How To Break Down A Door
April 8, 2008
Alright, let’s get this out of the way first: kicking down a door is not the best option for opening a locked door. It will damage the door and cost you lots of money to fix it. It is better to call a locksmith, pick the lock, or attempt to crawl in a window.
But let’s say it’s an emergency. You’re in a burning house and you need to escape and the door is on fire. Or your loved ones are in a burning house and you’re locked out. You can’t stand there fiddling with the lock, you’ve got to break it down! Or perhaps a loved one is stricken with a medical emergency and is locked inside a room or in their house. What to do? Be a man, dammit! Break down that door! You know you’ve always wanted to.
How to break down a door
If you have watched enough movies, your next move is a no brainer….run at the door shoulder first, right? Wrong. This technique may be uber-manly, but it will probably dislocate your shoulder. It is better to employ a more forceful and well placed kick.
Check to see which way the door opens by checking the hinges. If the door opens towards you, kicking it down is going to be next to impossible. Kicking a door down is best employed on a door that swings away from you.
Kick to the side of where the lock is mounted (near the keyhole). This is typically the weakest part of the door.
Using a front kick, drive the heel of your foot into the door. Give the kick forward momentum and keep your balance by driving the heel of your standing foot into the ground. Don’t kick the lock itself; this could break your foot.
The wood should begin to splinter. Today most doors are made of soft wood and are hollow. They should give way fairly easily, especially since the lock’s deadlock bolt extends only an inch or less into the door frame. Older, completely solid doors will prove more resistant. Just keep on kicking until the door gives way and you can save the day.
Avoid jump kicks. While you may be tempted to employ this manly move, jumping diminishes your stability which causes you to lose power.
If you liked this article, please bookmark it on del.icio.us or vote for it on Digg. I’d appreciate it.
Subscribe to Art of Manliness by RSS or email to get your FREE guide to being a gentleman in 2008.
I think you should tell us whether you’ve ever tried this. I locked myself out of my apartment many years ago and attempted to break the door in. Zero success - fortunately no one was looking.
It isn’t as easy as it seems in the movies. Have you actually done it or have you just made this up?
Great, now I wish I had a door that I could afford kicking down :p
Only interior doors are soft and hollow. Besides interior doors with locks are easity opened with a screwdriver.
Most exterior doors are thicker and reinforced for strength. I don’t think one kick is going to do it. 10-20 maybe.
Chris
How about a follow-up post on how to pick a lock? You know, for those occasions when Bruce Lee tactics don’t work or aren’t appropriate, maybe some James Bond will do?
An additional tip is to imagine the impact of your kick being around 30 or 40 centimeters further away. This is a tip from Bruce Lee also for punching.
Many blessings to all,
Art Gonzalez
Check my Squidoo Lens at: Quantum Knights
This might be effective when applied to the right situation. It is a heel kick that is part of the Pankration martial arts. The url links to a video from Discovery’s The Human Weapon. Completely safe for work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPvJHIyFTII
In my line of work I have kicked a lot of doors. The best way I have found is a mule kick. With your back facing the door, you kick backwards and aim about six inches to the side of the handle and lock. 90% of the time, the jamb will split in 1 or 2 kicks. Using this method lessens the chances of hyper-extending your knee.
When using a front kick, most people have the problem that they choose the door as thier target and only kick the surface, this will do nothing but make you look foolish. As with a well places punch, your target isn’t the surface of what you are trying to hit, but actually 3-4 inches behind it. In the case of a punch to the face, your target isn’t the face it’s self, but the back of the skull, the face is just in the way. With the door you want to try to kick THROUGH the door, not just the doors surface. This is why the mule kick listed above works so well, being turned away from your target, you don’t stop the kick on the surface, but behind the surface. However a front kick is more accurate and capable of generating more force. Another piece of information to take to heart is, kick solid objects, like doors, with your heel. If you land this kick closer to the toe, you can easily hyper extend your foot and be in a lot of pain. Since the heel is in line with the leg, the leg is able to absorb more of the shock without causing the foot to flex. Using this kick, I can splinter a door jam on a solid door with 3 or fewer kicks.
My exterior door most definitely would succumb to a well-placed kick. My 3 year old daughter loves to launch her whole body at it and try and break it down… The sad thing is if she could just launch her body a little higher she’d probably successfully break it open, too.
Now what I really want (need) to know is how to cut through a bicycle lock. One of those uber-strong theft-proof spiral cord locks. Our bicycle has been locked on our balcony since last summer thanks to a very, very, very lost key.
Just carry around a bump key. They’re cheap and accessible from almost any locksmith, and best part is it takes about a minute to bust through any lock/deadbolt.
“This is typically the weakest part of the door.”
It’s not. The weakest part is actually the top (and bottom) corner opposite the hinges. The door lock is the strongest part on that side, but it is the only area on that side with solid but breakable resistance.
If you put the pressure on the top or bottom corner, the force will push the door back but will also distribute through the surface of the door. Kick near the lock and the force is put where you want it: with the resistance from the lock (the door will not “give” and distribute the force into the rest of the door).
I have broken down a door. It was locked and the only way in was breaking it down.
Two things… I kicked on the side with the hinges and it caved with my first kick. I found that screws tear out of the wood rather easily.
Second, it cost less than a dollar to fix.
Other than that, this article seems to echo my own experience quite accurately.
I loved this post - both for the practical value and also because I couldn’t imagine another blog posting stuff like this, gave me a good chuckle. Thumbs up!
@ Albert Thanks! That’s what we’re here for-discussing important, yet often overlooked man skills.
@Everyone else Thanks for the comments, contributions, and sharing your experiences kicking down doors. I’ve learned some new things.
makes me wonder if Chuck Norris wouldn’t have written the same thing on his blog…
Good post and interesting responses. I tried to kick open a door of a house that was on fire as a teen, but couldn’t do it. A neighbor came by and broke the door down shortly afterwards. Good skill to have.
I’ve kicked down two doors in my life. The first went on the first kick. The door didnt even break, it just swung open and the only damage was to the lock itself. The pin (im not sure if thats what its called but its the bar that stops the door from opening) flew out into the room. The second time it took 3 kicks. The area around the lock was completely destroyed but the door flew open.
My 2 year old daughter locked herself into a public bathroom–steel door, steel frame. Her mother went to find an attendant with a key and everything was cool until my daughter stopped answering me. I used the shoulder ram technique and while the door opened, it hurt like hell the next few days.
Freaking common sense tips secondary to basic physics. Ridiculous post.
Last Friday night I locked myself out of my apt and couldn’t get a hold of my roommate. I did everything I could to reach him but no luck. So since I was drunk I decided I would just try to break it down. I used the shoulder ram technique and 3 hits and 15 seconds later the door swung open and I was in. No bruises or pain of any kind the next day (it obviously didn’t hurt at the time either because I was drunk, I can’t say how much it would’ve hurt if I was sober though). Unfortunately I did a crappy job of putting the lock back in and had to have my landlord fix it for me the next day so I could get OUT of my apt. In the end though the door had to be replaced (I get to pay for it), but the locks were intact and are now being used on the new door.
Jason, I assume your daughter was okay?
Well, I hope to not have to use this skill, but now I’ve got it just in case.
Danke!
Man I shouldn’t have read this right before bed…now I am going to dream of kicking down doors, and wake up tomorrow looking for the chance to do it.
I’ve broken down 2 doors in my life. Very invigorating hehe.
1st was an old solid wooden bathroom door. Father-in-law tried to break it open in vain. So I gave it a shot, and front-kicked the area next to the lock. The door knob lock deformed & shot out of the door. Apt management replaced the door =D.
2nd was a steel door at the gym. The lock stuck, trapping me in the locker room. I wasn’t waiting around (alone in the gym on a snowy evening), so I also front-kicked the area next to the lock and blasted it open on first try. The steel door, lock, and door frame were all twisted. If you weight-train, make sure to do your squats!
I had to break down about 30 doors when I was working in New Orleans (for various reasons), and none of them were easy. You wouldn’t have any success kicking through the ones that I dealt with.
I kicked in a dozen or so doors in my house in New Orleans after Katrina. If you do it right, its easy. Some of the real solid doors were tough, especially when they soaked up water and expanded. Use an axe for those.
Took my house door down with my shoulder… but I guess that’s easier when you’re a 350lb biker. Liked it better using the battering ram we had in the MP corps though… much more fun.
I’ve never kicked one down but I’ve seen one kicked down. A gal locked herself in the bathroom at the restaurant where I worked several years ago and one of the chefs, a beefy ex-soldier, kicked that sucker in just as described above with one kick.
I had opportunity to witness 2 soccer players unsuccessfully kick in their apartment door (made me smile as I’m not a jock). I asked to try. Front kick nor mule kick worked, but my shoulder sent the whole door, hinges and all flying. FYI, the door was aluminum with a wooden frame. *grunts* It was fun. Thanks for reminding me of a good memory.
I have a door security product on all my doors and no one will be able to kick in my door! Not even Bruce Lee! (R.I.P.)
It’s from a website called http://www.invasionproof.com