why bother?
In Enter the Dragon, after Bob Wall's character O'Hara exhibits a "skeetshot break" Bruce Lee famously retorts "boards don't hit back," then proceeds to literally beat him to death. Perhaps a commentary on form driven traditional martial arts that ruled the scene of the day, Bruce- who almost certainly wrote the scene- singlehandedly tore down the perceived power inherent in breaking. What he says in a truism, and rightfully so. Shouldn't we be more concerned with actual fighting ability? Does smashing inanimate objects really accomplish anything other than an ego stroke?
I would say it does, and the critique is particularly ironic as it comes from a guy who's most famous demonstrations were knocking people over with a one inch punch, or across a room with a side kick. Is there really much of a difference in a peice of material and a compliant partner? Either way the practitioner is developing a weapon. They are learning to focus strength and energy into a single contact point in order to deliver profound damage.
Breaking serves other important martial purposes as well. First off, it is a confidence builder. If trained correctly, breaking is a safe way to see quantifiable increases in the effectiveness of one's technique. I, like many martial artists avoid fights. I have been in a handful but I still have (luckily) never encountered one where I was threatened enough to use every tool at my disposal. But what if I did? Could I really deliver a fight ending blow? Breaking helps to ensure that one has an answer to that question. A connected aspect is the mental focus it engenders. To break effectively, at one's level (i.e. not a 200 pound muscle man punching a board), intense mental focus is required. Some systems use yelling or breathing exercises to assist in reaching the desired state. With or without these aids, the process can teach one to sharpen their focus in ways that can be re-applied to other tasks in their life.
short falls
The most obvious drawback to breaking is the potential for injury. This however is not inherent in breaking but in poor training habits and/or over-reaching one's ability. Breaking in particular is an area where one should reach to achieve the goal, but overambitiousness can be ill-fated. This is not unique to breaking- just because you love driving fast doesn't mean you should get in a formula one car after a couple weeks of instruction, right? For breaking to be effective- like most aspects of martial arts- one has to realize that profiency is a longterm comitment that requires regular practice. Simply put, if you can't break without injury, you can't break.
Once one is able to break (without injury) a false sense of confidence can still be created. This is especially true if the break is doctored. There are ways to soften material but in this case the breaker then knows they are cheating and their confidence is not affected. From what I have seen however, most schools use spacers when breaking multiple board or slabs. This greatly diminishes the challenge of the break, and the practitioner who breaks through 3 or 4 slabs then assumes they possess a certain amount of power which may in fact be inaccurate.
False confidence is generated in another way- lack of application. If I chop through a brick I can chop through someone's neck. Right? Wrong. Raw power alone does not create effective usage. One must cocurrently learn to apply that power in order to deploy it effectively. Most breaking is down straight down, one has to not only develop effective techniques but also learn how to convert the power from that motion to one usable in a fight. Breaking must be fully integrated into one's art, not be remain as a stand-alone add-on.
final thoughts
I worked a job once, dropping off promo cards for a movie premier at martial arts schools. I took the opportunity to watch a little bit of different classes and ask some questions about places I wasn't very familiar with. When I stopped at the World Seido Karate Headquarters I asked about breaking. They are descended from Mas Oyama afterall, so surely they do a lot of breaking right? Wrong. I got a "whoa, whao, whao, that's advanced stuff." He didn't want to talk about it and said that you had to be studying for years before you could learn to break. Really?
My school teaches our students to start conditioning their hands within the first two weeks. Again it's a longhaul process, so get started! Also, by conditioning you toughen the hand to ensure against hurting it when striking or blocking- even if you aren't specifically trying to break- hands are made of plenty of small, fragile bones. Interestingly this is somethign I had seemed to have forgotten. It also requires rest, supplemental exercises and an understanding of the process. I had broken wood and concrete slabs btu had a hard time accomplishing my next goal of breaking a red brick. I had conditioned my hands diligently for a long time and regularly used dit da jao after sessions to ensure proper healing but couldn't get the result I wanted. I had been training to break with the outer cutting edge of my palm (essentially the same as a generic "karate chop") but had been conditioning it to the exclusion on the rest of my hand. Several months ago I began conditioning the whoel hand again (palm, back, edge, fist, fingertips) with emphasis on the edge, and boom! Break.
The other way i changed my routine in the past year was by increasing my strength training regiment. I believe strongly in the importance of conditioning one's hands (or whatever body part yoy are breaking with), the importance of breath and focus and existence of chi. I do not however beleive that any of these elements can take the place of straight-forward strength. Simply put, the muscular power has to be there first- it's not sufficient, but it is necessary. Often times martial artists decry strength training and weight lifting in particular as being counter to a martial artists' goals. Without getting into a long winded discussion, this, simply put couldn't be further from the truth. As evidence, look again at Bruce Lee- he was a fanatic for weight lifting. By increasing the density of my hand overall and maximizing the force driving it, I was able to go through material.
This guy is amazing:
I love that these guys keep their bruise medicine in a hot sauce bottle! Still, some decent breaking:
Everyone's favorite Bloodsport scene:
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