Adam Grogin’s specialty is breaking boards.
The 34-year-old third-degree black belt broke 18 out of 21 boards in the final to win the lightweight three-directional wood division at the International Sports Karate Association’s World Breaking Championships July 4 in Orlando, Fla.
It was Grogin’s first title in only his second appearance at the world championships.
“The win was more important than the quantity (of the boards broken),” said Grogin, who owns Pil-Sung Martial Arts on Central Avenue. “More often than not in those divisions, most people are not hitting 100 percent.”
Grogin said winning the competition wasn’t as easy as it looked to those who watched the finals on ESPN2.
“In this competition, you actually have to do it twice when you win because what happens is the first round in the morning. All 12 guys are up there and they do the best, and they take the top two,” said Grogin. “You then come back after lunchtime — after you’ve cooled down, all your energy is kind of gone — you’ve got to turn it on a second time. You also have to deal with the wear and tear on your body because your body gets a bit of bumps and bruises and sore from doing it the first time.
“Why I’m not upset with my number not being 100 percent is I was consistent. I hit a good number in round 1 and a good number in round 2, as opposed to a lot of guys that can’t repeat that. The consistency is the determining factor … because a lot of those guys are hitting close numbers. They’re only off by one or two. But they can’t do it twice.”
Grogin has had a long love affair with board breaking, dating back to his pre-teen years as a tae kwon do student.
“I fell in love with board breaking at that age (12). I liked the sense of accomplishment, the immediate results. You do it, you succeed, you feel good,” he said. “It’s not like a fight or a sparring match where you get a couple of points and they gets a couple of points, and it goes back and forth. It’s that moment of power and that natural high.”
Being slight in stature, Grogin said his martial arts achievements helped his self esteem.
“In my teen-age years, I was a pretty small-framed individual — not super big or super strong,” said Grogin, who is approximately 5 feet, 7 inches tall and 165 pounds. “So when I was able to start learning to harness that energy — that ki energy — it produced results that were impressive of somebody my size, average of somebody a larger size. That got attention, and I enjoyed that.”
Because of his height and weight, Grogin said he realized to become a great board breaker, he had to perfect his technique.
“Practicing for breaking, as I tell my students, is monotonous. It is boring, it is slow — nobody wants to commit to standing there and just going through a motion repetition over repetition, over and over again to build the muscle memory,” said Grogin. “But I realize that’s where the difference plays in. So, I just sit there with my headphones on listening to music for hours just going through the motions slow to build that muscle memory at a slow pace. So when I am ki-ed (energized), it all happens by itself.
“A lot of this stuff, it is physical, it’s physics. It’s not who’s bigger or stronger,” he added. “It’s about perfect technique and alignment, and in my opinion, that’s only about 10 percent of the total package. It’s all about that energy and focus.”
Grogin said winning a world title in one discipline this year is fueling his desire to win more titles in the future. And, he added he is closing in on several world records.
“There’s four events that are offered at that (ISKA) competition. This year, I competed in three of them,” said Grogin. “One was the one I won, which was the three-directional wood. One is a concrete arm, where you break patio bricks with your arm, and one is concrete kick. In concrete arm and concrete kick, I placed fourth in the world in both. I’m happy with that, but next year, I want to get to the finals for those two.”
