Sunday, December 5, 2021

Initial experiences watching karate breaking divisions


When I was a student of Isshinryu breaking boards was not something we did.

 

But often at large tournaments we attended we saw black belt breaking divisions. At times the competitors broke their target,  at times they did not break their target.

 

What I observed is that the more impressive and complex break that was intended, it was also more frequently one that would fail.

 

About a year later I attended a huge tournament run by a Bando school near the Washington DC area and yes they had a number of different breaking divisions.

 

One of them was a brown belt breaking division.

 

There was a competitor brown belt that was going to break 3 cinder caps.

 

He got down on his knees and warmed up by bending over and placing his forehead on the top cinder cap several times.

 

Then he smashed his head down to break them with his forehead.  It did not work the cinder caps remained unbroken.

 

So again he tried the break and again it failed.

 

A third time he tried the break and yet again it failed.

 

He was determined to succeed  and time after time he attempted the break.

 

Each time failing until blood was streaming from his forehead, down across his face.

 

The judges went over to him and made him stop.

 

There is a lesson there.

 

My further adventures in breaking can be found on my blog at 

 https://isshin-concentration.blogspot.com/search?q=board


 

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