The Art of Board Breaking

When one looks at martial arts and training in any of the fighting disciples, one element of their regime is continually fascinating. It’s not the beauty of the movements or the quickness of one’s strikes that gets the attention they deserve. Rather it is the art of breaking a wooden board with your bare hand that has a tendency to turn heads. It is a dramatic example of strength that also exudes a great deal of confidence and serves as a reminder of how one, with the proper training and attitude, can push themselves to unimagined heights. Rob Ludgate of the Elite Training Academy in Pooler has been training and teaching martial arts for two decades and has never lost his passion for instructing his students on the finer points of fighting techniques. An accomplished expert in martial arts, Ludgate is always quick to demonstrate just how quickly someone can learn to overcome the seemingly impossible – like breaking a board with a single strike. “The first thing that you have to have when breaking a board is confidence,” explained Ludgate. “If you do not believe 100% that your hand will go through that board, then your hand will not go through that board.” Ludgate points out that power is a small part of successfully breaking the board. The key is to focus your power so that you are hitting directly into the center of the board. After that, as is the case with most athletic ventures, it is all about the follow-through. “You are not hitting at the board, you are hitting through the board,” said Ludgate. “You need to essentially aim for a target that is an inch or two behind the board. The idea is that once you start, don’t stop. Then your hand actually goes through it.” “It doesn’t matter how strong you are; it’s mostly about having the confidence to be able to break that board,” stated Ludgate. “Very rarely is it that they will have a lack of strength. A seven or eight year old can break a board. It’s about confidence and technique. You have to make sure that your hand is not bent in any way and you have to hit the board in the center and follow through.” Ludgate explains that there are two primary ways that you can attack the board. One is to hit the board with your palm and hit straight through with the palm leading first. When doing this, you must make certain that no fingers are in the way so you do not break any fingers. If you decide to strike with a fist, then you must lead with two knuckles and make sure that the knuckles go all the way through it. “It’s about having the confidence to go through the boards and it will go through,” said Ludgate. “That changes as you add more and more boards, then power factors in more. It’s really about continuous motion. The energy will transfer itself through those boards as long as it’s a continual motion. An object in motion tends to stay in motion.” Even though he has been involved in martial arts for quite some time, Ludgate still gets a thrill out of watching students discover just what they can do for themselves. One such situation occurred two weeks ago in his women’s self-defense class. “I have a lady in my class named Darlene who really embraced this concept,” said Ludgate. “At the conclusion of my women’s self defense class upon graduation, I want them to have enough confidence that they can put their hand through a board. I want them to use a palm-heel strike because that is one of the techniques that I teach in the class. If they are in a threatening situation, I want them to take the palm of their hand and drive it into their attackers face with confidence. Breaking a board with that strike serves as a great way for them to have confidence in that technique. If they can use this technique to break a board, then it is confirmation that if it’s good enough to break a piece of wood, then it is effective enough to do some damage and get away.” “When she broke this board, there was no doubt in my mind that I could have put three or four boards together and she would have shattered all of them,” said Ludgate. “She hit the board so hard that it flew out of my hand after it broke. I was shocked and pleased at the same time. At the end of six weeks in my class, to see that she had that kind of confidence gave me a great deal of pride.” “She couldn’t believe that she had just done that,” added Ludgate. “She had so much power and confidence behind that that, I tell you what, I feel sorry for any man that tries to attack her and forces her to use that because she will break something. She is going to hurt that guy.”