Board Breaking Stands

Tamashiwari is the Japanese word for wood breaking and means "trial by wood". Many karate styles practice Tamashiwari only during belt testing. Some styles like Kyokushinkai teach Tamashiwari as part of regular class and require their members to break boards as a prerequisite to taking part in competitions or prior to promotion.

Tamashiwari can be dangerous and should be performed only under the supervision of an experienced instructor.

Use these stands to demonstrate your board breaking skill during practice and during testing. Using a professionally made board-breaking stand shows dedication to your martial art.

Instructors who teach Tamashiwari should have several professionally built board breaking stands in their dojo. This shows visiting instructors, parents and prospective students that they are a professional and serious organization.

Below is a photo of the Regular Board Breaking Stand that we sell. The width of the base is fixed at 24” wide. The depth of the stand is fixed at 7” deep. The height varies based on the height of the user and the type of the break being done on the stand.

For those who are unsure of the height needed for their stand, here are our recommendations:

Children under the age of ten should use an 18" stand to perform axe kick breaks (using the heel of their foot) and use a 24" stand to perform board breaks using a hammer fist.

Children from eleven to mid teens use the 24" for axe kicks and 28" stands for hand breaks.
Adults use the 28" or 32" stand for axe kicks and 36" stand for hand breaks.

Our online store lists all the available heights, prices and a selection of other woods available to make your stand including Pine, Red Oak and Brazilian Cherry.

Our stand below can be used to break standard 12” wide Pine break boards like the boards available at most home improvement stores. If you shop for breaking boards at your local home improvement store, please remember that 12” wide boards are really 11.25” wide when measured with a tape measure (if you don’t believe me take a tape measure with you on your next trip and measure the width of the 12” wide boards). All the board-breaking stands are made in our custom workshop and are made from knot-free furniture grade Pine and finished with Shellac.

For ease of shipping and to keep down the shipping cost (which you pay), your Board Breaking Stand is shipped in two parts. Hardware and tools are included for assembly.