Choose the Correct Board to Break

Video Transcript

"Michael Lewis with Yeshuya's Ryu Martial Arts on behalf of the Expert Village. We're going over today how to break boards with your feet. Another priority to your safety is when you're picking the board. Now make sure that when you go into Lowe's or any other place like that that, when you're picking your board so that you're actually finding the correct wood. The thing that you want to probably start out with is pine. Don't go in there and see all the different poplar and cherry and mahogany or anything else. You want to stick with pine first. There are a few harder woods that you can attempt to break, but pine is probably the best way to start out. Another thing is the grain of the board. You want to make sure that when you buy the board that the grain is going to run horizontal to the break. So in other words, the grain is running horizontally on this board. However, on this board if you were to hold it like this and the grain was running straight up and down you'd have a harder time breaking it. Especially because of how narrow it is. Also keep in mind that some of your pine boards will have a curve to them. So when you're breaking you want to make sure that the board is going to be curved towards so that you can make that break. Also, when you're picking your wood, also look for knots. If you have a knot in your board it's going to make it twice as hard to break that board and possibly cause injury to your hand or to your foot. So again, make sure that you buy soft wood, a grain that's going to run horizontal and also look for knots."