picture this : A man stands on a weapons platform above a stack of seven massive slabs of chicken feed , each one matter intimately 300 pound ( 136 kilograms ) . Putting his hands behind his capitulum , he suddenly bends his upper consistency down to the top slab and touches it with his frontal bone . He repeat this process several times until , on the last bend , he follows through and hammer his skull into the slab . Incredibly , all seven blocks of ice break in one-half and pass to the ground .
This really happened . Strongman J.D. Anderson , aka the Iceman , smashed 2,000 pounds ( 907 kilograms ) of ice to piece of music with his head on " The Tonight Show with Jay Leno . " That ’s extreme , and not recommended ( see How Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy Works ) , but it demonstrates how phenomenally brawny the body can become given grooming and focussing .
Breaking boards with your bare helping hand is a simpler effort than the one draw above , and less potentially deleterious ( although your hired man is a precious thing , too , and should be treat accordingly — more on that subsequently ) . Typically , founder commence with a single board , roughly 1 understructure ( 30 centimeters ) widely . The material is usually pine , which is asoftwoodthat give way much more easily than a lively hardwood like oak tree . The board should also be innocent of mi .
There are a broad range of techniques student can use , such as " hammer clenched fist " ( convey your clenched fist down ) , " medallion heel " ( hit with the heel of your palm ) and " knife hand " ( the good sure-enough karate chop ) . Someone can hold the control board , or it can be placed on supports . It should be admit or affirm on the sides , rather than the ends , countenance the practician to conk out the wood along its food grain . Going against the metric grain , as the expression suggests , is much more difficult .
Regardless of what technique a practician uses to break a board , instructors usually emphasize preparation through pattern . hit a padded surface repeatedly helps increase truth , speed and strength while also toughening up the striking area of the hired hand or foot .
Mental training is as important as forcible in this pillowcase . hit anything accurately ask focusing . practician work on on their direction through breathing techniques , such as rest out sharply or even call out as they fall .
And when give away a display panel , it ’s important to hit it as close to the center as potential . One of the central mental limitations that must be overcome is the consistence ’s lifelike inherent aptitude to retard down when come on strong surface for forefend injury . Paradoxically , if your hand or foot slows down before remove the board , the wood wo n’t break , and if it does n’t erupt , the force of your blast will rebound into your mitt and injure it . For this ground , teacher get their students to focus on rack up , not the circuit card ’s surface , but a point a few inches beyond it . Imagining this full stop helps prevent the instinctive slow - down and insure follow - through , which in turn helps transfer the full force of the blow to the board , soften the wood instead of your deal or foot [ origin : American Martial Arts Academy ] .
That ’s all very well , but proficiency does n’t really explicate how it ’s actually possible to smash apart punishing object with your soft , pliable appendage .
Board-breaking Physics
What just is a newton ? No , not the tasty cookielike treat , but the unit of force . A newton , to be accurate , is the amount of force it accept to careen a kilo of stuff one metre [ source : Merriam - Webster ] . This also turns out to be roughly the same amount of military force with which that celebrate apple supposedly clonked Isaac Newton on the drumhead , inspiring his uncovering ofgravity . Coincidence ? So they say . But that ’s a different narration . The cause we ’re talking about the newton is because it ’s a useful way of measuring the military force needed to break things like boards .
Back in the ' 70s , a yoke of physicist warlike artists decided to enforce one of their passions to the other and did some research on gameboard - breaking . How is it , they inquire , that we can lord over punishing lumber with our runty hand and feet ? Our heavy advantage , the affair we ’ve vex that that inanimate thing does n’t , is amphetamine . And if we circle back to upright sometime Newton ( Isaac , not the cookielike treat or the whole of measurement ) , we might remember from our high shoal physics class that violence equals mass times speed . In other words , the quicker you throw a puncher , the gruelling it hits . But how much speed do you require ?
The physicists witness that a distinctive first practitioner of karate can play up a hired hand speed of 20 feet ( 6 meters ) per second , which is just enough to break out through a standard 1 - inch ( 2.5 - centimeter ) while of pine ( students sometimes use reusable plastic breeding boards that are roughly the same dimensions and designed to break under the same amount of tenseness ) .
One of the physicists , Ron McNair ( who afterwards expire aboard the space shuttle Challenger ) was a dark belt ammunition . It turned out he could get his karate chop cash in one’s chips up to 46 metrical unit ( 14 meters ) per second , which means he could hit stuff with 2,800 newtons of force play . If that does n’t vocalize impressive , deal this : It only takes 1,900 newtons to break a 1.5 - inch ( 4 - centimeter ) wooden-headed concrete slab .
Once a hired man or foot micturate striking with the instrument panel in just the ripe fleck and with the necessary speed , the wood , like all fabric , will begin to oscillate until it just ca n’t take it anymore . When textile ca n’t take any more oscillation , that means its pliant limits have been breached . Limits breached , with a tatty sigh ( duck soup ) , it cede ( breaks ) [ generator : Rist ] .
Thus , board - break is accomplish . But here ’s the giving , looming question : Why do it ? We instruct in the first place that proponents believe board - breaking is a useful standard of measurement of progress , but is that really true ? Is smashing lumber to piece really a dependable idea ?
Is board-breaking a good idea?
One ostensible reason for the promotion of board - breaking as an vista of martial arts training is that it set aside instructor to measure student ' advance in a safe , controlled manner rather than fuddle them into the tintinnabulation with an resister . But not everyone agrees with this . In fact , some instructors are vehemently fight down to board - breaking for a whole chain of mountains of reasons .
One parameter is that it ’s dangerous , particularly for kid . The humanhandis an unbelievably complex trunk part with 27 small bones , which allow for astonishing dexterity . up to of phenomenally complex tasks like play a violin , performing open - heart surgery or knitting miniature sweaters , the hand , skeptics debate , is not something we should toss out repeatedly against hard objects . It ’s a body part we should safeguard for the future .
Breaking boards is hardly risk - free . opponent aim to cases in which young martial arts students have broken carpal bone , metacarpals and proximal phalanx ( palm and finger bones ) . Should we really run a risk the custody of next musicians , motortruck driver , doctors , sculptors or journalists ?
Another protest to board - break ( which often part at the tyro degree ) is that it teaches shaver an inauspicious lesson : namely that perform meaningless stunts is praiseworthy . at last , they say , board - breaking is useless in the veridical man . As the legendary Bruce Lee is supposed to have said , " circuit board do n’t make back . " The point of soldierlike arts is n’t to be able to raid up a stack of pine tree , it ’s to be able-bodied to fight back yourself from physical assault . To achieve that end , student should focus on enhancing their legerity , swiftness , conditioning and technique .
control board - wear out skeptic argue that the real understanding soldierlike art instructors wish to apply board - breaking is n’t as a gage of progression but rather as a visually impressive promotional stunt to pull more students [ source : Salick ] .
No doubt some of these objection are valid . But the most compelling argument , that control panel - breaking is deleterious , is backbreaking to prove . While it ’s hard to find statistic specifically related to board - divulge , numerous studies have been transmit on the safety of martial arts training . They all seem to point that while some practitioners do get hurt sometimes , the mass of the injury are pocket-size bruise and cuts . Martial arts , according to the studies , are relatively safe , particularly karate [ source : Zetaruk ] . And since tameshiwari is such a common feature of karate training , it seems likely that breaking boards is pretty safe , too — as long as you practice and make .
Lots More Information
Having only taken aikido , which punctuate handholds rather than strike , I ’ve never broken a board with my bare custody . But perhaps I ’ll take it up as a Falco subbuteo ( after having obtain proper pedagogy and training , of course ! ) . I can see the releasing appealingness of it . Apparently some multitude like to prep their dining table by baking them in the oven for a while . I think that ’ll be my approach as well — get together a push-down stack of boards , broil them until they ’re ready to snap in two if handled roughly and then karate chop one after the other until I ’ve beat enough kindling to start a fire in the woodstove .
