How to Break Boards with Your Head Really Neat!
[I:http://www.uniquearticlewizard.com/extras/pics/bowzerimage21.jpg]Okay, we need a cautionary, like check with a doctor before you do this. Or maybe a sicko-analyst. Or maybe just make sure you’ve got your cranium backed up on hard drive.
Back in 1967, I had just start Kenpo Karate, one of the Tracy Brothers offshoot branches, and the head instructor decided to put on a breaking seminar. I don’t know what he was thinking, maybe he had a side business selling insurance or something. At any rate, the potential for disaster was looming.
We entered the training hall and stacks of pine boards were waiting for us. As a group we were taught the ins and outs of focusing, of punching through, and so on, and we were all excited. Then we started breaking the old pine-aroonies, one at a time, as the head instructor watched.
One of the guys, a fellow named Jeff, asked if it was possible to break a board with your head. The answer was yes, but it shouldn’t be attempted until one was well trained. We then went into another room to break boards, and none noticed that Jeff wasn’t with us.
We were heavily engaged in a group discussion, and suddenly there a tremendous cracking sound came from the room we had just left. It was such a sickly sound that we all turned and stared at the entrance to the other room. The other room, where the sound came from, where Jeff was.
Suddenly, Jeff appeared at the door, he was standing aslant, and the look in his eyes was like little birdies singing. We all held our breaths as Jeff crossed the room, walking aslant, the birdies circling his head in a neat, little circling pattern. Jeff settled, well, sort of plonked, into a zen seated position, and the head instructor, with an eye on Jeff, continued his speechifying.
Now, if you’re going to break a board with your head, and I don’t care if you study shotokan or kenpo or praying mantis or whatever, work up to it. Start with thin planks, even an eighth of an inch, then work your way upward through a quarter, through 3/8s, and so on. Heck, the potential for injury is so great that you should wear some kind of protective helmet the first few times.
Oh, and at the end of that seminar for breaking? Jeff approached the fellow leading the seminar after it was all over and asked if is it possible to break a board using just your head. Maybe he should have thought about developing the hardest punch instead of just a hard head!
Al Case has examined martial arts for forty plus+ years. If you want to learn how to Matrix your Martial Art, pick up a free ebook at Monster Martial Arts.
