In a Sport Science video it was pointed out that it takes about 740 lbs of force to break a baseball bat (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTuDnueBb9c). Therefore I am astonished that Japanese Karate fighter Rina Takeda is able to break a baseball bat with one kick. She is only 5'2 and very slim (about 112 lbs). How can she mobilize a force 7 times greater than her weight? This video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHKpcayYRGw) shows the break at 3:27-3:40. How is this possible?
I'm always very suspicious of any numbers that Sports Science gives out. They like to us the largest-sounding number they can even when it gives a false impression.
F=MA. So, the force required to break a bat would be 520lbs, which roughly equals 236kg. If she is able to put her bodyweight into the kick, it wouldn't be hard to generate the acceleration required to produce enough force to break the bat. Even if less than half her bodyweight was put into it (say 20kg) all the acceleration required would be a little over 11ms-2. There's a reason that you see a bat break when a baseball hits it from a particularly hard pitch and swing at times- because even though there's so little mass, the force it produces upon contact with the bat due to both its own and the bat's acceleration is enormous.
I saw it in one of those magic trick revealed shows. There is actually a cut made into the bat beforehand, prior to the girl kicking it. Simple really.
The force required is just not that great,if you commit to it you'll do it no problem at all,the only 'trick' involved is not hurting yourself to badly in the process .
Cheating is always easy. Doing it properly is hard. There are plenty of people who put pride in doing it properly without cheating.
Man I highly doubt she legitly did that. She didnt even put her body into it. When you see actual Muay Thai guys break those bats they are leaning so hard into the side with the bat, shes standing pretty much vertical. And she doesnt even fucking swing her arms to get that extra momentum/torque or whatever. Her right arm is static when it should be swinging as hard as she can in the opposite direction of her kicking leg. Fraudulent video.
Maybe not. but how about a former japanese champion (girls u18 division) of bogu kumite (full contact free fighting wearing body vests & helmets). Her martial art background is legit, even if her acting skill is not. Im not categorically saying she didn't cheat. She is into showbiz now after all. But I do not find it hard to believe that she knows how to do it. Anyone thinking karate people frequently do not break baseball-bats for real, is deluding themselves.
Bit of physics trivia, if you jump from a metre up and land stiff legged you generate 100G, momentarily. Impressive sounding isn't it? The average sneeze is about 3G's.
