I wouldn't make it a lifetime goal. I did board breaking once... As Bruce Lee one stated in Enter the Dragon, "Boards don't hit back."Steve Hatfield wrote:
I still haven't been able to attempt striking a board with my sokusen yet and that's my next goal so I was interested in your posting.
What you'll find out when you get uses for our Uechi Pointy Things (TM) is that it's only half about hitting things. And when you hit things, you should be looking for targets and not to break things. The other half of Uechi is grabbing with all these tools. It truly is a bridge style in-between striking and grappling. Plus... as I am want to tell my students, even a halfassed sokusen is the right technique to use when attacked, because you very likely will have normal clothes on and be wearing shoes. For some reason, the bad guy won't attack us in the dojo when we are wearing our pajamas.
Good for you!Steve Hatfield wrote:
I haven't found jars yet but have found that filling large coffee containers sort of fits my boshekin grip.
We've had a couple of threads on that. I have the jars, but they're useless. They're too fragile. And I haven't found a good jar alternative (yet) that somebody is still selling.
But I am using empty protein powder jars filled with stuff... And dumbbells with impressions in them... and whatever I can. And we're working on a good alternative.
My pleasure.Steve Hatfield wrote:
Thanks for the information.
PS: Interestingly I have a picture of Master Ken Nakamatsu standing next to me and I remember thinking he was relatively thin (but not skinny or whimpy looking).
Nakamatsu's abilities are inhuman. I first met him on Thompson's Island circa 1983. He was out in the field doing shoken push-ups for grins (with nobody looking on). There's a picture of him doing a one-handed push-up in Alan Dollar's book. With only the tips (NOT prints) of his index finger and thumb. Check it out yourself. Yes, that's sick!
And yea, forearms like Popeye. They are unreal.
But no doubt he worked his ass off to realize his abilities.
- Bill