Will I hurt my hand Board Breaking?

by | Apr 2, 2018

As you can imagine, wondering if you can hurt your hand Board Breaking is a fairly common concern. Rightly so. Often, people don’t know they are going to be doing a Board Break until we produce the Boards. It’s often a surprise activity as part of a Corporate Event, Team Building Event or Conference Energiser. We even include Board Breaking in the occasional Charity Firewalk or Glass Walk.

So, will you hurt your hand Board Breaking?

The simple answer here is that, if not performed correctly, then yes, there is the potential to hurt your hand or wrist. The Board will not break simply because you hit it and want it to break. If there is not enough force, concentration, and focus behind the break then you will be hitting a solid object, and the harder you hit a solid object, the more it will hurt.

The techniques we teach you will give you the best chance of breaking the board, and if performed correctly, you won’t even feel the board is there.

Size doesn’t matter

We have seen people that look big and strong, attempt a Board Break without the concentration, focus or discipline taught, walk away with some pain following an unsuccessful Board Break. Equally, we have also seen small and slight individuals with previous wrist issues smash through 1 inch boards without feeling a thing because they listened and applied what was being taught. They were focused, concentrated and released their inner chi at the moment of impact.

“Concentration is the root of all the higher abilities in man.”
Bruce Lee

Different Techniques

There are different hand techniques people use for Breaking Boards.  The most common used outside martial arts is the hammer fist. This technique simply uses the fleshy part of the outside of your hand whilst in a fist. Although most commonly used, it is a more difficult technique to perform correctly and involve all the aspects taught. Especially when it comes to utilising your body mass to increase force. The speed element of Force = Mass x Acceleration is also restricted by how fast you can swing your arm in a downward motion. Participants generally don’t use the other rule of “every reaction has an equal and opposite reaction”

Our preferred method of Board Breaking for beginners is the palm heel. This technique uses the fleshy part of the palm to strike the board. This technique not only uses a part of the hand which is slightly smaller than the hammer fist, thus giving a smaller surface area to focus the force into, but the technique more naturally allows for action/reaction to increase acceleration at the point of impact.

As with any of our activities please inform us of any pre-existing injuries before attempting a Board Break. And please do not try a Board Break without proper instruction.

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