How to Break Boards with Your Head Really Good! by Al Case

Okay, we need a cautionary, like check with a doctor before you do this. Or maybe a sicko-analyst. Or maybe just make sure you've got your cranium backed up on hard drive.

Back in 1968, I had just start Kenpo Karate, one of the Ed Parker offshoot branches, and the head instructor decided to put on a breaking seminar. I don't know what he was thinking, I don't think he had a side business selling insurance. At any rate, the potential for mayhem was lurking.

We entered the dojo and stacks of pine boards were waiting for us. As a group we were taught the theory of focusing, of punching through, and so on, and we were all excited. Then we started breaking the boards, one at a time, as the head instructor watched.

One of the attendees, a nice guy by the name of Jeff, asked if it was possible to break a board using just the head. The head instructor's answer was in the affirmative, but he cautioned that it shouldn't be attempted until one had trained extensively. We then went into another room to break boards, and no one noticed that Jeff had not come with us.

We were heavily engaged in a group discussion, and suddenly there a tremendous cracking sound came from the room we had just left. It was such a sickly sound that we all turned and stared at the entrance to the other room. The other room, where the sound came from, where Jeff was.

Suddenly, Jeff appeared at the door, he was standing a bit crooked, and the look in his eyes was like little birdies whistling. We all held our breaths as Jeff crossed the room, walking crooked, the birdies whizzing around his head in a neat, little circling pattern. Jeff settled, well, sort of collapsed, into a seated zen position, and the head instructor, with an eye on Jeff, continued his speechifying.

Now, if you're going to break a board with your head, and I don't care if you study shotokan or kenpo or praying mantis or whatever, work up to it. Start with thin planks, even an eighth of an inch, then work your way upward through a quarter, through 3/8s, and so on. Heck, the potential for injury is so great that you should wear some kind of protective helmet the first few times.

Oh, and at the end of that seminar that I was at? Jeff came up to the head instructor after it was all over and asked, is it possible to break a board with your head. Maybe he should have worked on having the hardest punch instead of just a hard head!