okay, we've all seen mas oyama or some generic karate dude karate chopping the necks off of bottles. is that stuff real? has anyone ever witnessed this in person?

ive also seen a monk pop a 12 oz beer bottle by palm thrusting the top of the bottle, so the bottom explodes.

ive seen jet li in dragons of the orient, break a beer bottle while holding it in one hand and hammerfisting it with the other wearing leather gloves.

I was just wondering if anyone has seen this stuff in person. because ive tried every one and only end up hurting the hell out of myself each time.

is it real?...

I'd reckon a lot depends on the type of bottle.

one of my teachers in china, the 'tai chi' teacher, did an interesting demonstration for us once.

we had something akin to a 'bench press' at the school. He took a brick, and laid it on the edge of the bench, such that one half (well, more) rested on the bench, and the other end was resting off the bench, ie hanging over the edge.

In a demonstration of 'soft' or 'relaxed' power, he raised his arm high and sort of 'limp noodled' it down in a chop using the outside edge of his hand.

He struck the brick such that he chopped it in half, something which some of his advanced students (mostly european) had learned to do in 3-6 months. What was different was that nothing secured the brick to the bench, but when he cleanly chopped it in half, the piece resting on the bench remained undisturbed. So, the half of the brick resting on the bench stayed there, and the half that hung over the edge then fell to the floor.