Benefits of Board Breaking
Some martial arts schools require their students to break boards as a part of their training process and oftentimes it is a testing requirement in order to move on to the next belt rank. We at Fakhoury Academy of Taekwondo require it and here is why.
Board breaks are a way to test the effectiveness of your technique. You can practice your kicks in the air or on a kicking bag all you want but you don’t really know if it would do any damage until you test it out on a plastic or wooden board (in lieu of hitting an actual person of course). The air and practice targets are forgiving; you can land your strike anywhere on those. In order to break a board you must be able to accurately hit the correct area. It will not break if you just strike it anywhere!
Besides having the correct technique, board breaks also force the practitioner to increase their speed. No matter how good your technique is, the board can only break if you are fast enough. Imagine if someone takes their hand and just pushes you. It might be uncomfortable, but not painful. Now imagine if they hit you but with intense speed and force. The speed is what hurts, not just the hand itself.
Probably the most important reason for board breaking is that it helps people to overcome a fear or an obstacle, leading to a mental breakthrough. Years ago in our dojang we had a 13 year old red belt student whose testing board break was a jump reverse side kick. He would practice in class every week and perform a beautiful and fast technique on the kicking bag. However, once he got to testing time under pressure he just could not break his board and reverted back to the bad habit of kicking upward instead of straight out. He did not pass his testing three times in a row because of this kick. But the amazing thing is that instead of quitting from frustration, he continued to practice and practice and practice, then finally at the fourth try he broke his board and passed his testing! Also from that day on he never did a jump reverse side kick incorrectly again. It was ingrained into his muscle memory. This same student is now almost a second degree black belt with strong perseverance. Sticking to a goal and seeing it through will translate over into kids’ lives as they get older and face challenges in the “real world”.