Breaking is a martial arts skill, honed in art form, which is used in competition, testing and demonstration. The striking surface is usually a bare hand or a foot, but may also be a head, fingertip, toe, knuckle, elbow or knee.
The most common object is a wooden boards. But it is also to break other objects which include items like stones, blocks of ice, concrete blocks, bricks, baseball bats and more.
Competition can be based on artistic impression, number of items broken with a single strike, number of items broken in a given amount of time, or time to break a number of items.
Tameshiwari is not a purpose of martial art, but rather serves as a barometer of acquired strength and technique. Tameshiwari allows the martial artist to expend total effort and energy on an inanimate objects, and successful results are indicative of one who had mastered his art.
