How do i go about punching a board in half? What kinda of board do i use? Do i punch through the board?

Answer 1

Ok no offense to the black belt above, but hes a BLACK BELT. It may be easy to him, but your just starting.

DO NOT break boards until you have had PROPER instruction. There are hundreds of bones in your hands that you can break if you hit it wrong.

Answer 2

All the boards I've seen used are 1 inch thick pine boards.

The dimentions of the boards change a little though. All the boards tend to be rectangular, not square. At my original TKD school, we used 1x10 pine boards 1 foot long. Sometimes we used 1x12 boards about 15 inches long (not sure why they used two different sizes). The school I train at now uses 1x6 pine boards, also 1 foot long for the lower belts. You want to make sure that the boards don't have any knots along the centerline of the board. I always make sure to hold the grain with the direction of motion. If the person is performing a stationary, straight technique like a punch or a kick, then I orient the board so the grain of the wood is running left to right. If the person is performing a jumping technique, I usually orient the wood grain top to bottom. It'll make sense after you see a few boards break. You'll learn how to orient the boards based on the movement of the technique. Like I said, make sure there are no knots in the center of the woodgrain on the board. It will make it very difficult to break.

Breaking boards is actually very easy. Breaking boards or concrete block is about two things, speed and technique. Technique tends to be more important than speed, but a slow punch will not go through board, no matter how good your technique is.

When breaking a board, you want to hit through your target. Align your body so that your technique will finish just behind the board.

When you try to break the board, aim for the center. The center is the weakest point. Think about walking on a 2x4 that is about 8 feet long that us supported on the ends like a bridge. A fat person like me (200+ pounds) can stand on one of the supported ends of the board and jump up and down all day long and chances are, nothing will happen. If I walk to the middle of the board where I am the same distance from both supports and jump up and down, i will probably break the 2x4.

The same thing with the board. The holders are supporting the edges of the board. The closer you hit to the edge, the more likely the impact will be absorbed by the holder supporting the board. If you hit in the center, that is where nothing is supporting the board. You just have to overcome the forces holding the wood together.

Two things will defeat you when breaking boards and blocks, fear and sloppy technique. If your technique is bad, you aren't ready to test. When you are trying to break the board, don't let fear get the best of you. Trust your training and give it what you got. You'll go through it.

My first board I broke, I broke on accident. It was during my TKD test for my yellow belt. I think I had to break it with a side kick. I was kicking lightly to judge my distance and hit the board in the center. I didn't have much force behind it (I wasn't trying yet), but my foot went right through.

Good Luck to you!

EDIT: BTW, l listen to the second answerer. If you don't have formal martial arts, fighting instruction, or don't understand the physics behind board breaking (the whole F=ma concept), don't try it. I've seen trained black belts break bones doing this, just by missing their target slightly or by messing up on their technique.

Answer 3

It's surprisingly easy. I'm not sure what would be the ideal board to be honest. Yes, punch through the board not at the board.

A common misconception is that strength is needed to bust through a board. Another is that you want to focus on your arm and tighten it up, WAY wrong. Never tighten up your arm and fist until the very moment of impact. What is most important is speed. You are faster when you are relaxed.

Here's an example, When I was testing for my black stripe, another student was testing for his black. For his performance he tried to break through three boards. He was too nervous and tightened up way to fast. His punch was slower than was needed and he broke his wrist. Not twisted or fractured but BROKE. he needed immediate medical attention and surgery. When I tested for my Black later than year I went for the exact same demonstration and smashed through with little but a scrape on one of my knuckles.

The secret, I was relaxed. we were about the same size, he was much older than me though. (30ish) and I'm still a teenager. All I had to do was speed through though boards.

Answer 4

board breaking is actually good alot of people think that it is just for show but its not it gives you a good idea how to make a fist because if you dont it hurts

normally i dont go in for showy things but board breaking is ok some times just not all the time (of course only for the lesson it tea hes demo's are stupid)

Answer 5

Boards don't hit back.

Answer 6

why would you want to break boards? it doesn't prove anything.