Hi forumers,

I hope the question fits here.

Most of you might be aware that many martial arts have somehow involve breaking very hard materials like wood board, brick, slab, ice block, marble, etc...to test the practitoners limit.

And I also believe the martial artist able to do so due to hard training over the years (plus 'chi' inside their body).

Martial artists are also human, I just always get amazed by how the body structure can withstand such a blow?

Any explaination behind?

they find the most vulnerable point to break.

to withstand the blow, one must have enough strength on their bone and knuckle / fist / wrist...

so hypothetically, the body needs a period of training to strengthen the arms / wrist / fist / palm. and the accuracy for them to hit the weak point.... that's the way to test whether they got enough training / to test their ability.

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Added on February 25, 2010, 11:55 pmunder the "techniques"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_%28martial_arts%29

This post has been edited by 9876789: Feb 25 2010, 11:55 PM

even that it's almost unbelievable!

imagine a human breaking several blocks of ice! and materials that you could never imagine!

the human body is stronger than what you think. human bone is strong, yet flexible. with repeated stressing and healing, a bone can be very strong.
the human brain got the ability which can function to block off pain - analgesia .
the human muscle can produce so much that can break off from it's attachment to the bones.

so far, this "chi" is unproven. but the techniques to harness chi seems to be sort of preparing the mind and body by breathing and focusing which can reduce pain and increase force. this has been used in many types of sports.

so it's actually a hard-to-hard technique over many years?

pst. those thick wood/bricks/ice is not any plain wood/bricks/ice. they are specially made to be weaker. not to say they are fake, but consider plywood vs teak (mostly they break plywood or rubber tree wood) even bricks come in several type.

dont expect them to perform as marvelously with random material picked up from street.

Dont forget impulse principle. When force is transferred in a very short time, the impulse is large and the damage is greater. If you realize, they hit the board at an extremely high velocity and pull back almost instantly, creating a large impulse on the board that splits it at its weakest point

i think they always hit brittle object so it will be break when subjected to great force at a single point, try replacing ten concrete block with one that have steel reinforcement i dont think anyone can break it by hand.

Basic physics mate. Material strength, weak points and so forth. Yeah linn00b mentioned it, they won't do it with random materials because it most likely will not work.

and i know of several taekwando blackbelt who admit to observing/participating in demonstration where the board holder will flex the board inward at kick to help break the board (sometimes without the kick landing)

though, having said that, you do not want to be at the receiving end of a taekwando kick with or without board breaking abilities.

"wood/block/ice do not hit back" - Lee Jun-Fan .

Xuzen

This post has been edited by xuzen: Feb 27 2010, 10:49 AM

impact force = mass x acceleration

whack hard hard then can liao, no need "chi" powah

that's my humble opinion as a taekwondo student.

F=ma. Impact's a different matter involving the factor of time. This is important to break something- the impact force which is basically the change in momentum per time. The shorter the impact time the larger the force, which is why martial artists often retract their limbs after a strike when breaking something.

i doubt thats the reason for limb withdrawal.
the change of momentum is already achieved when fist meet obstacle.
limb withdrawal is to prevent overextension which would leave you vulnerable to the next attack/opponent in a fight.

and the chi/kiai yell thing is more of a psychology factor. you yell to focus your concentration and to push away your instinctive fear.

oh ya, also depends on the structure being broken.

we use roof top tiles which is dome shaped, and the plank wood is solid, but rather light can use forehead and pecah also AHHAHAHAH

They say the more you bones experience pain/pressure. the more dense it will be. There's a video on this.

that i'm not so sure...how would one make the ice weaker?

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Added on March 4, 2010, 10:14 pmthe martial artists do not seem to pull back after they hit the material (check out some videos in youtube)

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Added on March 4, 2010, 10:16 pmthat i agree!

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Added on March 4, 2010, 10:19 pmmaybe can apply this on those taekwondo plank, but dont think can apply (whack hard hard) on blocks of ice!:)

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Added on March 4, 2010, 10:26 pmi always got fascinated when they break bricks, ice blocks or concrete slab.

yes, stuff like tiles and plank wood are less hard

This post has been edited by frankzane: Mar 4 2010, 10:26 PM

Some are true some are fake.
Harvesting chi in ur body isn't just by discussion or a few seminars/lecturing could describe.
Westerners enjoys picking on chinese traditions and tries to make findings to prove it's fake.
When they are unable to proof it or give a result, they simply snap it with their theory and some flashy words.
Modern folks like us wont be able to do that.
It take years of hardship and must be practise at very young age.

yes, you're right!

all it takes is 1 master volunteering to donate his time for a series of tests... so far non has step forward