It takes more energy and force to break some bones than it takes to break a cinderblock. So if you can't break a cinderblock, it stands to reason you can't break a bone.
Do you need to break a bone? No, probably not always.
But why are you having difficulties, even after a year of trying? The meditative aspects of breaking is also important, and that is why it's important to figure out why you can't break your brick (or cinderblock?)
All strikes require concentration, strength, purpose, follow through, and without fear. An instructor watching you will look for your technique, your eyes, your speed, your posture. For this reason alone, we cannot tell you what you're doing wrong. A video of your attempt can help us to help you.
Most people are afraid of getting hurt. I recall two years ago I competed in a breaking tournament. My break was a fingertip strike - the mother of all fearful breaks. The holder (my opponent) held the board with absolute rigidity and at perfect height. I aimed, I threw the strike. And I crunched my fingers into oblivion, and sprained my hand in the process. Nevertheless, I was determined to break the board. My opponent was needlessly apologetic, but I reassured him I'm going to do it again. And I did, and I broke it. My thought process was that my hand was already damaged (I later found out just how bad it was), so, just think about breaking with a broken hand. Stiffen up what can be stiffened, step into the strike, and gather as much speed as you can. And that's what did it: no more fear of getting hurt, and perfecting the technique as much as possible.
Like all breaks, the brain is always thinking about getting hurt. It's instinctive to not want to get hurt. The more speed you build up, or the harder you think you're going to crash into that brick, the more your brain thinks you're gonna get hurt, and the brain starts to create micro-hesitations. These hesitations rob you of technique, precision, and speed - and can ruin a break. You must overcome both mind over body, and body over object.
The moment you feel impact - your brain senses it before you realize it - your brain says "whoa! stop the horses!" and that's where you get your hesitation. When you start thinking several feet (not inches, by the way) beyond the target, you're training the brain to delay the injury prevention action until fractions of a second later - just enough time for you to not only crash through the brick, but to keep pressing through even though you feel it.
People always have this idea that breaking isn't useful, that it's only useful if a brick happens to be attacking you, or you wind up underneath a stack of bricks (as illustrated by our esteemed troll), or that bricks (or boards) don't hit back.
None of this is true.
Breaking is useful and serves to build conditioning; to focus on not wasting the strike so be sure to hit the target with intent no matter what the possible outcome because you may not get another chance to do so; and bricks (and boards) do hit back. Any physics teacher can help how Newton's 3rd law of motion applies. Bricks/boards do hit back. (but they will never strike preemptively).
I will say this breaking a break proves nothing really.. wait breaks cant hit back so what is the point.. fist of legend.. further info please what type of strike palm or fist.. well breaking of anything is in a clear mind and focus.. the most important is breathing this brings more force then any thing else... always focus 2 inches behind the object.. never go half throw any of the process this only makes it worst on you...
have the taught you to break brings and guided you through this. your instructor should have made sure you could break a brick before ask you to do this on a test. it is his responsibility to teach you and to make sure you can perform this, after all you are paying him are you not
zYou already broke it.
I've been training in kung fu for a couple of years now, and one of the techniques I'm going to be expected to demonstrate at my next test (this Saturday) is breaking a brick.
Problem is, I have been trying to break a brick for about a year now and I fail every single time. It's very frustrating, and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong - I believed I could do it, put all my force into it, and only came close to breaking my hand a few times as a result. I even got some thinner pieces of wood to practice on and have been trying to break them all week with no success.
Does anyone have any advice on how to break? I'm worried I'm going to fail my test just because I can't break a brick. Is there a different technique I should try?
