Tameshiwari is all about concentration and self-confidence. Previously, this is exactly why they smashed bricks and boards: to believe in themselves and test their abilities. For those who always wanted to break a brick, but were afraid to ask “how?” - here is the answer. Moreover, this activity has nothing to do with karate. You should start with a hard and stable surface. A thick metal plate would be ideal, but in the absence of one, you can use a few extra bricks. Grab the edge of the brick with your left hand. Raise your striking hand high above your head and then strike the center of the brick as hard as possible. Thus, you perform two tasks at once: firstly, it helps to break the brick, and secondly, it does not leave time to properly think about the madness that you are doing :) It is also important to turn the hand a moment before striking, this will increase speed. The third thing to do is to release the left edge of the brick at the moment of impact. Thus, you seem to double the effect of the blow. The blow is delivered with the edge of the palm, where the little finger is located, but do not try to hit with the knuckle of the little finger itself, otherwise it will simply break. Not a brick, but your finger!
Now you can go and amaze your friends with your super powers :)
Since quite often the surface of the brick is loose, it is better if you cover it with a rag to avoid damaging your hand. At least for the first time. People who are “experienced” in this matter recommend using bricks with holes (they break easier), and if you keep the brick in a hot oven for several hours, the task will be simplified several times more.
It would seem much simpler, however, it can be simpler :) The next option: take the brick in your left hand so that your hand is between the brick and the hard surface, having previously laid some kind of spacer between the back of your hand and the base on which your hand rests . This will help hide the fact that you are cheating. Swing as in the first option, at the same time slightly lifting the right edge of the brick, and deliver a sharp blow, at the same time unclenching your left hand so that the brick freely hits the surface with its right edge when striking. If both of these options do not suit you, then you can try the third one, for those who are especially lazy. Everything is the same as before, but instead of holding the brick with your hand, place something small and brittle under one edge that will easily break when struck, allowing the brick to hit the surface, thereby increasing the force of the blow. You are a master!
To separate a brick, the price of which is set based on its characteristics, does not require much effort. Using the correct method, you can break it by breaking off a quarter, two longitudinal or transverse halves. To get everything right, you will need the brick itself and a hammer.
What parts does a brick consist of?
To know where to strike, you need to understand and be able to identify the edges of a brick. Exists:
- The spoon side, also called the goat side, is the widest and longest part of the product;
- the butt, also called the butt side, is the back part that serves as the connection between the height and width of the product.
Depending on what part of the brick is required for further work, the blow is applied either to the gantry or to the butt side.
What is needed to break a brick?
To split a brick in half you will need a good and durable hammer that has a tapered end. The best solution would be a pickaxe, which is used in the work of masons, but most often there is no such tool at hand. In this case, no table or support for the brick is required - professionals recommend holding it suspended by holding it with one hand.
How to split a brick?
To split a brick you will need:
- Chalk or sharp object. With their help, you need to mark the fault line in order to know where to strike. If chalk is used, it is better to choose a contrasting color, otherwise you may lose the markings while working. A crack should appear along this line, appearing after several blows with a hammer.
- For hollow bricks, you will need to apply light blows with the tapered end of the hammer along the previously marked line. It is necessary to wait until small cracks appear on the surface of the material. Then you should move to the central part of the brick and finally split it.
- For solid bricks, light blows are required less; it is necessary to hit once quickly and firmly strictly perpendicular to the gantry side. This should be enough for the product to crack, and it can be finally broken into pieces and used in construction.
Before you start splitting bricks used directly in construction work, it is advisable to practice a little on old materials. To learn how to strike correctly, you should choose a product with similar characteristics.
In the secrets of fist fighting of the Shaolin Monastery, there are records that say that since ancient times in the monastery, late in the evening, when everyone around had already gone to bed and it became quiet, as in a dense forest, warrior monks from the monastery brethren inspired their heroic spirit and went into the hall of thousands Buddhas to the Fatan room, where they were doing their martial exercises. In the Palace of the Thousand Buddhas, sandbags were hung on the Minsk Column, and vessels filled with corn kernels, sand and iron filings stood near the northern wall. The warrior monks, at the sign of the monk-teacher who led the classes, trained the strength of their fingers and for this they poked corn, sand and metal filings with their fingers. Others hit wooden dolls with all their might with their bare hands.
In addition, four groups of young monks who, sitting in the tiger pose, trained the capture of the heart and mind of Xin-I-Ba. The sight of the fa-tan exercise hall at this time was a spectacle that could frighten and excite the most daring brave man.
The monks, who were trying to master martial arts, held a brick in their left hand, and struck it with their right hand; a crack was heard, and the brick split into two halves. Some, with “iron” fists, easily broke strong stones into pieces, twisted iron rods around their belts like simple ropes, and were exactly like eight wizards crossing the sea, since each was imbued with the sacred spirit. Each monk trained hard, so that sweat flowed in streams down his back, some had broken fingers, blood was oozing, but they still continued to practice without losing determination and determination. As a result of such persistent and continuous training for ten years, it was possible to punch an even hole in the wall with a bare finger. Twenty-year-old fighters were able to break a brick with their bare hands. Thirty-year-olds had fists that were as strong as metal fists, and when they struck, the stone shattered into small pieces. The forty-year-old fighters had such strength that they could break a beam. By the age of fifty, despite reaching old age, the fighters still continued their studies with an unbending will. Even at 60, 70 and 80 years old, they continued to train hard every day. Firstly, thereby they strengthened their body, resisted diseases, and secondly, they remained healthy and viable until old age, delaying decrepitude and extending their lifespan.
Break through a wall with your bare finger
Secrets of fist fighting.
You need to try to train the strength of your index finger, and for this, the chi breath must come out of the cinnabar field.
First you need to hit the millet with your finger, then you need to hit the sand and gravel with your finger. And your finger will turn red and swell, but you must strike 3800 times. After this, the meat on your finger will turn into scabs and calluses, then you need to beat it into iron filings.
After this, when you hit it nine times a thousand times, your finger will burst and blood will come out. But the callus will then cover your finger with a triple layer, and then you will become a man who has achieved perfection in the martial art. If you hit the wall, a hole will instantly form as the flesh on your finger turns to metal.
Pointing a finger at the millet. Before starting the exercise, you need to stand in front of the vessel with millet, concentrate, pick up your chest, and after that you should direct the chi breath into your finger. Then you take a step forward with your left foot, collect the qi breath in the cinnabar field, pick up your stomach, inhale and quickly release it, after which you poke it with your index finger ten times. You stop the exercise after you feel numbness and pain. Every day, morning and evening, you should do this exercise 50-100 times.
Poking a finger in the stone sand. After working with millet for two to three months, the first thin layer of rough skin should appear on the surface of the index finger, and after that you should begin exercises with stone sand.
The technique is the same as described above; as a result of these exercises, the finger easily swells and hurts greatly. If the damage is serious, you can reduce the amount and do several times less. However, you cannot stop exercising completely.
After four to five days, a new layer of skin will form on the finger and everything will return to normal.
Poking in the iron sand. The technique is the same as when working with millet and stone sand. However, metal sand is harder, and therefore a tumor very quickly forms on the finger, severe pain is felt, to the point that the skin may burst and blood may appear. In this case, the necessary processing should be carried out. If there are no serious injuries, then you should not stop exercising. In ancient times they said: “ Don't be afraid to slow down, be afraid to stop" And, of course, you shouldn’t interrupt your studies midway because of difficulties. You should train until a strong, hard callus forms on the surface of your finger. Every day you need to do this exercise 30-50 times.
Punch through a wall with your finger. After poking your finger into the iron sand for more than a year, it is damaged many times and healed many times, and after healing it is damaged again. As a result, a thick crust forms on the finger; it becomes strong, and if necessary, the chi breath fills the finger very quickly, the blood strengthens the chi breath, as a result of which it becomes hard as steel, and the fingertip is like a metal pin.
Now you need to practice hitting the wall with your finger. You need to strike more than a hundred times a day, and as a result of constant hard training, as a result of perseverance, you will be able to hit the wall with your finger so that a hole remains.
The exercise technique is as follows. You stand facing the wall, at a distance of two chi and three tsun. The body is straight. You take a step forward with your left foot one chi and three tsun. After this, use the middle finger of your right hand to describe an arc in front of your chest, moving the chi breath three times. At this moment, you force the original qi breath of the whole body to rush out of the cinnabar field and go to your right hand. You direct your hand towards the wall with all your might, and strike the wall with a spiral movement. For the first time, the surface layer on the wall cracks. During the second training, you continue to deliver 30-50 blows. The mark becomes deeper, the strike is delivered faster, and you gradually increase the number of strikes during training to 50-130 times. During exercise, the fingertip may become injured or blood may bleed again. In this case, training can be stopped for a while and waited until the wound heals, after which training is resumed and continued until, as a result of the blow, a hole 2 cun deep remains. Only in this case is the exercise considered completed.
After you have learned how to do the exercise, you should still continue to deliver more than a hundred blows to the wall.
Breaking a brick with your bare palm
Secrets of fist fighting.
The technique of breaking a stone brick with a bare palm is one of the seventy-two arts. During the fourth watch you strike the bag of rice, and in the evening, by the light of the stars, you strike the board.
At noon you hit the dining table, and after lunch you hit the wall. The skin bursts and the blood scatters in splashes, and you continue your training in spring and winter. You walk around to strike wooden dolls, smashing their wooden heads up and down. As a result of training for a hundred days, you can break a brick with your bare palm.
The ability to break a brick or stone with a bare palm is one of the 72 Shaolin arts. The exercises are distributed during the fourth watch, late evening, midday and afternoon. Also, training is done while walking. The fourth watch is the time of dawn. At this time, you should strike the bag of rice. When the stars fall out - it's midnight, at this time you should practice hitting the bench. Noon time is 12 o'clock, at which time the dining table should be struck. After lunch, when you are alone in your room, you should strike the four walls of your room. Training this exercise is a difficult task that requires persistence and perseverance, and it takes a lot of time to complete. In the beginning, the practitioner easily gets wounded and damaged. However, he should not become despondent or despair, but should persistently continue his studies. In the evening after dinner you should take a walk of 50 zhangs. Each step counts 5 chi, so 50 zhang equals one hundred steps. Walking takes place in a gallery where wooden dolls are installed.
So while walking, the monks deliver strong, violent blows to the dolls' heads. They imagine that these dolls are their opponents, and this helps to mobilize energy. This is an effective method of training exercises to achieve hardness.
And as a result of one hundred days of training, one becomes able to break a brick with a bare palm without much difficulty.
Exercises in the room. In the room you can practice hitting a wooden bench, a wall, a door frame, or a table surface. Every day, early in the morning, after eating and in the evening before going to bed, you need to strike hard objects hard, the place of impact on the palm is the surface in the area of the hou-si point, or back flow.
Each time you should apply 30-50 blows. Training continues for 130 days.
Outdoor exercise. The sandbag is struck.
A bag is sewn from white canvas that can hold fifty jins of sand. It is suspended on a branch or on a tree trunk, at the level of the trainee’s heart, where the Ju Que point is located, cun above the navel). Every day at dawn or late at night you need to stand in front of this bag at a distance of one chi.
You should stand in a pose with bent legs. Up to 50 blows are applied to the sandbag with the right hand, then the same number with the left. Thus, changing the left and right hands, they train for 139 days (Fig. 13).
Fig.13
Hitting a wooden doll: a doll (from three to five pieces) is made from date or persimmon wood, the height of which corresponds to the height of the trainee. Three wooden dolls are arranged in the form of a triangle, and the distance between them is five chi. The trainee stands in the middle, facing the wooden doll. He turns and throws punches with his left and right hands. Then he changes position and strikes the next doll, thus making a circle. Three circles make up one exercise cycle. Each time you should do 5-15 cycles (Fig. 14).
Fig.14
Five wooden dolls are arranged according to the mei hua plum blossom pattern. The trainee stands in the center and delivers successive blows (the distance between the wooden dolls is 1.3 chi).
All three techniques described above provide the basis for breaking a brick with your bare palm. You need to train gradually and consistently, persistently hone your technique and continue your training for approximately one year. After this, a brick is taken in the left hand. You get into a position with your legs bent, and while you make the movement of breathing-chi, filling both hands with it, at the same time you strike the brick with your palm (Fig. 15). After you practice breaking a brick with your bare hands, more than a hundred days must pass, and then the exercise is considered completed. First, learn how to break one brick, and after that, you need to put two bricks together and break them with one blow, gradually increasing the number of bricks.
Fig.15
Breaking a stone with your bare fist
Secrets of fist fighting.
You need to clench your fists tightly and practice punches on the Western Flower Mountain Xi Hua Shan. First, you practice striking on a wooden board, and as a result, your fists become as strong as iron. You hit the brick and punch your fist through the stone wall. The force of the fist strike depends on the strength of the chi breath, and after the strike the stone falls apart into four parts. Train hard for 30 years, and then you will easily perform this exercise.
Breaking a stone with your bare fist is one of the most difficult exercises to achieve hardness in the Shaolin system. To perform this exercise, you need to have an extraordinary will, you need to overcome enormous difficulties for several decades, and not lose perseverance until the very end, and then you will be able to complete this exercise.
Every day, early in the morning and before going to bed, you first strike the inner wall or wooden board with your fist. Every day you do three complexes, for one complex you deliver 50-100 blows. And only after three to five months will you begin to notice some results from your training.
After you deal more than a hundred blows during the day, and at the same time you do not feel pain, then you can move on to breaking bricks. You should do three to four complexes a day, and each complex consists of 50 blows. After training for three to five months, when you can break a brick with one blow, you should move on to training in breaking stones. This exercise is the most difficult. It requires difficult training for 10, 20, 30 or more years in order for the stone to split into several pieces upon impact. In this case, the exercise is considered completed.
Exercise for breaking stones with your head
Nowadays very few people train in this exercise. It works as follows. First, stand in a stance of three circles and move the qi breath five times, while the qi breath leaves the cinnabar field and goes to the bai hua point. After this, they strike themselves on the top of the head with their fists or hit themselves on the skull, and gradually the blows become more and more powerful.
Head blows are applied to the wall, you can also break a wooden board.
This exercise is best done at noon. When practicing this exercise, the tongue touches the palate, the mouth is closed, the breath is made through the nose, the chi breath passes through the top of the head, and when the chi breath comes out, a sharp sound is made. At the same time, you cannot relax your qi breathing.
To build a brick house, you will need not only standard, but also partial blocks, the size of which is a multiple of ¼, ½ and ¾ of the full-sized building material. Therefore, you can’t do without the ability to chop bricks into pieces. This is done manually using percussion or special tools. But to obtain a brick block of the required size, it is not enough to have the necessary tools. You need to know what elements the building material can be divided into, and how to do it correctly.
Why do you need to chop bricks?
When erecting a brick wall during rough masonry, the need for smaller bricks appears. This is necessary to obtain smooth and thin seams of the masonry and its complete dressing. Cladding work is also performed using non-standard material. Therefore, the block is divided into parts, the edges of which have a smooth surface. To get a brick of the desired shape and size, it is broken lengthwise or crosswise, resulting in two equal-sized halves, or a quarter is chipped off.
Tools and methods
To obtain elements of the required sizes from a whole product, use the following tools:
- hammer with a tapered end;
- pick;
- brick processing machine;
- Bulgarian.
If you need to do the work with your hands, you can use a pickaxe. A hammer or pick is used to split the brick in half or other sizes by hand. This is a traditional way of splitting brick blocks. It saves time when doing masonry, since it can be done without leaving the workplace. The block can be divided into the following elements: half, quarter, three quarters. The hewn surface should be smooth. To do this, it is ground with brick. An edge with an insufficiently smooth surface, if this does not contradict technological standards, can be hidden inside the masonry.
To split a brick manually with a pick or hammer, the blow must be applied strictly at an angle of 90 degrees.
The method of chopping bricks with a machine or grinder is faster and makes it possible to:
- obtain high accuracy of the required dimensions;
- make a smooth surface of the formed edge;
- split the brick not only at right angles.
Diamond discs are better suited for grinders, as they are considered less dangerous and have a longer service life. There are simple ones with a solid edge, segmented and with a jagged surface. Simple discs provide a smooth surface, but quickly overheat and wear out; segmented discs heat up slowly and are suitable for cutting using dry techniques. The toothed disc elements are durable and wear resistant. Suitable for wet and dry cutting. The bed is used for cutting bricks lengthwise and crosswise. When using modern tools, it is important to follow safety rules, in particular, use dust protection.
Splitting stages
Before the splitting itself, special marks are made on the material. The process of giving a brick block the desired size is divided into three stages:
- choice of brick;
- applying notches or markings;
- peg.
When choosing a block for halving, you should pay attention to the absence of cracks, otherwise it will split incorrectly. To obtain a quarter, building materials with corners broken off on one side are suitable. When chopping by hand, notches are applied to the long side edge (spoon) of a suitable brick block. To obtain a more accurate split, they are made on all 4 edges. After this, with a strong blow of a hammer or pick on the notch on the spoon part, the block is broken. When delivering a blow, it is held suspended, held in the center or by the largest part. Before using a machine or grinder, for accuracy, apply the necessary markings with a construction pencil, and then cut near the marking line.
It is not difficult to break a single brick one day, but breaking bricks as a constant practice requires spiritual strength and self-confidence. If you don't have that kind of confidence, you won't be able to break a brick or anything else. The bricks you see in these photos are regular Japanese red bricks. However, the success of breaking techniques varies greatly depending on the quality of the bricks you use for it. We personally made the terrible mistake of demonstrating brick breaking in Mexico twelve years ago and selecting the wrong type of brick. The best type of brick for smashing Karate techniques is one that is light in the hand and doesn't jingle when you smash it against others. Avoid the type of bricks that Americans often use to pave their streets because they are as hard as iron and cannot be broken with bare hands. On the other hand, you can break regular red bricks a couple at a time. Even a beginner, if he practices hard enough, can hope to one day be able to break as many as three bricks at once.
Those people who can actually break three bricks at once with the edge of their palm certainly deserve the right to be called masters of the “knife hand.” Anyone who can break more than two bricks with one blow could probably use the same technique to break the neck of a large dog. And he might as well cut off the bull's horn.
My own experience has shown that you can break the neck of any Japanese dog with one blow of the “knife hand”. I have done this more than once, although it was several years ago. I can say the same about bull horns. Despite our persistence and having a proper teacher, which is a must for learning Karate, we must carefully study the stone or brick that we are going to break. Although the number of people practicing Karate today has increased, I was one of the first to break the necks of dogs with the edge of my hand and cut off the horns of about forty bulls, and therefore understand better than others the need for competent Karate trainers. Age, of course, gives us experience in technical skills, but it also leads to an inevitable loss of strength and speed, so we must learn breaking techniques in our younger years and under the guidance of good teachers. Although we cannot give a clear mathematical analysis of all the techniques, we would like to explain them from a dynamic point of view. In other words, we want to explain them in a way that even a beginner can understand.
When we first started learning Karate techniques to break stones and bricks, we naturally had some doubts about the real power of Karate techniques. Of course, before this we heard about craftsmen who were able to break stone or brick, but we had not yet seen a single real example with our own eyes. Finally, after we had found our own methods of breaking objects, we showed them to one very famous Chinese master of Kempo, and he received it with fear mixed with admiration, although in our execution these exercises did not look too easy.
Of course, it is easy for anyone to follow in the footsteps of the discoverer. Anyone can get to America after Columbus has already discovered this continent, because repeating a discovery once made is not so difficult. Now that we have found our own ways of breaking stones and bricks and our techniques have spread widely, any healthy person can do this. This is, of course, good, but we want to point out that even a properly executed technique of breaking objects can break your bones.
It is too late to ask how to straighten a wrist or treat a sprain after you have already suffered an injury. If you practice breaking objects with the “knife hand” often enough in an inappropriate manner, you will notice that over time your hand will become deformed, the color of its skin will change and you will experience certain inconveniences.
Knife hand strike
1. It is better to break the brick on an anvil, which should be as large as possible in the interests of stability. The anvil is placed at approximately the height of the chair seat, and a very tall person may use the anvil at the height of their knees. A person with quick nerve reflexes could place the anvil directly on the ground, but it would be more accurate to place the anvil at a level just above your own knees. At one end of the anvil, place a towel rolled approximately the width of your arm. The brick is held in the hand you are going to use to hold it, and a towel is used to protect the back of your hand from injury. This is usually the left hand and covers about a third of the brick.
2. Place another rolled up towel on the brick in the area you intend to hit. This point should be just below the center of the brick. The place where a brick will break most easily is about four-ninths from its edge. Grasp the top third of the brick firmly and lift the end about one finger's height from the anvil.
3. The moment of the “knife hand” blow breaking the brick. If you don't break the brick with the first blow, wait a second or two and try a second and third time. Almost any brick will break on the third blow, or even earlier.
M. Oyama
