Karate Chop & Break a Wood Board

“I held up my hand to the wood. Lined up my strike. “Remember, you’re not breaking the board so much as going through the board.” ## Board, bring it on. Previously, I’d watched other students at the dojo break boards as part of their Taekwondo testing. And what I’d noticed [...] is the tendency for students to go full throttle, and then, millimeters from the board, slow down out of fear of the pain. Essentially resulting in a very ineffective love tap on the board. Just a little boop. So, while I knew there might be a bit of a jolt when my hand made contact with that board, I figured it’d actually hurt more to hold back and slow down than to just power up and go through the damn thing. [...] I pulled my hands back to a fence. Took a deep breath. Go through the board, Lauren. Through. The. Board. And I struck. A very gratifying crack. My hand suspended between two pieces of wood. I’d done it. I’d broken my very first board!”

“I have have been doing karate for almost a year and a half, and finally got trained to break boards last weekend. I was surprised at how simple it actually was, while simultaneously being so incredibly cathartic. The focus, the strength, the technique, the satisfying sound of the break...all of it.”