Brick Break - Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha

Grandmaster Rhee Ki Ha breaking a brick at a Taekwon-do seminar.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Taekwon-do
• Brick
• Break
• Grandmaster
• Rhee

[SeryiVolk2009]

Many years ago I saw Mr Rhee illustrate a finer point by three-inch punching a dojang wall. There was a wet thud and two knuckle marks were clearly visible. On closer examination it looked like someone had used the round end of a ball-pein hammer.

[0ptriX]

I wonder if knuckle conditioning like this will have an effect in later life.

[ferds7]

Don't they teach respect at your gym? It's also political crap like this that hurts Taekwondo. Every Grandmaster past their 60's that I've seen (only 3 or 4 so far) can break several bricks.

I believe it depends more on the individual and what kind of training they received then the organization they belong too. Every teacher & every student are different.

[josku3]

rhee ki ha is the man!

[kamikazie0282]

@0ptriX There has been debate as to whether or not it can cause long term damage, but the short answer is not really. All that really happens is it causes microfractures in the bone, which when healed make the bone more dense. If you look at a professional breaker's hand, you will notice that one of their hands is slightly bigger than the other (due to a build up of tissue) and that their knuckles are usually flat. it does not cause arthritis either.

[TKD906]

@MrMatthews92 GM Rhee is UKTA (United Kingdom TKD Association)

[The1Mickonator]

i met him at my grading

[micirv20]

@MrMatthews92 Yep



[MrMatthews92]

@micirv20 is that GTUK?

[Easyandy100]

@kcwliew I saw him do three with no gaps between them (cheating) just walked up to them and broke them. They didn't just break but more exploded. Awesome power.

[DABhand]

@SeryiVolk2009

One reasoning on why he did this was simple, I was in a school which was part of Master Rhee's Scottish academies, and he made 14yo+ boys do press-ups on the first two knuckles for grading so when we trained twice a week it was part of the warm up to do 20 of them on the knuckles, strengthens the knuckles to effectively do more damage if you mean to punch with them.

Great teacher and mentor, and he always remembered me - "You, have you fixed your annan sogi yet"

[kcwliew]

I like that... no heavy breathing, no waving of fingers, not even a wind up... nothing... just whack and walk away... best brick break I've ever seen.

[Tranxhead]

You live to a thousand before turning entirely into stone from all the conditioning.

[kaiwingwong]

@0ptriX it does, the cells of the knuckles are dying so later on, when elderly, the fingers and hands stiffen up and are extremely hard to move.