Breaking Fail, or, How NOT To Put Your Foot Through A Board

[eternaleponine]

So it's been mostly just me and R. in the adult class this week. A. hasn't been coming because she'd had a major assignment she was working on, and all of the other adults are pretty much AWOL. Today Master Paul decided to let us practice breaking. He said that it was the last of the freebie boards, so make it count.

I decided to try doing a side kick through two boards. One was easy (although I kind of flubbed it last week) so two shouldn't be that difficult, right?

Um. Yeah, not so much. The boards are 3/4 of an inch thick. (Why a 1" board is 3/4" thick, I don't know.) Two boards together is, well, 1 1/2" thick. That's a lot of wood.

I'm not sure exactly what went wrong. I don't know if I wasn't close enough so when I extended my leg, it wasn't going through, or what, but I hit, and the front board cracked, but didn't break. On the second kick, the front board broke. So they held the second board for me to finish off, and I hit with rather too much force, and pitched forward, crashing into the board holders and falling on my butt.

Yeah. Not my most graceful moment. Note to Self: Do not do that on the day of the tournament. (I'm still not sure what my tournament break is going to be. I was thinking of doing the side kick with two boards, but maybe not so much. Or maybe I just need practice.)

Anyway, I picked myself up and thought I was fine. I'd hit my ankle on the edge of the board when I crashed, but I thought it was fine. Now there's a big knot on it, which I'm sure will be a spectacular bruise tomorrow. It's right below the big bruise on my shin/ankle from sparring on Tuesday. SIGH.

At the end of class I gave him money for boards, and told him I was paying for the ones I broke today and last week. He tried to say no, but I didn't let him. I have the money, and the school is brand new. Any little bit I can do to help with costs, I'll do. I'm not rich, but I've got a little to spare these days. I can pay for the wood – especially the ones I break badly. Maybe if I'd actually done it well, I would have let him give them to me as freebies. *g*

I'll probably give him more money next week, just so I know I have good boards for the tournament. The ones in the current box are sort of the dregs at this point, with knots in the middle, and that's no good for breaking.

The tournament is two weeks from tomorrow. I have no idea if I'm ready or not. I just want to do well. I guess we'll see.

Comments

[tryslora]

Breaking is tricky... with a side kick, either a tiny bit too high or too low, and the board won't break. Or if the holder wiggles (and I have that problem a lot with sides).

How many breaks do you get to do for the tournament? For us, it's often multiple breaks with multiple stations. So like... you can do a sequence. Like I did the 360 roundhouse followed by an axe kick. Also, you can space your boards for tournaments, which makes them easier. Two solid is harder than two spaced. I love doing downward hammer through lots of boards, spaced.

[eternaleponine]

We can do a maximum of three breaks, according to the form, and I don't know if it will be set up to do things with spaced boards. I'll have to talk with Master Paul about what he thinks I should do, because I really have no clue.

[tryslora]

Yeah, asking is the best way to go about it. Usually the spacing is something you do, not something that's set up by them. We bring pencils and tape to the tournament, and after getting our boards we set them up and label them so we know which set is for which break. But he should be able to help you with that. It's nice to do as many as you can, to show off the different techniques (and different levels of difficulty). Someday when you visit again, we are TOTALLY killing boards in my garage or driveway. I have a bunch of leftovers from tournaments.