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Chi and Martial Arts!

Azrael 5

Philosopher
Azrael 5
Joined
Sep 19, 2003
Messages
6,106
Having seena programme on martial arts "Kick Ass Moves" or similiar,I was wondering about this breaking slabs of concrete with your hands and the like.Whats happening here? Is it some amazing power such as "Chi"(whatever that is)or can everyone do it? How is it possible without breaking your hand.SOme links would be nice.
Im sure its been covered before,Im just lazy! ;)
 
Azr5- take a scroll thru the link "why does anyone still study traditional martial arts?" this category.
Some of the block busting and board breaking are difficult,but learnable.
I challenge those " busters" to allow me to put a little wire in the cement, or substitute 3/4 inch plywood for the planks.::)
 
Breaking boards and concrete blocks is a matter of learning the correct technique. It's got nothing to do with magical powers or chi or anything like that: it is correct technique applied to appropriate materials. As you learn to do it better, you can break more at one time because of improved technique.

I was talking to a guy one time who told me that people who broke boards were fakes, because if the board holder moved the board backward just as the person struck it, the board would not break. Well, DUH. That would be moving the board beyond the point where the person could reach it with a fair degree of power. It is also important to use appropriate materials. People who have sense don't try to break plywood. The grain of the wood has been turned in the various layers, to make the plywood stronger; breaking a board relies on hitting the grain at the correct place. It is still difficult. The skill is striking a very small point with an adequate amount of power or force, to break a relatively brittle item.

For me, the big thing with the concrete blocks was psychological. It does not seem like it will work and your hand will break the block, the first time you do it, no matter what your training and preparation are. I tried to compensate by hitting the block with as much power as I could, and as a consequence, very nearly broke my wrist on the floor under the block! :D Silly me. As a warning to people who want to try breaking concrete blocks with their hand, remember you can seriously hurt yourself, particularly if you don't know what you are doing. Get some training first.
 
But HOW is this possible? Concrete FFS!! It seems to go against the laws of physics,I know its not paranormal but its still rather amazing!
 
Concrete is hard but brittle. Brittle stuff tends to crack when you bend it. So if it's configured in such a way that a hard blow will make it flex far enough.... snap! The "art" would be to do it without shattering the small bones in your hand and wrist.

I think if you really need to break concrete, you should use a sledgehammer or jackhammer. Much safer :)

As for chi... I believe Randi has written about the yellow bamboo cult of "chi blast" specialists. Search the commentary archives for yellow bamboo, it's some funny stuff. There's also a video available of a yellow bamboo clown getting spanked by a brazilian jiu jitsu fighter (bjj is a down-to-earth martial art). I can't post links yet, but google "yellow bamboo muchosucko", it will lead you there.

For more martial arts skepticism, check out bullshido.net.
 
In addition to aquired skill, there are also large numbers of ways to fake such feats of derring-do.

Among common methods..."Pre-breaking" the rock, brick, or slab, and simply glueing same together again. Likewise with slabs of ice; one can saw the slab in half, dust the ends with rock salt, and re-freeze-much weaker than before.

Normally the brick, concrete block, or whatever appears to be held firmly against whatever the backing surface is. However, just prior to impact, the "martial artist" or his assistant will lift it slightly, allowing the blow to make it "slap" down against the surface.

Most of the breaking feats displayed by martial artists are well-known as "strongman" stunts of long lineage.
 
I was told by Bill Knittle that a nice trick is to slap the concrete slab hard with your palm to settle the slab and prepare your palm. Then raise your palm an inch or two and drive down hard from the shoulder.
Remember paving slabs, which they usually use, have to sit on a very level layer of sand otherwise they snap.
 
Azrael 5 said:
But HOW is this possible? Concrete FFS!! It seems to go against the laws of physics,I know its not paranormal but its still rather amazing!
Click to expand...

Like Sleepy said, the concrete is brittle. If you strike it correctly, it will snap. There is a formula, which I am sorry I can't write properly but you can see it here but in plain words, kinetic energy (we called it power)= 1/2 X Mass X Velocity squared. This works not just for cars or machines, it works for your hand too. Since you get to square your velocity, if you can just go a little faster, you can develop more kinetic energy or power.

I don't know about Bikewer's comment; all of the stuff I was involved in was legit. No one was allowed to fool around with the breaking materials, no one was allowed to go up and slap the tiles first etc. In fact, the materials were tested first and if they seemed unsound they were discarded. We were not breaking stuff in order to impress the public. It was part of testing a student's abilities at proper technique. It sort of proved the person was learning correctly, without them having to do a lot of talking about it. As an instructor I taught my students how to do these breaks, in a sort of by-the-way type of thing. They only practiced hitting the air, or a padded target, until the test. I would not let them test unless I was fairly certain they would pass; breaking was a small part of the testing process.

Occasionally someone would miss a break, which means the board or concrete did not break. It's very embarrassing to go the hospital and tell them you hurt your hand by hitting a bunch of concrete on purpose. :D Fortunately none of my students were ever hurt that badly, but I did know people who were.
 
Speaking of yellow bamboo, you HAVE to see this.
www dot youtube.com/watch?v=_1ykNZ7rAcw&search=bullshido

replace the dot with . I'm not allowed to post links yet.
 
I don't know about concrete, but the wood boards are very easy to break. I took Karate classes when I was 9 and broke many. It just has to be oriented properly (grain up and down) and the wood has to be pretty dry. I believe we used pine. No special technique required, but I admit it boosted my confidence!
 
Orb said:
I don't know about concrete, but the wood boards are very easy to break. I took Karate classes when I was 9 and broke many. It just has to be oriented properly (grain up and down) and the wood has to be pretty dry. I believe we used pine. No special technique required, but I admit it boosted my confidence!
Click to expand...

Perhaps the boards you were given were "easy" to break. Every board is different, and you can buy several different types of pine. An experienced Black Belt should be able to choose a board that a student can break with effort and proper technique, and not too easily. If it's easy then there's no challenge at all.
 
Azrael 5 said:
Having seena programme on martial arts "Kick Ass Moves" or similiar,I was wondering about this breaking slabs of concrete with your hands and the like.Whats happening here? Is it some amazing power such as "Chi"(whatever that is)or can everyone do it? How is it possible without breaking your hand.SOme links would be nice.
Im sure its been covered before,Im just lazy! ;)
Click to expand...
I wonder if this was the Kick Ass Miracles program I saw the other day.

Some nutcase who believed that breathing techniques and chi could impart his skin with amazing toughness.

He did all this prancing around, then grabbed an unbelievably sharp looking double-edged sword and chopped straight through a 6-foot tall tree (which appeared to be just a sapling) three times with it.
Now, I thought "well done mate, nicely blunted blade for ya". Unfortunately for him though, when he then gave his forearm a good soild chop with the same blade it cut straight through his skin and considerable muscle, right down to the bone.



It's bad of me to have laughed, isn't it?
 
I'd laugh, but that's only from being in a position of not having watched the video. If I actually watched the video, every ounce of my squeamishness would show up.
 
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