Hit it really hard . . . if it doesn't break . . . hit it again harder.

Brick breaking at a Charity Event

There has always been some misconception about the purpose of breaking things in the martial arts, and now they use these composite boards that easily break into three pieces. So what's that all about?

Originally the "striking arts" of Korea, Japan and China were developed to enable people to defend themselves in life and death fights. There was no sport! 

Training at that time was divided into five areas: warm-up and flexibility development, strength training, impact training, poomse (hyung, forms, kata, quan) and hoshinsul or application of the movements in the poomse. There was very little sparring. Then the Japanese messed this up by deciding that the real striking arts were barbaric, archaic and they didn't like the way they were taught. The striking arts should become modern sports, like judo and kendo, more Japanese.  The Japanese created point sparring and converted kata from self defense patterns to artistic folk dance. Gone were the emphasis on strength and impact and the applications of the movements of the forms.

The ancient masters  didn't know the formula F=MA, or that power equals your body mass times the speed that you hit. But the original masters knew that power came from speed and speed came from strong, flexible muscles. The masters of old used traditional weight lifting equipment, bars and dumbbells and also crafted specific strengthening devices. This training was integral to the original martial artist as seen in this ancient text which describes strength and impact training methods.

PROGRESSIVE RESISTANCE 

The master of old understood that in order for the body to get stronger, it must continuously be challenged. The first three drawings to the left depict strength development for the arms and shoulders with dumbbell like devices.

Drawings 4 and 5 show the development of gripping strength using the principle of progressive resistance. First the student lifted empty pots, then filled them with rocks to make them heavier. Later continuing the same process with bigger pots.

Drawing five shows a military press with a fabricated barbell and drawings 7 and 8 are showing wrist strengthening again with progressive resistance.

NOTE: Strong gripping strength is important for self defense and grappling and not so much for sport sparring which is why strength training was not taught because grabbing is not part of the sport.

Another important aspect of classical martial arts, mudo was impact training. How to take and give a strike. The ninth drawing to the right of the middle row is the use of a talyunbong, a pole wrapped with hemp rope that was kicked, punched and shadow boxed with.

There is also another type of talyunbong (pictured to the right) that is 4x4 cut and tapered to 2 inches at the top that is buried and struck. Because of the give in this type of talyunbong, it could be struck much harder without injury. 

Drawings 10, 11 and 12 show the use of striking bags again with the emphasis of continuing to increase size to increase the load your body using progressive resistance  to developing strength and causing you to hit much harder.

The last drawing is of a man striking and grabbing sand or iron shot. This training was used to toughen the skin, the grip and for developing and iron palm like strike.

So what about breaking things?  

Kyukpa: the art of breaking evolved naturally from the curiosity of people training physically to see how hard they could strike. The traditional swordsmen practiced cutting bamboo, to make sure that their slices were at the correct speed and angle to destroy their targets. The empty handed artists did the same thing and using the same principle of progressive resistance began first breaking one pine board, then multiple boards and later bricks, river rocks and even multiple cement slabs as Grandmaster Stepan, pictured to the right does.




Breaking or rather human psychology is an interesting phenomena. As an instructor I would call up a 180 pound adult to hit a one foot square piece of wood and they would hit it repeatedly until they became frustrated and unable to break it. Then I'd call up a younger student that weighed half as much that would break "the same piece of wood" with almost no effort with one blow. And as a teacher you'd ask yourself, what is really going on here?

Really, the art of kyukpa is the art of overcoming fear, the fear of getting hurt and teaching the student to muster the mental strength to smash their hand, foot or head into the piece of wood or cement hard enough to break it, or break them. Breaking is about developing indomitable spirit. The spirit of being  undefeat-able. The true essence of kyukpa is not to show off your ability, it is to foster the spirit of undefeat-able and by the principle of progressive resistance to challenge that artist to become a better and stronger human being both mentally and physically.

In the spirit of wisdom


Childan Sam Naples