How to Break Wood in Taekwondo
The Korean martial art known as Taekwondo teaches its students a number of different style techniques using the hands, arms, feet and legs. Using these four parts of the body (well eight technically as we all have two of each) a Taekwondo student learns how to defend himself or herself against one or more potential attackers.
It is important in the Korean martial art known as Taekwondo to make sure that every student is actually learning how to be effective with the techniques involving their hands, arms, feet and legs. It is pointless learning the movements, but not actually knowing that they will be effective against any potential opponents out in the real world.
In order to test how effective the techniques of any given student of the Korean martial Taekwondo are, the Taekwondo instructor will arrange for them to practice their techniques on wood or breaking boards. If the Taekwondo student manages to break the wood then they are doing the technique correctly, but if they do not manage to break the wood then something is incorrect about their technique.
One of the biggest mistakes the students of the Korean martial art of Taekwondo make is that when they go to break the wood they do not kick, punch or attack the wood appropriately. What they do is they aim their technique to meet the wood. They may power through to the point of reaching the wood, but then they stop.
And if they stop as they reach their target – the wood – they will not manage to break through it. Instead what the student of the Korean martial art Taekwondo should do, is focus on a point just beyond the wood. That way when they reach the wood with their hand, arm, foot or leg, they will power through the wood breaking it as intended.
Failure to break the wood can follow when students of Taekwondo incorrectly calculate their distances from the wood. If they are too far away their technique will not reach the wood to be able to break it. Alternatively, the Taekwondo student may be too close to the wood to be able to break it. If a Taekwondo student is too close to break the wood then they will not be able to get enough power and momentum behind the technique to break the piece of wood and they will not be able to properly perform their technique to be able to break the wood.
The third option is the wood does not break because the Taekwondo student has failed to perform their chosen technique correctly.
All three of these possible failures for breaking wood are easy to correct. But really a student should have perfected the technique before trying to learn to break the wood, that way when they do try to break the wood they are much more likely to do so correctly and accurately.