Breaking Boards, Bricks And Stuff by Rob Jacob |
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Breaking, or tamashiwara (Kyukpa in Tae Kwon Do) is a controversial topic in karate. It is still alot of fun. And it makes a heck of an impact on the audience at demonstrations.
I am one of only a handful of people in our school who does any breaking beyond a single board break sometimes done at testings. I am just a novice at breaking. The most I have done at this point, are six pine boards (12"x7") and no spacers, with a downward palm heel strike. According to a formula that I found [(n+1)^2/4], this requires 12.25 times the force of breaking a single board. I have attempted seven once, but only broke one of the boards. I restacked the remaining six, and broke them. I have seen one of the senseis from our dojo break seven boards with no spacers at a demo, and know he has done at least eight. My sensei, who is a 7th dan in Isshinryu, also has a 2nd dan in Kyokushin karate. She often break cement blocks, and flaming boards at demos. Almost all of our breaking, takes place at demos.
Here is my five board break (Christmas 2003 Demo):
One thing is for certain, don't attempt any breaking without recieve training in the proper way to do it. It is possible, and very likely to injure yourself, if not done correctly.
Here are some pages that I have found on breaking:
http://www.kyokushin.ca/kyokushin/boardbreaking.html
http://homepage.mac.com/jhfriedl/AnalysisofBoardBreaking.pdf
http://jenningscc.com/TaeKwonDo/Breaking.htm
Books on breaking:
Power Breaking : How to Develop and Use Breaking Skills for Self-Defense by Mike Reeves
Karate Breaking Techniques by Jack Hibbard
Tamashiwara by Renardo Barden
The Complete Art Of Breaking by Richard Byrne
The Dynamic Art Of Breaking by Pu Gill Gwon
The Breaking Power Of Wing Chun by Master Austin Goh
This Is Karate by Mas Oyama has a chapter on breaking.
Essential Karate by Mas Oyama also has a short chapter on breaking.
Videos:
Mastering Karate Breaking Techniques (this stars Matt Dorsey, Kim Murray, and Curt Sawyer, Isshinryu practitioners from the Rochester, NY area)
Karate Breaking (Mike Reeves)
Karate Breaking (George Alexander)
Rob Jacob is the author of: Martial Arts Biographies - An Annotated Bibliography.
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