Never known any Sensei to break wood up. Id probably walk away if they did. Hitting a pad or bag or board for practice, totally different and very good training. More of that please Sensei. Less playing games. Oss.
Of course for some karate styes including Korean systems this is their meat and potatoes. I'm not a fan of the phrase, but I guess we have to understand it as the 'broad church' of karate.
I never broke boards (other than maybe one or two balsa wood boards when I did a karate 'summer camp' during the 80s), but I certainly loved watching Mr Miyagi do that! Between Kung Fu and the Karate Kid, I learned some odd lessons about martial arts.
I used to do a lot of breaking when I did TKD in the UK. I haven't done much of it since coming to Japan. My Wado dojo didn't practice it at all. At Yushinkai we did it at demonstrations (my senior was usually the one smashing blocks or kicking bats in half). At Ashihara we don't really do it either. It's generally a bit of a waste of material.
I have done tameshigiri quite a few times with an iaido group I trained with. That seems to be more useful and a real demonstration of proper technique rather than just performing a trick.
I agree with you about tameshigiri, that's the one exception; it doesn't quite fit with the karate/fakir model, and there's a more complicated history involving the testing of blades, which I am sure you are aware of.
Absolutely. When you are practicing karate you can get the kind of stimulus you need through striking pads (or other people). Breaking objects isn't a requirement. But if you want to be able to cut with a sword you need to have some practical experience.
I saw a guy many years ago who was a 4th dan in iaido but couldn't seem to hit a target properly. Before you were allowed to do tameshigiri at the event I was at you needed to show you could cut a piece of newspaper in two with a bokken. If you weren't able to follow through properly and cut the newspaper you'd be hopeless at cutting a tatami. I was holding the paper at one point and I was worried this guy would miss and break my hand. :/
Never known any Sensei to break wood up. Id probably walk away if they did. Hitting a pad or bag or board for practice, totally different and very good training. More of that please Sensei. Less playing games. Oss.
Of course for some karate styes including Korean systems this is their meat and potatoes. I'm not a fan of the phrase, but I guess we have to understand it as the 'broad church' of karate.
True good point.
I never broke boards (other than maybe one or two balsa wood boards when I did a karate 'summer camp' during the 80s), but I certainly loved watching Mr Miyagi do that! Between Kung Fu and the Karate Kid, I learned some odd lessons about martial arts.
I used to do a lot of breaking when I did TKD in the UK. I haven't done much of it since coming to Japan. My Wado dojo didn't practice it at all. At Yushinkai we did it at demonstrations (my senior was usually the one smashing blocks or kicking bats in half). At Ashihara we don't really do it either. It's generally a bit of a waste of material.
I have done tameshigiri quite a few times with an iaido group I trained with. That seems to be more useful and a real demonstration of proper technique rather than just performing a trick.
I agree with you about tameshigiri, that's the one exception; it doesn't quite fit with the karate/fakir model, and there's a more complicated history involving the testing of blades, which I am sure you are aware of.
Absolutely. When you are practicing karate you can get the kind of stimulus you need through striking pads (or other people). Breaking objects isn't a requirement. But if you want to be able to cut with a sword you need to have some practical experience.
I saw a guy many years ago who was a 4th dan in iaido but couldn't seem to hit a target properly. Before you were allowed to do tameshigiri at the event I was at you needed to show you could cut a piece of newspaper in two with a bokken. If you weren't able to follow through properly and cut the newspaper you'd be hopeless at cutting a tatami. I was holding the paper at one point and I was worried this guy would miss and break my hand. :/