Part Seven - Martial Arts Stunts breaking tiles and breaks while defying blows from axes and hammers.
Greetings and welcome back!!
This week we finish up a multi-part series on spectacular martial arts stunts. Keep in mind, while some use trickery, others don’t and are just pure skill and the rules of physics. Some, honestly, require both skill and trickery. A couple, just trickery. It is, however, my contention that ultimately none of what is seen defies the laws of science or the rules of physics.
Oh yeah, almost forgot. DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. AND WATCHING THIS VIDEO AND READING THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT MEAN YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Seriously, are you stupid? These people are playing games with hammers, axes, and breaks on their half-naked, shirtless bodies. Does that sound like a good idea to you?
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As for this week’s political column, I do expect to write one, but it will probably be late. Please don’t worry if it does not arrive on Tuesday.
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The video shows a North Korean Tae Kwon Do demonstration team putting on a public performance. Much of what they show seems to defy the laws of science and physics? But does it? Let’s look closely and discuss what is happening.
As some of you may know I spent a lot of time writing skeptical, scientific investigations of unusual and seemingly impossible claims for publications such as The Skeptical Inquirer and others. I even wrote a pair of books, Scams from the Great Beyond, and More Scams from the Great Beyond, on such things back in the day. They are easily available for purchase at, where else?, Amazon.com if one would like.
To understand, the first step is simple.
Step One - Watch the Video.
Step Two - Look at My List of What Happens at What Point in this almost four and a half minute video.
We’ve covered these portions before in previous columns available in the archives.
0:00 - 0:45 Board breaking
0:46- 0:50 Gets kicked from all sides
0:50 - 1:08 Sticks smashed against body
1:08 - 1:45 Standing on a bed of nails and standing on broken glass
Then breaking boards
1:45 - 2:22 Bending a steel beam against one’s throat
All of these can be explained in the previous columns in this series. These should all be easily available in the archive.
This week we focus on the final segments of this video.
2:22 - 2:36 Blocks smashed against chest
This is pretty commonly seen. And what’s interesting about it is that there really is not much of a trick there at all. It’s basic physics.
The energy comes down in the form of the hammer, and then, as the hammer smashes and destroys the concrete block, it dissipates. In other words, the energy is used up in the destruction of the block and the pieces flying sideways in response to the strike from the hammer. Very little if any of the energy continues onward into the person below.
And even if the person is lying on a bed of nails, it doesn’t matter. Very little energy is passed through.
In an earlier post in this series, I wrote a bit about Michael Echanis, a famous martial artist and mercenary soldier in the 1970s who made a name for himself through training US military elite forces in intense, short term, martial arts programs where he put on demonstrations such as I am describing and spoke of how martial arts training can enable warriors to develop inexplicable abilities if they trained sufficiently with proper instruction. If you have heard of a non-fiction book called “The Men Who Stare at Goats” or the fictional film based very loosely on that book, he was the titular man who stared at goats as he had reportedly developed the belief that if he stared at goats long enough and hard enough he could kill them with the power of his mind. Having concrete blocks broken on his chest was part of his demonstrations. There is, by the way, no record of him ever staring goats to death, but it is recorded that he tried really, really, really hard, and it wasn't his fault that the goats survived his mighty yet intense gaze. “A for Effort,” and give that martial arts, soldier of fortune guy a participation trophy!
But back to rubblefying concrete with bare hands and feet . . .
For the record, when martial arts schools purchase building supplies like concrete blocks, boards, and bricks for breaking, they tend to purchase the low end, least expensive ones available for several reasons. This means they tend to be breaking low quality products. I mean, it’s not like they are planning to build something that lasts with them. The whole purpose is to smash them up to test yourself and impress others. Why pay for quality except perhaps in very special circumstances?
2:37- 2:46 Smashing bricks against arms
First let me preface this entire series of performances by saying there is no universal breaking strength for all pieces of similar construction material. It varies depending on several factors.
And it appears to me that these folks putting on this demonstration have managed to acquire a large quantity of very brittle, easy-to-break, ceramic tiles. Exactly why and how, I can only speculate. Are they perhaps some kind of movie prop type material specifically manufactured to be easily breakable? Such things are widely available for purchase on the web. Furthermore, it is an odd fact that Kim Jong Il, the second of the three Kims who have ruled North Korea, loved movies and produced a few himself so it seems very possible that part of the factory production of his strange country was devoted to producing breakable movie props. Or maybe there’s another explanation. I spoke to a friend who does pottery as a hobby about this and he told me it is normal procedure to kiln fire ceramic pieces twice. The first firing is just to bake the glaze on and set the piece. After the first firing, a piece is extremely brittle and easy to break until the second firing. The second firing, he said, is what makes them become hard and difficult to break. So it’s possible that they simply took ceramic roofing tiles that had only been given the first firing but not the second. Or perhaps they just got a whole shipment of factory rejects from the North Korean ceramic roof tile factory. I honestly don’t know, but in my opinion, a lot of this seems to show people using very brittle tiles.
2:46- 3:05 Smashing hammer against axe against hand on ceramic tile
To understand this portion, it really helps if you zoom in and expand the image while slowing down the video. When watched this way, it appears that as the hammer comes down to strike the axe, the arm pushes through the tiles AHEAD of the hammer.
Which begs the question, can a person do that? Can someone push their arm sideways through tiles? Well, honest answer is they can if the tiles are very brittle and weak. I mean, he’s obviously a fit and muscular guy, but this is much more explainable if we consider that these might not be normal tiles. If the tiles were chosen or constructed to be extremely brittle all these things are quite explainable.
3:06 - 3:22 Hammer comes down on hand and hand goes through tiles ahead of it
Same thing. When slowed down
3:23- 3:55 Lots of people smash lots of tiles
As with wood, there is no single strength for all forms of clay tile material. The breaking strength of the material varies depending on several factors.
COMPARATIVE STRENGTH OF TILES and SOURCING BRITTLE TILES AND BRICKS
There are several ways to make brittle (frangible?) tiles and bricks if one wishes and has the resources and time. Additionally, there are several places where one can purchase such products. And, of course, we're talking about North Korea, aka The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, one of the most secretive nations on Earth and a place with multiple secret projects, hidden laboratories, and underground factories. It’s perfectly possible that the breakable brick and tile factory is just down the street from the secret nuclear weapons factory and across the block from where Kim Jong Un used to make his films using kidnapped talent from abroad. 1
I mean, I can’t prove they are doing this, but it seems logical that if the North Korean regime can make nuclear weapons and high tech missiles, well, they can probably make some really brittle but realistic looking building materials too. Especially if they had a dictator who loved making films.
But I spent some time seeking online sources on how to make or purchase such materials and found these fairly quickly. I don’t endorse any of them and am sharing them just to give some sense of what is possible or available,
https://glassattic.com/polymer/baking.htm
https://applianceteacher.com/oven-baked-clay-done
https://community.ceramicartsdaily.org/topic/16604-making-breakable-cups/
https://alfonsosbreakawayglass.com/product-category/ceramic/
https://moviola.com/technique/the-secret-of-breakaway-props/
3:56- 4:25 Speech and Random shots of TKD stuff including board breaking
In conclusion, martial arts is a good way to build discipline, fitness, and, yes, self defense abilities. And a trained martial artist can do spectacular and amazing things. However, that does not mean they are capable of feats that defy science and the laws of physics. If they appear to be doing that, it’s time to dig deeper.
But don’t just ask “how?” —as Penn Jillette said in the film, “Penn and Teller Get Killed,” “don’t just ask how they do it, ask why?” 2
Footnotes
Oh please, you do know that story, right? How Kim Jong Il, the middle member of the three Kim family dictators of North Korea, loved movies and kidnapped foreign talent to help him make films? If not see the following: BBC -Kim Jong-il: The cinephile despot Published 19 December 2011 and Wikipedia - Abduction of Shin Sang-ok and Choi Eun-hee
There was a time, when this film was new, that it was a personal favorite and I watched it many, many times. I look back on that now with a bit of mystification, but we all live, we grow, we change.