Board breaking uses special wood. You try to break a solid piece of cedar with your head. It wont work, personally i see no reason for any martial artist to practice breaking boards or bricks.

A quote in one of an Aikido book states something like this.
If a student thinks that Kenjutsu is about swinging a stick (or sword) around and banging them together to make loud noises, then they are not a student, but a fool.

All that showman stuff is great when you are demonstrating to get people to come to your Dojo, but although most traditional martial art schools still charge you to learn, most will take a student on if said student has enough determination.

Breaking boards is one thing, accepting the way of the peaceful warrior is another.

From Everything2 comes *SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!*: How not to beat Jet Li's kung-fu style in "Fist of Legend"

"Sound strange? The most I can offer is some quick advice. You want to take on his righteous wrath, go for it. But there are some things you should know first. Bear with me now, and fast forward to the point in the film after he returns to Shanghai and discovers that his teacher and adoptive father, the Fist of Legend, is dead. Ok, now he's walking out of the kung fu school with That Look on his face.

Great. Ok, so he walks into the Japanese dojo. Now all the students there are getting angry at him. Our lessons can begin.

NEVER be the first guy to run up to Jet Li and slug him. He was waiting for that one since he walked in the door. You'll just end up getting your arm twisted around and then he'll probably throw you into a big crowd of your classmates.

Oh, man, did you see that guy? There's another important lesson. Flying jump kicks don't really work all that well on this hombre. You try to pull something like that, don't plan on having children. Now, you might think that just because you've got 40 or 50 of your classmates hanging around with you, you can just rush him. As you can plainly see, that isn't going to work. Don't feel bad - It's not that you're a bunch of pansies or anything. You just have to consider the mathematics at work against you here. Note the following formula.

Kung Fu Ass Beating Formula: Jet Li
V = S(17R)^2 + (X)

See, V is the total volume of ass, S is the scene number in the movie, 17 squared is Jet's own personal Kung Fu Style Coefficient, and R is the number of guys he beat the snot out of in the very first scene. Add X for the number of dead relatives. In this case, it's scene number 15 or so, and he slapped about a dozen guys silly in the very beginning of the movie - remember? When the Japanese supremacists came to his classroom? - So we add one for his dead teacher, and we're talking about a HUGE volume of ass. This equation also explains how Jackie Chan could pull of the Enormous Satanic Monk-Beating bit during the last 45 minutes of Armor of God. Clearly, this gang-up idea is just not gonna work out.

Anyhow. We can fast forward to the part where Jet has to fight his old pal, Orange Headband, for control of the kung fu academy. Lesson Three. You are NEVER, EVER going to beat this guy with an old school formal one-on-one duel. Not even if you're his childhood friend, and especially not if you're trying to force him out of your school because you resent his new teachings and influence. In this situation, he doesn't really want to make you look like a bop bag in front of everyone, but he's not going to sit there and take your punishment for long. And those selfsame new teachings are going to be the reason why your head breaks through all those potted plants and rafters. Bad, bad, bad.

The last lesson I have to offer is that you should try your hardest not to be the bad guy. The bad guy usually does pretty well during the first hour and ten minutes of the movie, but he always ends up with Jet Li's toes wiggling around in whatever he ate for lunch. You want to take on Jet Li? For crying out loud, DON'T poison his old teacher, don't kidnap his lover, kill his best friend or make fun of his shoes. The point is that you don't want to make the kung-fu warrior as angry as possible before you fight with him. You want him to think you're just playing around until you get a chance to shove your No Shadow Kick in his ear. And pick neutral surroundings, like a Wal-Mart. Good luck."

I understand where you're coming from Nordlich. I mean, historical swordfighting is really neat, and the concept of mortal danger is one that does take away from many training possibilities. However, I really must protest some of your points.

"And we all know that real fights always come down to who wants to live the most, so in the end what you know doesnt matter its what you do in the fight that does."

The whole point of training with aliveness is to be able to use what one knows when it comes time to do so. By training against resisting partners, who are actually trying to whack you, it becomes that much easier to transition into fight mode and use moves when you're no longer sparring, but fighting.

Just like Tai Chi, the separation between the practice and application of the art is one that denotes its stagnation as an effective fighting art. It's a false dichotomy that is not seen in effective arts. In boxing, kyokushin karate, judo, and so many other arts, the practice is so close as to be one with the application.

And the main problem with most aikido is it doesn't work against non-compliant partners. Period. No training against resisting opponents means failure to use such moves when it counts the most. There's a reason why the Tokyo police who train aikido cross-train in a number of other arts, and spar on a regular basis, unlike the typical aikido dojo.