I saw something that made me wince. The martial artists who strengthen their finger and toe joints to an unbelievable degree! They can withstand a striking force that would completely dislocate/injure a normal persons appendage regardless of physical size. This guy could break boards with a finger tip strike, thumb knuckle, or toe tip. Given the boards in demonstrations are fairly brittle as far as wood is concerned, but the fact that he was using something as fragile as his finger tips to do it was wild. He could beat on his toe tip with a 2x4 without a wince! He said it takes years and years of joint conditioning to achieve this. On the down side, his digits and joints were a bit misshapen. The knuckles were gnarled and his fingers weren't exactly straight when extended. To be able to focus the full force of the blow on such a small strike area greatly increases the damage done. I'll bet he gets terrible arthritis when he gets old though! It was quite impressive otherwise.

Those Shaolin monks can do some amazing things indeed. I once saw one leaning with his neck on a spear - the spear tip was lying against his neck, just where it joins your torso, in that little hole in between those two bones on the top of your rib cage (sleutelbeenderen in Dutch, don't know how to call it in English) and then the guy just leaned forward - without holding the spear with his hands of course - until the spear actually broke. Now any normal person would have a punctured throat from that, but this guy didn't have a scratch on him. In AD&D/BG terms, he would've been 'Immune to Normal Weapons'. :eek:

I saw something similar to that, but it wasn't a spear, this guy rested one end of a stout pole on his neck muscles, the other end on the back of a car, and he pushed it along just by walking and tensing his neck muscles.
In fact, if you want to know more, I expect you could ask Lord Shield, he's the one to know about this sort of thing.

Some of the stuff they do is unreal. Like walking on a paper thin sheet, or punching dents into steel! (And not being hurt!) I wish I could do some of that stuff.

Yes I know, it takes years. My drilling utensil for example. Misshapen and calloused, but its really hard now.

No you don't RB, to do these kinds of stunts you have to be freakishly obssesive and have no normal life as a human being. The guys who do this stuff devote every minute to it. Its fine if you don't mind being a one dimensional person. But try and sit down and have a normal conversation with them and you find a lack of breadth to their personality....or at least in my experience that has been the case.

<font color=skyblue>!!!er...no comment!!!</font>

:D

actually, I am one of those people. I know several who are. It doesnt mean you dont have a life, however some people take it to the extreme and that is all they do. Arthritis usually only occur's in the late 70's to 80's and in some not all as long the practice, it happens when you completely stop doing your training. it can be a lot of fun and yes I admit you have to be a bit touched, or as my wife likes to say " Your friggin crazy, I'm glad you love me" I am not as extreme as most those people, but I can break board's and brick's and there not pre cut or baked to make them brittle. That was a cool show on the learning channel, that style was goju ryu, Karate and some of the higher rank's are very intense.

Elif, I was refering to the extremeists, you dont have to be all that dedicated to break boards or bricks. I was breaking boards as a kid and I never took a single lesson. I will say that the bricks are more of a challenge [img]smile.gif[/img] but I used a palm strike so it may not count.