Why I Hate Re-breakable Boards
April 22, 2008 by Bob Patterson
So this morning my heel was sore from my test breaking last night. I sort of hurried to get dressed, half awake and in the dark, and really didn’t give it much thought.
All day at work it hurt and I was limping. I also know my shoe made it worse. Well I get home tonight and get ready to practice and see this when I remove my shoes and socks.
(click to enlarge each image)
Well I know why I was limping!
I blame this product. In particular, the black one.
It has a VERY narrow sweet spot. You have to hit it just right to get it to break. If you are off a little it either breaks really hard or does not break at all. In fact, we’ve had many people have trouble with this board and end up with similar injuries. In short: I would not recommend it.
Anyhow, I still muddled through practicing my nunchuka kata and breaks tonight. It’s much better when I’m barefooted. I still plan to do the step jumping axe kick and I still plan to use the same foot. The reason being is my left leg is more flexible in the hamstring so I can get it up higher. That’s critical with an axe kick.
Tomorrow night we are testing students and I don’t plan on doing anything crazy between now and Saturday. Regardless, I full well know I’ll be breaking with a bruised heel and I am expecting pain. I know my pain limits and know I can suck it up and push through. Barefoot I was able to do fundamentals, the kata, and all my breaks without any trouble tonight. As long as they don’t make me wear shoes (they won’t) I’ll be OK.
I’m going to attempt 6 boards with spacers on this particular break. I staged 10 and it looks daunting so forget that! Given the state of the heel that’s reasonable. If it’s better on Friday I’m just stupid enough to reconsider. We shall see…
The funny thing is I also have broke four solid with a hammer fist before. Well I staged that tonight and it too looks daunting. But I know I can do it so I’ll just focus and see how it goes.
Right now it’s time for ice and a nice martini!
~BCP
Ow!!! that looks painful. i cant stand them re breakable things either. There no match for real wood!
It’s much better today. In fact the ruptured blood vessels tend to make it look worse than it is. Most of that blood has been absorbed by my body. I can barely feel the ankle bruise but the heel still is tender.
I probably won’t know for sure how many I will try to break until Friday night.
[...] up was my step jumping axe kick with an already bruised heel. I ultimately decided to go with a stack of six boards using spacers. I think due to the bruised [...]
Injuries can result from any breaking. I like the use of plastic rebreakable boards for several reasons. We use the UMAB board, but they have pegs that “bite” you sometimes.
1 - cost & time: You don’t have to spend hours buying real boards that you use one time and turn them into fire wood at about $2 per board, or $10 for a 5 board break.
2 - accuracy: one or two boards will break away from the middle, but not 3 or more real boards. These teach you better accuracy.
3 - more practice: with plastic boards a class of 10 students could get 10 or more breaks in one hour which equals 100 boards! We break - put together and break again with out clean up or mess. No splinters to vaccum up either!
However - I believe real boards are a must for demo’s and testing. It not only looks better, but students get to keep the board they just broke - especially if it is their first one!
Sure don’t get me wrong. Re-breakables have their place.
In fact I’m sure there are better products our there. In fact I like the thinner Proforce just fine. Their big black one not so much!