"Hold the wood. Don't let it move.."
A bad workman...

A bad working blames his tools. A good worker knows how to use his tools effectively. A great worker knows how to make the tools do the work for him. He should have hollowed out the boards

what an idiot.

One strategy I've seen involves putting space between the boards, say, two pencils; one on the right and one on the left. That way, you only need to break through one board. The kinetic energy breaks the others with little added effort. Apparently, this karate master was above that.

"hmph.. boards don't hit back"

Maybe, just maybe, he thought he knew what he was doing and didn't think to align the grain of both boards correctly...

2 pine boards together should break easily, at least if the grains are aligned as Spoon_Gouge notes. The other trick is to bake the boards beforehand to remove as much water as possible. Just weight the boards down with bricks or rocks so the boards don't warp while baking the water off.

Such a silly demonstration of chi-flow, indicative of the discipline, hard. Kung-Fu much better, much older,-and if that guy was practicing the Dharma instead of showboating, this would never have happend! Besides, he's a cracker, and crackers will never enter Martial Arts Heaven.

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.

great quote!

*dead

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