I love breaking boards, bricks, barriers... whatever.
Those of you who know me well are probably thinking right now "Yes, but she she also loves sparring, forms - don't forget forms, and teaching, and learning, and competing, and officiating, and writing about martial arts, and reading about martial arts, and well... Kathy Wieczerza just loves doing martial arts!"
And you would of course be correct, but back to the point of this post.
I love breaking.
I understand why some martial artists don't and even scoff at the idea of breaking as part of martial arts. Many times I have heard "I'm not worried about being attacked by a tree or a block of concrete."
Breaking for me is not so much about a show of power or correctness of technique. It is a metaphor.
It is about going through something that seems harder than yourself. It is about not focusing on the problem that is blocking (pun intended) your way, but rather on what you need to do to get through to the other side.
It is also one of the few things in most of our modern day lives for which we get immediate and impartial feedback. There really is no question - it either breaks or it doesn't - it isn't a matter of what anyone else thinks...
There is so much to talk about with regards to the way that breaking can and has been used as a powerful and empowering tool that I almost did not want to start writing about it because the subject is just too big. Then I realized that it is just too big for a single post...
I love the picture at the beginning of this post. It is Richard. Yes it is a concrete. Yes it is on fire. Yes it is a cool break, but what is best about it was what it represented. Richard has had some of the hardest things in life to get through, but he did ... he broke through.
Respectfully,
Kathy Wiz
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