Favorite Breaking Technique

[Jai]

As students of of a art that focus' on footwork I am curious as to what you prefer to use as breaking techniques, and if you have a favorite. Also what do you do to get into the "mood" to break.

Myself, If I can break with it, I like it. Hands, Feet, I don't care. I had a master instructor once tell me, "Breaking is 40% physical, 60% mental, and 90% insanity."

I like to use techniques that are not so much "common" 360 roundhouse kick breaking with the top of my foot and ridge hand strikes are my top two hands down.

To get myself in the "mood" for breaking I'll set my boards/bricks up. I'll close my eyes and lightly touch what I'm breaking and I'll clear my mind of everything around me. I'll then set myself into a state of controlled anger, driving that anger into a focus point. I will then open my eyes and smash the living hell out of whatever is in front of me. The whole process takes about 35 seconds per breaking station for boards. If I break bricks I will usually take a minute or two.

I love breaking, it has been my favorite aspect of MA for years. I have a personal best of 7 two inch thick boards broken with a ridge hand strike. 90% insanity? Someone get me a padded room! :boing1:

 

[terryl965]

Either sidekick or axe kick, hand tech would be ridgehand or hammer fist.

 

[exile]

Knifehand strike. I'm leery of punches, because I broke my hand a couple of years ago punching a stack with a slightly misaligned hand... wound up with a typical `boxer's fracture' (migod, it looked ugly on the X-ray!) So no punches for me. A knifehand is fine. My best is a stack of 3 1" boards with a 1/2" board on top of that... not the 14" of your personal best, but so far, that's my limit!

 

[dancingalone]

I like combination breaks. My usual break for a demo is a knifehand to the left side and then a roundhouse kick to a target straight ahead. I finish with something fancier like a spinning heel kick or a jump spinning back kick.

 

[Laurentkd]

My favorite technique for power breaking is palm heel strike.
My favorite breaks for fun are jump back and jump spin hook kick
I also right now am into simulataneous breaks (for instance, apalm heel strike with each hand at the same time).

 

[cali_tkdbruin]

For foot techniques I really like executing a 360, tornado round house kick.
For hand techniques I just like the knife hand strike, it really works... :ultracool

 

[Xue Sheng]

Qinna.:EG: oh you mean with a hand or a foot :uhyeah:

Sorry I just couldn't resist... I'll go now

 

[Jai]

That was good Xue, made me smile and chuckle so it's not a problem!

It seems knifehands are pretty popular, is there a general fear for hand breaks aside from? I've had two boxers fracture in the same hand, both while breaking with a back fist... Yet I don't seem to learn, I still break with a back fist

 

[exile]

That was good Xue, made me smile and chuckle so it's not a problem!

It seems knifehands are pretty popular, is there a general fear for hand breaks aside from? I've had two boxers fracture in the same hand, both while breaking with a back fist... Yet I don't seem to learn, I still break with a back fist

The thing is, a knifehand is—all other things being equal—probably more versatile than a standard punch.

First of all, you can use it with terrific effectiveness to both hard and soft targets, and not have to fear major bone damage.

Second, it's a perfectly shaped impact surface for throat/neck targets—which are of course very high value; nail anywhere between the collarbone and the lower jaw with enough force and you'd better have a very, very, very good liability lawyer in your corner. Fists are, just going by shape, a lot harder to get into that space.

Third, the ridge surface is small enough that you get almost the same force-to-surface-area advantage that you do from a proper punch, where the knuckles of the index and middle finger are the impact surface—with way less risk.

A properly executed hammerfist also shares these advantages, as does a palm-heel strike. With these three techs properly up and running, the need for fist strikes goes way down, and the risk of hand damage as well. A backfist strike for breaks sounds really risky, and I have to say, I'm not surprised you wound up hurting yourself doing that—there's so little padding there to protect your knuckles on the back. My one fracture punching into a thick stack—and this was a stack break I'd done many times before—was enough to convince me to use just about any other weapon than a punch for breaking....

 

[Jai]

All good points exile, I guess I'm just a big fan of "Smash and destroy"

 

[exile]

All good points exile, I guess I'm just a big fan of "Smash and destroy"

I agree, Jai... but I'm leery of my hand being the thing smashed and destroyed :uhohh:... having done it once, I can't afford to do it again. Next time it may not heal as well as it did the first time...

 

[thardey]

I did a break once that blew my mind.

A friend of mine showed me this - I can't do it consistently, though.

1/2" piece of marble, left over from a counter-top shop, about 8" wide and 18" long.

Your buddy holds it parallel to the ground - not firm, just resting it on his hands.

Then you palm heel/chop as fast as you can, but stop your hand just as it touches the marble. If you do it right, the energy from your hand transfers to the marble, and sets up some kind of vibration/shock wave, that breaks the slab.

The first time I held the slab for my friend, I felt no shock or anything from the strike, the slab just suddenly fell apart in my hands.

Crazy stuff.

 

[Jai]

I've seen that one done before, it is hands down one of the sweetest breaks I have ever seen

 

[searcher]

Palm heel for me. I used to use a hammerfist, but I broke my hand using one on 4x4. Never dip your pinky knuckle into the break.

 

[exile]

Palm heel for me. I used to use a hammerfist, but I broke my hand using one on 4x4. Never dip your pinky knuckle into the break.

You've gone mano-a-mano with a 4x4??? Whew...

If I wore a hat, I'd take it off to you. I break a measly three 1" boards with an extra 1/2" on top for luck. No spacers, but... a single four-inch thick board? This in the realm of those crazies shown in that Discovery Channel XMA thing a couple of years ago about Matt Mullins and Mike Chat and their crowd. It belongs in the same realm of 'tries to imagine, gives up, shakes head'.

It's discouraging to hear about hand damage from a hammerfist, because I always regarded that as a much safer break than one like the punching break where I fractured my own hand. Maybe I'd just better stick to knifehand strikes after all, at this point...

BTW, do you still go after 4x4s, but with the palm-heel strike instead?

 

[searcher]

Exile- let me tell you. It was a time of being much stupider and full of testerone. I learned my lesson very quickly. Now-a-days I stick to concrete pavers. I feel a bunch better with them.

 

[exile]

Exile- let me tell you. It was a time of being much stupider and full of testerone. I learned my lesson very quickly. Now-a-days I stick to concrete pavers. I feel a bunch better with them.

Jon, thanks for that update... the thought of a 4x4 break with anything short of an air hammer was pretty intimidating! :erg:

Concrete slabs are my next breaking goal; I'm kind of working my way up to them, one 1" board at a time. For some reason, I find it easier/less scary to visualize going after a paving slab than a really thick wooden board... something about the sense of brittleness in the concrete making the shock wave transmit much more directly and quickly than in a springier medium like wood, unless it's been dried for a good long time.

But I'm not yet at the point where my nerve is up to actually taking on a concrete slab... I figure, sometime in the new year will be soon enough. And it will definitely be a knife-hand!

 

[newGuy12]

Knifehand strike. I'm leery of punches, because I broke my hand a couple of years ago punching a stack with a slightly misaligned hand... wound up with a typical `boxer's fracture' (migod, it looked ugly on the X-ray!) So no punches for me. A knifehand is fine. My best is a stack of 3 1" boards with a 1/2" board on top of that... not the 14" of your personal best, but so far, that's my limit!

I've only broke my hand once. I have never seen x-rays of the hand. I would like to. It was broken punching a concrete target (the target broke). Like you said, Exile, I am now leery of punching concrete again, but if I have the occasion to again, I might.

I wonder if the hand is more vulnerable to breaking the second time?

Oh, my favorite technique to either watch or to do is the running jumping spinning side kick, over some kind of thing, the person should jump over some kind of barrier. That always wakes up the crowd!

That, and the spear hand break, but not many people can do it (I have never done it, nor trained for it).

 

[newGuy12]

Palm heel for me. I used to use a hammerfist, but I broke my hand using one on 4x4. Never dip your pinky knuckle into the break.

Yes, let me also add, that this is a world class break! That is awesome!

 

[searcher]

Exile, let me give you a piece of advice. Put a small hand towel over the paver when you break it. When it breaks there are little shards that will slice you up and make it very unpleasant.