galaxies

Today has been a Good Day.

Allow me to elaborate.

Had a party to attend this evening, thrown by one of the brown belts in my Karate class. Everyone was there, including the man himself, head of the school, all the way down to our newest white belt.

The plan, you see, was to invest in a massive amount of lumber and concrete, and break every piece of it.

Before I go further, I should mention I've only done breaking ONCE before tonight, during a demo I did when I was twelve.

But, back to this evening

Everyone broke stuff, but I'll spare about 90% of the details, besides mine. (This is MY journal, after all, damnit)

I tried something tricky first, owing to being called Kung Fu in class. This is due to my previously taking Kung Fu before coming to this school. Due to this, I broke my first board with an exploding palm technique. This is where the fist is clenched till JUST before impact, and the body is kept loose. At the moment of impact, however, you open your hand and tense, and while this sounds inefficient, it really does work. The best part about that was some of the other students going "He's gonna fuck up his hand doing that."

Only thing I fucked up was that board.

Next thing well, the next thing I broke was the highlight of my evening. Two inch concrete cap blocks. There's nothing more intimidating than a concrete block. Wood isn't as thick, or as hard, after all.

Now, before I took after this poor defenseless piece of concrete, the only black belt student in the class still owed a concrete block to finish his test. He broke it, admirably. Sensei, in a gregarious mood said "Put another one on boys, he's goin' for two!"

Next thing I know two busted concrete blocks. Sensei wasn't done though, he says "Hell yeah! We're going for three!"

Boom, three of them. Then Sensei's son broke one, and then Dino broke one with a BEAUTIFUL Iron Palm. Sensei's daughter (hostess of the party) couldn't get past the mind block, though, and wound up splitting her jeans. Strong Chi, we said, but misguided in it's intent to break something.

But, Sensei said, "Who else wants to do this?"

So, I says "I wanna try this."

So, another block is brought forward, I line up just like I was told to, I aimed for the ground under the block (it was sitting on two cinder blocks for support), and just drove my hand through it with a palm heel. Never before have I felt like such a bad motherfucker.

Next thing was speed breaking. To be perfectly honest, I apparently am NOT fast enough to speed break. I only succeeded in hurting myself on that one, trying both a simple reverse punch and a ridgehand. Now, I DID succeed in knocking the board clean across the road with that ridgehand, which would have fucked someone up had it been a live target. However, the purpose of speed breaking is to help a student learn how to 'Kill in Place' Which is the simple (sounding) task of hitting someone and making them crumple where they stand.

I apparently drive too hard. <shrug>

Earlier in the evening, Dino had broken two boards with a forearm shot, and looked at me and said "If I broke two, you're breaking two."

So I went for one first, to see if I had the technique down. To better explain this, the boards were being held by actual people. I had to throw the forearm shot across, not up and down.

I busted this one, and then I said I'd try two. Sensei, however, was not content. He realized I'm a power striker/breaker, so he made me use finesse. I had to stand almost against the board being held for me, and had only three inches of room to generate the speed and power to demolish both boards.

So, I wound up 'Dim Mak'-ing the two boards. When I struck, I blew the back board out, leaving the first one pristine. Had to hit twice to achieve the proper result.

Sensei, by the way, was in RARE form.

He then called for a few of us to try and break three, which took all of the finesse of a gorilla. It was simply walk up, and crush them. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy that.

After a little while, Dino, Jared, Ryan (the guy who broke the three blocks) and myself were called back to try something a little different.

Putting the board on the cinder blocks, we had to use a three inch downward strike. Ryan had a hard time with this, but once again, Dino just put his hand through it. Damn Iron Palm. I tried it next, and played absolute HELL. I have to give Dino credit though, he knew exactly what to tell me. (he was, in fact, more frustrated than I was, since he couldn't think of how to put it so I'd catch on)

Until he slapped himself on the forehead and said "Wing Strike"

That's all it took. One simple Crane Wing Strike, and split.

It was a good night.