The breaking portion of our training has many roles to play. It is often featured at demonstrations and is usually the audience`s favourite thing to watch. Breaking at demonstrations is a wonderful thing for the audience. Martial artists can watch a demonstration of patterns or techniques and we can appreciate the power and technique involved in the motions. The typical audience member however cannot see this. They may appreciate the technique but to them a punch looks like a punch. Breaking though is a way for the audience to appreciate the power of a technique. Like I said, to them a punch is a punch, but a punch that breaks a roof tile in two is something spectacular.
There is a practical combat reason for breaking, it goes beyond merely a show at competitions, demonstrations and gradings. For a martial artist though, the importance of breaking isn't in the display of power or how tough your knuckles are, it’s more an internal thing. If we hit something hard like a wooden board, roof tile etc, we will feel pain. I see it a lot with breaking, people are afraid to feel the pain and they stop there punch or strike, just before or on the board they are trying to break (usually resulting in more pain than if they just punched through it). This mental block is what we train breaking for. If you are afraid to hurt your hand you are going to pull that punch or strike when you try and break. More importantly though, if you pull that punch or strike when you need it, in a self-defence scenario it could have even worse consequences.
We get past that mental blockage by trying to break hard things with your kicks, strikes and punches. We learn to use all our potential in our attacks and not hold back. We learn that although a little pain might happen when we break a board, we know that its manageable, that we can continue on and that pain fades away. It develops confidence, and also it is a way to test yourself to see if your attacks truly are powerful. You can look powerful hitting air as much as you want, you can hide your flaws under the disguise of speed, but you cannot hide anything during breaking. Either your go through the target (breaking it) or you don`t (it breaks you).
Accuracy, timing and ability to hit a non-cooperating target (another human being) while he/she is trying to do the same to you, is trained in sparring, while the destruction of the target was trained in breaking. It all worked together to create the big picture and the students were allowed to aim their techniques toward illegal but practical targets as there was little to no contact (eyes, groin, temple etc).
Today the vast majority practice competition sparring with sport techniques aimed to score points. This means the power of a lot of the techniques are pulled back with some techniques not being trained at all if they don’t score. This has diminished the training of breaking at some schools. The importance and need for self-defence though have, in my opinion, increased the need for training in breaking. It is hard to re-create violence in a safe way yet breaking allows us to do this. We can use more devastating attacks and see the outcome. We can push through mental barriers that might arise in real life scenarios.
The primary objective of breaking is to remove the mental barrier that stops people from using their full potential in attacks. Breaking should be tough, not easy. Just stack them up and smash through them. Taekwondo techniques should be so effective that it can destroy just about anything if practised to a sufficient level!
Keep that in mind the next time you have to break
Mark Underwood
Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia.
There is a practical combat reason for breaking, it goes beyond merely a show at competitions, demonstrations and gradings. For a martial artist though, the importance of breaking isn't in the display of power or how tough your knuckles are, it’s more an internal thing. If we hit something hard like a wooden board, roof tile etc, we will feel pain. I see it a lot with breaking, people are afraid to feel the pain and they stop there punch or strike, just before or on the board they are trying to break (usually resulting in more pain than if they just punched through it). This mental block is what we train breaking for. If you are afraid to hurt your hand you are going to pull that punch or strike when you try and break. More importantly though, if you pull that punch or strike when you need it, in a self-defence scenario it could have even worse consequences.
We get past that mental blockage by trying to break hard things with your kicks, strikes and punches. We learn to use all our potential in our attacks and not hold back. We learn that although a little pain might happen when we break a board, we know that its manageable, that we can continue on and that pain fades away. It develops confidence, and also it is a way to test yourself to see if your attacks truly are powerful. You can look powerful hitting air as much as you want, you can hide your flaws under the disguise of speed, but you cannot hide anything during breaking. Either your go through the target (breaking it) or you don`t (it breaks you).
Accuracy, timing and ability to hit a non-cooperating target (another human being) while he/she is trying to do the same to you, is trained in sparring, while the destruction of the target was trained in breaking. It all worked together to create the big picture and the students were allowed to aim their techniques toward illegal but practical targets as there was little to no contact (eyes, groin, temple etc).
Today the vast majority practice competition sparring with sport techniques aimed to score points. This means the power of a lot of the techniques are pulled back with some techniques not being trained at all if they don’t score. This has diminished the training of breaking at some schools. The importance and need for self-defence though have, in my opinion, increased the need for training in breaking. It is hard to re-create violence in a safe way yet breaking allows us to do this. We can use more devastating attacks and see the outcome. We can push through mental barriers that might arise in real life scenarios.
The primary objective of breaking is to remove the mental barrier that stops people from using their full potential in attacks. Breaking should be tough, not easy. Just stack them up and smash through them. Taekwondo techniques should be so effective that it can destroy just about anything if practised to a sufficient level!
Keep that in mind the next time you have to break
Mark Underwood
Mark is a 4th Dan Master in both Taekwondo and Haidong Gumdo (Korean swords). He has also trained in other styles of martial arts. He is currently the owner and head instructor for Zone Martial Arts in Sydney, Australia.
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