Where did my journey as a multiple-time martial arts world-breaking champion begin? I cannot say for sure what year it was, but I can tell you where I was. I was sitting in my living room, watching TSN, The Sports Network here in Canada. What came on the television screen that day was something I had no idea would shape my future. I was just a high school student taking Taekwondo, and there I was, watching extraordinary martial artists break boards, concrete, and baseball bats with their bare fists, elbows, shins, and feet. Among these breakers, two names stood out: Chip Townsend and Larry Fields. Remember these names for later.
Fast forward a few years to 2004 or 2005, and I am a young Taekwondo Black Belt running my own Taekwondo academy, Cobourg Tae Kwon Do, located in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. I was teaching Taekwondo classes to young children, teens, and adults while competing in open martial arts tournaments across southern Ontario in events like forms, weapons, self-defense, and breaking. To improve my breaking skills, I purchased a VHS set of instructional videos on breaking by Larry Fields. In the videos, Larry gave out his telephone number, encouraging viewers to contact him about breaking. So, I did. He advised me to compete in breaking tournaments to gain experience and to attend the US OPEN held in Orlando, Florida every year.
A few more years passed, and I found myself at the 2007 US OPEN at the Coronado Spring Resort at Disney World. I walked into the main competition venue, looking for the Friday-breaking competition area. Walking toward the USBA/WBA (United States and World Breaking Association) breaking competition area, the first breaker I met in person was Larry Fields. He welcomed my parents and me to the competition and thought my father’s name was cool since my dad’s name is Larry Field. I competed in a few power board-breaking and creative board-breaking events, winning second, third, and fourth places. Not bad for my first international tournament.
The following day, we watched the ISKA World Breaking Championships on the ISKA Night of Champions stage, where some of the best breakers in the world competed. Watching what these breakers could do in person got me thinking: I can do that! I came home that weekend and started training, putting together a small team to compete at the 2008 US OPEN, the birth of Team Wolverine. Over the next few years, Team Wolverine and I regularly competed at the US OPEN in the USBA/WBA and ISKA events, winning numerous US OPEN championships and USBA/WBA World Championships.
Then, in 2011, after chasing the ISKA World Championship since 2008, I won the big one: The 2011 ISKA World Breaking Championship for Men’s Lightweight Three Directional Board Breaking. I narrowly missed winning by one board in 2012, 2013, and 2014. My total number of boards broken was higher each year, so that in itself was a success, even if I didn’t win first place. That’s how I viewed success in competitive breaking. If I didn’t win a division, I aimed to break more boards or concrete than the last time. If I did, that was a personal win for me. As I tell my students, I may have several world titles, first-place trophies, and medals, but I also have far more seconds, thirds, and fourths. Those second, third, and fourth places taught me more and motivated me more than the first places ever did.
Throughout my career, up to the point of writing this article, I have won twelve World Championships in competitive breaking and have also held twelve world martial arts records. Winning World Championships, both as an amateur and professional, definitely adds to my career highlights. However, there is something a little extra special about setting or beating a new world record and focusing all your training on one particular break or set of breaks that challenge you to go above and beyond your perceived self-limitations. I have done numerous solo and team world records, breaking both spaced and unspaced boards, with unspaced being the most challenging to break.
I remember the first world record I ever set. At the US OPEN in 2013, I broke the most unspaced boards with a heel stomp in 30 seconds. I remember thinking, “What did I get myself into?” as my boards were all set up in a small aisle surrounded by hundreds of onlookers and a cameraman and reporter from a Fight channel whose name I cannot precisely recall. I set the new world record, but it definitely wasn’t my best one as I had lots to learn about world records. From there, I accomplished another eleven records. Some were solo, and others were part of a team. These world records included such breaks as 50 unspaced boards with palm strikes as fast as possible, most boards broken with various roundhouse kicks in ten seconds, 200 boards broken as fast as possible by a four-person team, most self-held boards broken by vertical punch in one minute, and so on.
Two world records stand out in my mind as the most challenging. Not so much physically, though they were, but more so mentally. The first one was when I broke thirty boards in 19.1 seconds using only the tips of the fingers on my right hand. Logically, you shouldn’t be able to do that, but with the proper training, something that seems impossible can become possible. The second was when I ran a half marathon around an indoor running track at the Cobourg Community Centre while breaking 250 boards in the fastest time possible. I trained for eight and a half months for this record by running barefoot for two to three hours on a treadmill facing the wall in my basement. I made the training mentally challenging and tedious, so it was easier physically and mentally when I did the record. Not so much… I reinjured my groin and had to run the record with a severely injured groin—an old injury from a few years prior. But when you start something, you must prove you can finish it.
Even though I have competed in numerous World Championships between 2008 and 2023 for the ISKA, the USBA/WBA, and the Kokoro Breaking Federation, the 2014 ISKA World Championships stand out the most. Not because I won, but because I won and lost all at once. Before 2014, the ISKA World Breaking Championships were one-round events. In each round you competed in, you only had one chance at winning. Either you broke the most and won, or you didn’t. In 2014, they decided to have two rounds for each event. The top two competitors from round one would compete again in round two. I won the first rounds in Three Directional Wood and Power Kick Concrete.
In Three Directional Wood, I went up against Larry Fields in the second round, having beaten him in the first round by one board. Well, one of my boards decided not to break in the second round, and I lost by one board. Okay, I had another chance to win in the second round for Power Kick Concrete. This time, however, I had to compete once again against Larry Fields and another competitor, Nick Zambri, who is a really good friend of mine. They both took their turns first, with Nick Zambri beating out Larry Fields. All I had to do was break my whole stack of concrete for the win. I kicked the stack as hard as I could, but the first concrete block exploded and crumbled into a thousand pieces, absorbing all my power. Well, at least I lost to a good friend.
I learned two crucial breaking lessons from that competition. One, be extra selective when choosing your holders for breaking. You need the best helpers who will not move when you strike your boards. When watching the video back, I could see one of the holders moving a bit when I hit the stack of boards. Board holders are just as crucial as the breakers themselves. The second lesson was to ensure lighter or softer concrete blocks go on the bottom of your stack or the back of a stack. If not, you could end up crumbling the softer blocks, thereby not allowing your power to transfer all the way through, which is what you want. As I have previously mentioned, sometimes learning and gaining experience is more valuable than the win itself, even though championship belts are nice, too!
Between 2007 and 2019, Team Wolverine and I competed all across the East Coast of North America, England, and Ireland, participating in hundreds, if not thousands, of breaking events, winning numerous World Titles, North American Titles, and European Titles, as well as setting and beating numerous competition and world records. I have lost count of how many we have. But what was more important than the titles won, the competition or world records achieved, was the team’s unity and how they looked out for each other and did what was best for their teammates. I also saw fellow teammates build confidence and leadership skills while achieving their goals in competition and life. I have been fortunate to have had some of the teammates I have had.
When the pandemic hit the world in 2020, everything shut down. There was no traveling or competing. Between 2020 and 2021, there was no competition for me. I returned to compete at the 2022 Kokoro Breaking Federation World Championships held at the International Martial Arts Festival in Florida, placing second in Creative Breaking and setting a new world record during their night show. It was good to be back to competing. Then, in 2023, I competed again at the Kokoro Breaking Federation World Championships, placing third in creative breaking. I just can’t seem to win this event. Even in the ISKA, I would end up placing third, fourth, third, and second in creative breaking. I have won numerous world titles in Power Breaking, Speed Breaking, and High Jump Breaking, but Creative is my unicorn. However, I aim to win one creative breaking world title before retiring from competitive breaking. It’s hard to beat someone who never gives up, and I am that person.
Competing in competitive breaking hasn’t only been about chasing world title belts or setting new world records; it has also been a method of inspiring others to accomplish things they thought they could never do. Often, when I teach seminars at other martial arts schools across North America, I hear students and school owners say they did breaks during my workshops that they had never done before or thought they could never do. They only needed to learn how to do the particular break and have someone believe in them. Once they complete their break, they have more confidence and self-belief, which is very powerful.
I have been lucky enough to meet some fantastic world-class martial arts champions and fortunate enough to call some of them friends. There have been too many martial artists to mention here, but I want to acknowledge a few who have been most influential regarding my competitive breaking career. Master Larry Fields, whom I have mentioned before. Grandmaster Chip Townsend, who was kind enough to have me live with him and his family for a week in Texas and train me in Taekwondo and breaking. Dai Sifu Keith Fanning from Ireland has become my primary teacher in breaking and conditioning. Grandmaster Nick Zambri from Florida, who invites me into his home with his family every time I come to Florida. I also work with him as a fellow American Breaking Combative Taekwondo Federation director. My students have benefited directly and indirectly from the wisdom these masters and world-breaking champions have shared with me.
A few more people were instrumental in my breaking career. The late Grandmaster Jean Dube was the first to believe I could become a world champion someday, and I will never forget the wisdom he gave me. And my mom and dad, who attended many of my tournaments to support me, especially my dad, who was my training partner when I was winning many of the power board breaking and kicking events. He trained with me every day, including Christmas mornings. Once, at a tournament, a fellow competitor asked one of my students how I could kick so hard. He said, “He trains every day.” That was the absolute truth, as I did train every day for about two to two and a half years. To get good at something, you have to be consistent in your training or practicing. If there is a secret to getting good at anything, it is your consistency of training and discipline when you don’t feel like training, but you do anyway. To quote one of my students, “You can and you will… it’s all a mindset!”
Through all the experience I have gained throughout my competitive career, I have been able to enhance our students’ experience at the academy through a structured board-breaking curriculum within our belt testing requirements that allows the students to challenge themselves with more complex breaks as they climb the color belt and black belt ranks. Besides just learning how to break boards and concrete, they learn how breaking is a metaphor for breaking through barriers in life that might be holding them back. Students also learn how breaking relates to their self-defense techniques and how it is interwoven through all areas of their training, which they can put on display during belt promotions, demonstrations, our annual Southern Ontario Spring Martial Arts International tournament held every May, and more.
Like Taekwondo, breaking becomes a part of who you are and how you live your life. Your dedication and discipline to training should translate to all other areas of your life.
Kwan Jang Nim Jonathan Field
7th Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo under Veronica DeSantos
6th Dan Moo Duk Kwan
5th Dan Kukkiwon
