lundi 7 février 2011

Heavy Breaking

I'm going to make more friends over this one...

Kyuzo Mifune (1883 -1965) was already a 6th dan in Judo at the age of 30. In 1945 he became the fourth person to be promoted to 10th dan. He taught at the Kodokan, where he became the chief instructor and at numerous universities, police departments and military academies. Mifune Sensei practiced Judo throughout his life, he was a referee in the Tokyo Olympics, in 1964, less than a year before his death.

Once when as he was visiting a Karate Dojo, one of the Karate men demonstrated breaking. After the guy had smashed a number of tile piled on top of each other, he asked Mifune Sensei :
"Can a Judo man do that?"
"Yes, very easy!" replied Mifune
"Is that right ? I'd love to see what kind of technique Judo uses to break tiles ?"
"No problem, just set up the tiles, I'll be right back."

Mifune came back with a hammer he had in his bag.

The Karate Man looked at him surprised : "You are not going to use this hammer to break the tiles are you ? "

"Oh yes I will ! I told you it was easy ! Efficient use of energy is the key principle of Judo..."


Being able to break hard stuff is an exercise some Karate people enjoy. Some of them are amazing in their expertise at breaking hard things. Our Grand Master Katsuoh Yamamoto himself holds a world record of ice breaking. It can be extremely impressive. I would not advise anyone to try to break a baseball bat without the proper training. It takes lots of guts, hard work and perfect technique to break certain things. The ability to break hard and heavy stuff shows guts, courage and dedication, it also requires the proper technique. It is not however, an indication of one's ability to fight.


"Concrete blocks or baseball bats don't strike back". 

(Shihan Travis Page)

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