Board breaking techniques are commonly used in martial arts competitions as well as karate demonstrations and tests. This is usually done with the hands or feet.

However, they have also been known to do so using the tips of their fingers, toes, or head. Wood is the most common object they try to break, although some competitions will use cinder blocks or bricks. Not all styles of Martial Arts teach you to break boards.

If you want to learn board breaking techniques, you’ll want to study Tae Kwon Do, Karate, or Pencak Silat. Pencak Silat is the Style of Martial Arts studied in Indonesia. Contrary to popular belief, the old Japanese Martial Arts Schools do not put much emphasis on breaking boards. In Japan, the term Tameshiwari refers to the Self Defense Discipline of breaking various objects. Tameshigiri is a similar discipline meaning trial cutting and dealing with swords.

In martial arts competitions, you will be judged on certain factors including.

1.) His style and finesse

2.) How many items, like bricks, can you break in a certain amount of time?

3.) How many items can you break in one hit?

The Guinness Book of World Records keeps a record of several certified breaking categories. These competitions are usually held in front of a motivated audience. In many cases, the top students or Sensei, who are usually the directors of a martial arts dojo, will attend a competition so that they can perform an impressive board-breaking technique. They do this in many cases to gain additional publicity and increase their dojo’s membership.

As a general rule, this impresses people, and if they see a local karate instructor in their area break 4 bricks in a wide breaking competition, this will motivate them to sign up as a student. Additionally, many styles of martial arts these days require students to execute certain breaks in order to achieve a certain belt rank, such as a green belt, brown belt, or black belt. The harder the rest, the better rank you will get. If they can’t make a certain break, they will essentially fail the test.

Recently, the accelerometer has been used to measure the force of blows. Before, tables of certain length and width dimensions were the only way to do this. The standard test board for adults is usually 10″x12″x1″. 4 and 5 year olds have been known to break boards at 4″x12″x1/2″. Masutatsu Oyama was famous for breaking boards. His claim to fame was breaking the horns of a bull.