It might be handy to share tips and techniques regarding tameshiwari, the art of breaking stuff.

To kick off: If I remember correctly, there are three boards: yellow (easy), red (medium), black (hard). I presume that two superimposed boards are harder to break than the sum of the single boards. Would two yellows boards be harder or easier to break than a single black board?

Yes, never try 2 re-breakable boards together. You will hurt you hand.

If you are trying multi boards, use wood.

Breaking technique tips:

-Aim to go through the board (at least 10cm+).
-Visualise the break (be confident).
-Make sure the holder (person or platform) is strong.
-Use speed (hit through the target fast)
-Use power (use your body not just your arm). Stink your whole body weight through the board.
-Dont break bones (use correct striking areas).

This post was last modified: 04-06-2010 04:56 PM by Neilung.

Thanks sensei - that is a very good piece of advice!

Pity about the combining of boards. While the red board is a bit too easy, the black board is too tough at the moment. I can only break it with tegatana, but not all the time, and not at all with seiken or shotei. I will have to improve these techniques with makiwara training before I can attempt them on the black board. Is there anything re-breakable between red and black?

This post was last modified: 04-06-2010 07:52 PM by huebner.

Your terms are Aikido based. Now i know they are both Japanese arts, but like all sports/arts. It is better to stick with the common terms:

tegatana: Shuto zuki (knife hand strike)

shotei: Teisho zuki (palm strike)

Seiken: Gyaku zuk (Reverse punch)


You can get different boards from other brands, so I could find you one down. But you can train makiwara and heavy bag, practice hip technique and speed (example: holding hand weights and punching 100 times each hand).

Also try placing a towel over the board or wearing a glove to pad the blow, and then less impact on your hand.

Okay, sorry for that. However, these terms are also used in some of my karate books. For example, I am currently working with karate books by Mas Oyama (aka Ōyama Masutatsu), as they focus on breaking and conditioning. These books also use these terms - therefore the confusion.

Oyama a very powerful great karate-ka and a true master of breaking (including a bulls head). I have some early footage of him in action. Will try and post it. Oyama was the founder of Kyokushin karate and did also study under Funakoshi.

But try and stick to shotokan terms (that come from okinawa and where changed to sound Japanese, see history of karate). Rather than pure Japanese terms. It will help people who visit this site. Some of who are students of shotokan and will be more familiar with the terms used (shuto, teisho etc.)

Keep working on your technique and it will come.

This post was last modified: 04-06-2010 07:58 PM by Neilung.

Is "The art of breaking stuff" it's official name?
And I want to go again, I've not broken anything since freshers fair .
I mean it's different... if you don't think you can do it... you just... won't

Typically, the translations "art of breaking" or "testing one's strength" are used for tameshiwari. However, the usual Japanese terms for art/form/way (like do or jutsu) do not appear in the word - imho not very Japanesey, anyway, instinctively I would have expected something more like warizaido instead of tameshiwari. In any case, tameshi can be translated as: example/instance/experience, wari likely comes from the verb warimasu: dividing (plain form: waru). "Breaking experience" or "breaking exercise" would probably be a fair translation.

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This post was last modified: 06-03-2010 07:44 AM by huebner.