Do you know how a takedown works? Watch this double leg demo: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1svT1ujwB8"]YouTube - Human Weapon Pankration - Double Leg Take down[/ame] Instantly you can see some problems with that idea.
Ooo I see, thank you, never saw it like that, honestly the only time I ever got a "good look" at it was watching a drunk guy on cops attempting to do it on some innocent bystander, failing miserably, and the hammerfist would have worked splendidly against that drunk guy... Guess not against someone trained / sober though.
That's true, but I think that's a different situation. For kids, breaking should be fun, apart from training to be precise, and a bit of a proof that their techniques actually do some damage.
Okay, I know we had such a thread not a long time ago, and this is quite far away from the OP's question, but what is the purpose of breaking for you? For me there are 2 reasonable points: Demonstration and the one I mentioned above. Btw, breaking was extremely popular in my old TKD school, we did it at every grading from white belt on, and our chief instructor loves to break stuff on demonstrations, like concrete blocks with his fingertips and pebbles (size of a fist or bigger, he collected them from a riverside) with his fist or side of the hand. The karate school I joined a couple of weeks ago doesn't do anything like that.
It's right up there with kata on the love it / hate it scale I've done a little breaking at both Karate and TKD classes and I put a short (and so-so) video of my doing a board break up on YouTube a while back - Not something that I would do regularly, but once in a while for a bit of fun or to help improve focus (kime in Japanese ???) it's OK.
My point was that you seem to assume that people will punch in self defence and thus the knuckles (and the wrist) require conditioning. In contrast, myself (and a number of other self defence instructors, plus I would imagine a fair number of medical doctors who've worked in accident and emergency and dealt with Boxer's breaks) would advise that you protect your hands and your wrists by not punching and using palm strikes with your hands wherever possible. There's a big difference between breaking and hitting a person for real. I've done breaking, and I used to do lots of knuckle conditioning against a proper Makiwara - it didn't stop me from breaking my hand, it didn't stop Mike Tyson from breaking his hands either.
Fair point. I have only twice been in a situation where it was necessary to defend myself, in one the other guy went down after I kicked him and in the other I got smashed from behind. So I don't have any real experience in self defence and think that, when it comes to such a situation, I would be quite insecure and try to hit as hard as possible, which means I'd use my fists I guess. I also have to say that neither my Shotokan nor my Taekwondo school did any practical self defence drills, it was all about technique, very theoretical. I started training in a Goju Ryu school serveral weeks ago, and there the instructor teaches basically what you just told me. His classes are 50 percent conditioning, 50 percent partner drills in a way I have never seen it before. So it seems I have to think about some things again... So I'm with you on this one now, but it does not change my opinion that one should rather do breaking that require a certain ammount of conditioning instead of avoiding it and doing breaks with techniques that work anyway. That seems pointless to me.
I think breaking is an interesting way to test your power. If there's competitive fighting in your sport then you occasionally get the opportunity to test full power techniques against an opponent, but typically in sparring and the like you don't get that chance. Breaking lets you get that chance to test it.
I'll do my very best. What I mean is that breaking should happen for a specific purpose. In most cases it is a way to check the technique's execution rather than improving the technique itself. I.e. I practice a strike, I hit five boards, they don't break, I go back to my makiwara or whatever, hit it until it feels right and then go break the boards instead of keep hitting the boards until they finally break. In that case, breaking is a tool, nothing more. Using techniques for breaking that don't need specific practice because they don't need specific practice leads nowhere. Why should I break two boards with my heel when I already know I can do it? There may be no risk, but there also is no or little possible improvement. But as always I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
I'm not convinced of this Kuma. In my experience the way you hit to break is very different to the way you hit for real. I'd say pad work is closer to real striking - plus pad work can be mobile whereas breaking is generally static.
Interestingly it also has a place in self defence training if you follow the pre-emptive strike philosophy. Being able to deliver a very powerful, targeted strike with minimal prior movement is important in pre-emptive strike training. You can look through Youtube for videos of Peter Consterdine etc doing this. Breaking is one way of testing this, because you can deliberately limit your initial movement and concentrate on generating power with minimal "tells." When breaking with elbows for example, I've largely stopped trying to break more boards, and instead try to work with minimal body movement and focus right in on technique and hip movement. Just another thought Mitch
I think breaking really hits "ikken hisatsu" home for delivering that one solid shot to end the fight right there. Take that same attitude to your combinations, and you've got a huge advantage. I'm not much of a breaker myself so I don't know all the benefits, but one thing it definitely teaches you is total commitment.
i think what translates into combat effectivity is if breaking is done with the minimum amount of setup. if you can call up a breaking level strike from a natural on guard position and deliver it on cue instead of focusing your breathing an psyching yourself up for 2 minutes i think that breaking has value.
Breaking is no test of skill and requires no training. It is only a confidence builder and show stopper http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=92800
I agree - but then I would [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh6IQNYEhe8"]YouTube - Why break wood - karate jutsu - http://www.protectics.org‏[/ame]
That was the worse reasoning upon breaking. A pine board, with the specifics per its material, density, dimensions, is no comparison to a bone. The bone is much more dense and stronger. In other words, just because you could break a board or block, doesn't lend the same towards a bone.
We dont break. We do use the soft padded walls of the dojo however to teach us how to hit stuff properly without damaging knuckles.
