POWER BREAKING
So you want to do some power breaking but you don’t think you are strong enough?
Well, guess what, you don’t have to be THAT strong. Seriously, it is not all about strength; it’s about technique, confidence and most importantly, SPEED.
If you are serious about getting into power breaking and I am talking about girls as well as boys, the first thing you need to do is talk to your instructor, get advise as to where you can train and who can assist you with your training. For beginners never train on your own and everyone should always wear shoes for your kicks and some sort of gloves for your hand techniques.
As I mentioned earlier, breaking can be for everyone, boys as well as the girls (take a look at Australia’s own currant “Senior Woman’s World Champion” and woman’s power breaking gold medallist, Carlie Dann), she can break 5 white boards with her side kick, more than most men at World champs, and that’s not because she is built like a tank, if fact , there is nothing of her, but she has the ability to create SPEED, and that gives her the power. Most importantly, you need to be aware of ages, young kids bones are still soft and can be damaged if they are not careful, that’s why supervision is a must.
For the men and boys breaking, you need to be proficient in the for-fist punch (Ap-joomuk Jirugi), knife hand strike (.Sonkal Taerigi), side kick (Yopcha Jirugi), turning kick (Dollyo Chagi) and reverse turning kick (Bandae Dollyo Chagi), For the girls, knife hand strike (Sonkal Taerigi), side kick (Yopcha Jirugi) and turning kick (Dollyo Chagi).
The first and most important lesion in power breaking that I can give you is that when you take off your gloves and shoes, it WILL hurt and at some time during your breaking training, you will probably injure yourself; if you are not prepared to go through that, don’t break.
OK, so you are all pumped up and ready to break, you have your safety gear on, you have an instructor with you, let’s do some breaking. We’ll start with the side kick…. remember we use the foot sword, not the heel when executing the side kick. When you start your attempts, you should have a set routine that is the same every time you break.
SIDE KICK……
Measure.
Start with the height of the boards, should be about your hip height to the middle of the boards, any higher and you may lose power the higher you go. Don’t touch the boards. (Practise that now, ready for when you go to world champs).
Focus:-
With the side kick, you are allowed to take one step, so take advantage of that. When we focus we start at the finish, so (assuming you have a good side kick), bring your foot up to the boards in the side kick position, (you may touch the boards once now), then retract your kicking leg, turning away from the boards, go to a sitting stance, take another step to an L-stance so as to face the boards ready to attempt your break.( what you are really doing is, doing your side kick in reverse, starting at the finish and going back to the start). When you first step up to the board holder, you have 90 seconds for each break, that is a long time, use it.
Guarding block:-
Before and after every attempt, you MUST do your L-stance guarding block. (Ki-up if you want to), you are ready to break.
Breaking attempt:-
Starting with one board, you need to keep breaking one board till your technique is correct. Even if it takes 1000 kicks. Starting your attempt from your L-stance guarding block, step to a sitting stance, LIFT your KICKING KNEE so that your leg is chambered, ready to strike, while your body weight is falling into the boards and you are still relaxed, release the kick and kick through the boards, when you strike the boards, keep pushing through them using your hip rotation and whether you are successful or not with your break, always finish UP with a guarding block.
Things to remember:-
1. RELAX.
Relax through the WHOLE technique, you should not tense the body till moment of impact, this will allow you to create speed.
2. CONFIDENCE.
If you don’t think you can break the boards in front of you, guess what, THEY WON’T BREAK. Be confident, they WILL break, (the mind is a powerful tool, use your mind power), I will be doing a segment on mind power soon.
3. LOOK at the target.
Never take your eyes off the target through the whole attempt; never close your eyes when you strike the target.
4. LIFT your knee.
Start your approach, step to your sitting stance and LIFT your KICKING KNEE so that your leg is chambered, ready to strike, this is one of the most important things to remember, lift your knee BEFORE you release your kick.
5. FOCUS THROUGH THE BOARDS.
Your target is the boards, but you are thinking THROUGH the boards, the boards are in your way to reach your ultimate target, the back of the board holder, when you strike the boards, keep pushing through them using your hip rotation.
6. GUARDING BLOCK.
With every attempt, either during practise or competition, whether you are successful with your break or not, you should start and finish with a guarding block, one, you may have broken the back boards, and that’s more points… two, it makes you feel good… and it looks cool.
There is so much more in power breaking that can’t be said on paper, but I hope this is a big help for you, as I said earlier, talk to your instructor first, they know you better than anyone about your ability, and they will help you. A great tool to help you break is a video camera on a tripod; you can see where you are going wrong.
Take care of your body, if you start to feel too much pain when breaking, you need to stop, or you will damage the body and not be able to break at all.
If there is ONE thing I hope you have learnt from reading this, is that you don’t have to be big and strong to break boards, remember, SPEED in the secret to creating power, and to RELEX is the secret to creating SPEED.
Good luck…and good breaking.
