Fresh pine fills the air. You stare down every grain on the tan rectangle before you. Air comes into your nose and fills your lungs. You exhale while making a practice motion with your palm heel weapon. Stance is solid... Distance is perfect... The room is dead calm while everyone watches.
Aaaaaiiiiiiiiaaaaahhhhhhhh!!! You thrust your palm heel into the boards... a second later, your palm explodes with pain after your hand came to a dead halt on the wood. Today, your board breaking is unsuccessful. Your instructor smiles and says, "Tough break." (At least, that's what I say)
Board breaking in Taekwondo is exciting. It builds focus, power, technique, control, and accuracy. The one thing is doesn't teach you is self defense. On the other hand, nobody ever said it would. If you are leaving board breaking out of your training, you are leaving out the development of these important aspects mentioned above.
One board is easy to break. You can break it with bad technique and enough force. Two boards require you to have better technique. Better technique means the deliver of more force, and Force = Mass X Accelartion. So, if you're technique is good, you'll be able to utilize your mass effectively as well as accelerate quickly. The ability to strike with as much force as possible, with the proper distance, weapon, breathing rythymn, and precision requires incredible Focus.
Your Focus will improve as you increase the number of boards you're attempting to break. You'll quickly notice as you increase your force, your precision drops. Continue practicing and eventually your precision will catch up to your force.
I have seen cut knuckles, broken hands, and jammed toes as a result of breaking boards in Taekwondo. If you're going to begin breaking boards, I highly recommend that you begin with 1 board. If you're breaking real pine, then choose a piece known as "heart wood." This is with a dark brown stipe running from side to side. The dark stripe is the heart of the tree and the weakest.
Begin by breaking boards using simple and solid techniques. Students always learn to break with a side kick in my academy. A kick that strays from the center of the board will have the least likelihood of getting injured. The heel is durable and solid.
For hand techniques, I only encourage students to break with their palm heel or knife hand. Again, these are durable weapons. Students interested in breaking with their knuckles must be very careful and must condition their hand prior to attempting to break with a punch. The student must be well trained and must be able to strike with the first two knuckles (2 knuckles closest to thumb).
Do the boards break the same everytime? No way, but there is excitement in unpredictability. Unless you're using re-breakable boards, pine is highly unpredictable. The difference in grain thickness and placements of knots will change the integrity of the wood. The exciting, and also beneficial aspect is that the force required to break varies accordingly. Boards containing "heart wood" will take roughly 35 lbs of pressure to break. A good solid piece of freshly cut 12"X10"X1" pine can take up to 60 lbs of pressure to break.
See through the board. Not literally, but mentally. See your technique going through the board. Before you break, play in your mind your technique slicing through those fibers. Be as vivid as possible with your visualization. When you're up to break, re-enact the break you just played in your brain, but in real life. Watch that board explode from the middle. Doesn't that feel great?
Respectfully,
Duncan Richardson
