Using a Single Finger to Break Things: History, Training Methods, and Fact!
Posted: Tuesday, May 18, 2010
by Al Case
http://www.alcasebooks.com/
Sometimes I watch TV--it hurts, but it’s supposed to be fun, so I force myself--and I always look for martial arts things. Every once in a while I come across the breaking competitions, and I find these of fascination.
Tons of bricks, forests of boards (hasn’t the Sierra Club heard of these guys), and a coke can.
That’s right a can of that sickly sweet substance that disrupts digestive systems everywhere.
Now, having engaged in martial arts for a few decades, and being able to break a few things myself, I have a couple of observations.
Well done to the fellow, but the can is aluminum. Go ahead, rip one apart--it may take good technique to rupture the can, but it is still only aluminum.
Back in my day (doesn’t that sound impressive), we used to puncture steel cans. That’s right, steel, and it was a wee bit harder than aluminum.
Now, this single finger technique actually has a history. Back fifty years ago there were some fifty martial artists in Taiwan who could break things, usually bricks, with a single finger. There were so many because they had all fled to Taiwan from China. Those fun loving Commies, you see, were killing all the martial artists, and so the martial artists fled to Taiwan.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many on that island who can do the single finger trick any more, there just weren’t enough students of caliber in that smaller population to perpetuate the trick.
But, the single finger technique does pop up every once in a while. The training it takes, you see, is rather simplistic and obvious.
Start with push ups, and go from flat hands, to fists, to second knuckles to a spear hand, to two fingers, to one.
One, outstretched, lonely, little forefinger.
And thrust your hands into a bucket of sand every day for a few minutes. For a couple of years.
And, here is the point most people don’t get, practice your classical martial arts forms diligently and with extreme attention to detail, and the correct generation of power.
Power in the classical martial arts, for those of you who don’t know, comes from a spot about two inches below the navel. This is the energy center of the body, and it is called the Tan Tien, or ‘One Point.’
After you have trained for a year or two--after you have achieved Black Belt--start breaking boards.
Work up, using spear hands on single inch foot squares of pine. Take your time, and slowly work through second knuckles and into outstretched digits, using less and less digits until you are down to one.
One, single, lonely, outstretched forefinger.
Now, I caution you with great concern, for I know of two specific instances where students broke their fingers, and these were hardy students with tons of experience and training.
And, that said, let me give you an anecdote concerning what a fellow with a couple of decades of training can do.
I learned martial arts from a fellow name of Bob Babich. He was an instructor in Kyokushinkai, which is renowned for its power, and he had that power, then he discovered an art called the Kang Duk Won.
He studied the Kang Duk Won for four years with a young Korean, lived with him, actually, and they trained in the old methods, methods you don’t see anymore, but which were popular during the Korean War. He trained, and they didn’t speak the same language, couldn’t do much conversing, but he trained, and trained and trained.
One day he was walking through the dojo and a friend of mine, name of Bruce, took a stance and held out a board for breaking. “Try this one, Bob," and he laughed.
The joke, you see, was that the board was not the usually pine, it was plywood. Not very thick, but, still, plywood. That means there is no grain to break, and the board is virtually unbreakable if one uses a fist.
Bob sunk his weight, turned his hips, and his arm shot out like liquid, lightening.
Bruce felt no impact, wasn’t even pushed back, but when he looked at the board his eyes opened in shock.
There was a hole in the middle of the board.
Now that is what the True Art is all about.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I've never seen anybody do any of the things you've written about here, Al, but it always seems so incredible to me. It's on my list of things I want to see.See, mind, not do! I'll leave that to the other guys.
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