As part of our commitment to keeping you up to date on the latest martial arts news both within in our community and in the outside world, we like to keep an eye on what’s happening with the Guinness Book of World Records. Digging through the hundreds of martial arts-related records that Guinness has on its books is a fascinating look into the wide-ranging applications that our martial arts training can have. Whether you’re into more traditional demonstrations of solid martial arts techniques like the number of strikes that a martial artist can land in a set amount of time, or intrigued by the more whimsical applications of those techniques that are shown off in entries like “Most walnuts smashed with a nunchaku in one minute,” there’s something in their archives to remind everyone of the wild and wonderful places that our training can take us. 

A recent profile on a head-to-head team record challenge that took place on Chinese TV reminded us that it’s been a while since we last checked in on all things Guinness Book of World Records, so we wanted to dedicate this week’s blog to some of the cool and inspiring records that we might have missed in our previous looks at their martial arts records.

Most people to forward flip off a trampoline onto a platform in one minute.

In January of 2016, students from two martial arts schools competed against each other in an attempt to break this record on an episode of the Guinness World Records Special filmed in Beijing, China. 

“This record involves jumping from the trampoline and flipping onto a 4 ft x 3 ft (122 cm x 94 cm) platform, with each participant having to remain on the platform after they’ve landed,” Riley Baker explain in the official Guinness World Records website’s new profile on the event.  “Due to ever decreasing amount of space, teams must invent creative techniques to stack as many of their teammates onto the platform as possible. Speed is vital not just in flipping onto the platform but also in getting into your position as quickly as possible to allow the next team mate to flip, making this a very challenging record to break that only becomes harder with time as the human tower grows higher.”

At the end of this tense but thrilling face off, both the Zhonghua Martial Arts School and Tagou Martial Arts School teams ended up tying for a new world record of 36 flips, shattering the previous record of 26. 

Most drinks cans crushed by hand while holding an egg in 30 seconds.

The record itself might be a bit silly and whimsical, but the precision behind this particular world record is a fun and enlightening demonstration of the level of care and precision that martial arts can teach us. 

As part of his mission to hold every martial arts record in Guinness history, Pakistani martial arts pro Muhammad Rashid made this successful attempt last summer. Sailing through the demonstration with a blistering almost one can per second speed, the founder and president of the Pakistan Academy of Martial Arts managed to set a new record with 29 cans — all with the egg remaining perfectly intact in his hand. 

Rashid also holds records in non-egg-holding can smashing, creative bottle cap removal, and coconut crushing. For more information on his Guinness career, see this profile on his latest work from the official Guinness site.

To see him in action, check out the video below:

Largest Taekwondo display.

We looked at the Largest Wing Chun Demonstration in our 2016 blog on world records. Now let’s see what other disciplines have been up to since then:

Jayanth Reddy, a martial arts master with over three decades of experience and the head of the Jayanth Reddy International Taekwondo Academy in India, spearheaded this attempt after setting a similar but slightly less ambitious record (Largest Taekwondo display, multiple venues) in 2014. In association with the Indian Martial Arts Academy Team, Reddy assembled 1,152 martial arts students — all wearing the traditional dobok — from across the country at the Saroor Nagar Outdoor Stadium in Hyderabad, India. 

“In order to achieve the title, everyone had to perform the martial arts routine simultaneously for a minimum of ten minutes and to a reasonable standard,” the Guinness article on this attempt states. And that’s exactly what this impressive team of students did, beating the previous record, set in India in 2016, by 161 people.

Fastest time to break 16 concrete blocks on the body (male).

Finally, in the Don’t Try This At Home department, we have this dramatic, impressive, and intimidating record. 

Ali Bahçetepe is a martial arts expert who likes to smash two things: concrete block and Guinness World Records. And he’s broken a number of the latter by breaking a lot of the former. Last year, Bahçetepe set out to beat his own record in this category, 6.33 seconds, during an event in Milas Cumhuriyet Square, Muğla, Turkey.

“Ali lay on the ground and the pile of 16 heavy concrete blocks were balanced on top of his incredibly strong stomach,” Rachel Swatman writes of the attempt for Guinness. “Then an assistant used a 6.35 kg (14 lb) sledgehammer to break the blocks, as fast as Ali could withstand.”

The entire took just 4.75 seconds, earning Bahçetepe a brand new record. 

For more information on martial arts world records, check out our previous blogs on the topic: 10 Weird and Wonderful Martial Arts Records (and Some Suggestions to Help You Break Them), Meet Isao Machii: Katana (and Guinness World Record) Master, and Tae Kwon Do Champ Sets New World Record By Breaking 111 Blocks… With His Head.

And don’t forget to check out our online store. We’ve got all of the martial arts supplies you need to attempt to break some world records of your own. (But seriously, leave that last one to the professionals.)