We did board breaking in our karate classes last night. If you signed up you got one board for free. You could purchase additional boards for $3/each but I decided to pass.
Beautiful Wife got two extra boards and did a great job breaking them.
Son punched through his one board.
I held my own board in the palm of my hand and broke it with a hammer fist strike.
The thing I noticed is that you get the most support, encouragement, and credit if you don't break the board on your first few tries but persevere, maybe cry a little, and then finally break the board.
The funniest moment was when a white belt prepared to do a heel stomp through two boards perched between two cinder blocks. He lined up his foot and went though the two boards when he was obviously just doing a practice strike to make sure he'd hit in the middle. The shocked look on his face when both boards cracked was priceless.
There's a reason why we have people do a heel stomp for their first break and it is all about building confidence. The easiest way to break a board is to aim through the board as if it isn't there. You get hurt and bruised when you barely hit the surface because all of your force rebounds back into your hand instead of dissipating on the other side of the broken board.
Say it with me...there is no board...
Posted by bbarton at August 19, 2004 10:46 AM