Martial Arts

Cloud Easton
April 10
Breaking tile

Today I headed out to martial arts, same as ever, and I had an unexpected experience. My Sifu (instructor) informed us we would be breaking tiles for the first time. These ceramic tiles are thick and strong and will either hold perfectly or shatter violently. The way we were showed to break the tiles was with a snap of the fist and using the energy to crush the tile. Being fortunate enough to hold the tiles I didn't fully appreciate what this meant for me. These ceramics, when broken, would fly and were incredibly sharp. While a friend of mine broke his tile my arm was cut and uniform shredded from the pieces comming at me. Then when it became my turn to hit and break I got to understand just what it meant to screw this up. Punching the tile wrong I managed to break my right hands middle knuckle. Switching hands I had an inceadibly euphoric occurrence. Hitting the tile correctly I shattered the tile (and my other set of knuckles) but actually saw the break. as I hit I saw each and every movement of each piece as they flew about. For a moment time slowed fro me and I had never been so aware of my surroundings as I had been at that moment.