Rebreakable Boards

[Dean]

Hey everyone,

So I have read mixed reviews of rebreakable boards, and I wanted to
see if anyone wanted to comment. Here are what I've collected thus
far:

Pros:
1) More affordable over time. A good rebreakable board will be around
$20, and can be used more times than 20 single breakable boards.
2) Easier clean-up. No having to clean up splinters and board
fragments from the floor, no having to find a way to dispose of broken
boards.

Cons:
1) A super-small target area. I've read that you need to hit a re-
breakable board precisely on the crack to get it to break, and while
this is good training for focus, the target spot on actual wooden
boards is much larger.
2) Price. They are around $20, which will pay for itself eventually,
but only 20-boards-eventually.
3) They do not make a cool sound when they break. And do not
explode :-)

My final thought is: until we find a way to get more money for the IS
(i.e. more IS facilitators than me have a job) we can only afford so
many boards with the $$ from the eqpmnt fee etc. I'd be more than
happy to just buy boards w/ my own money (as I have with the infamous
Home Depot/Menards boards in the past), but ultimately this is a
crappy solution unless others can chip in (you're not allowed Dr.
Dave, since you already do so much for the club and intersession
already!). With that caveat in mind, a re-breakable board will let
everyone practice their break before getting wood...and also lets the
club practice before demos without having to use up wood.

What do you think?

[Michael F. Driscoll]

I used some rebreakable boards in my martial art here at UIUC and they work really well. While the target area is kind of small, it's really not that bad for trying to break the board, the constant reusability more than makes up for their cost. I would be willing to toss a few bucks to buy some of the boards, I was considering buying one anyways for the club at some point. If we get two or three boards we can have the entire class go through and break them in a couple lines and I think would greatly benefit the whole learning experience.

-Bo

University of Illinois at Urbana & Champaign
EOH & IEEE Corporate Committee

[Amanda]

I agree with Bo- although we want some real boards too, it might be
beneficial for club and for i-s. and $$$-wise it's much more practical
than more boards. so like, 2 boards per person and 2 rebreakable
ones.. or something <- my vote.

[Dean]

I asked Lucy to try posting this again (she ran into the not-able-to-
post issue), but I think she may have *tear* forgotten me. So I'll
post her thoughts:

I think getting the rebreakable boards is a great idea, but I don't
think that we should completely throw away the concept of using normal
wooden boards. Everyone should get the experience of breaking an
actual board at least once. But the rebreakable boards would be good
for practice.

Just my two cents.

~Lucy