Why you should aim next to the doorknob, explained

Each week, Good Weekend’s how-to column shares expert advice on how to navigate some of modern life’s big – and small – challenges. This week: How to kick in a door.

“The first thing you’ve gotta do is make sure that the door opens away from you, because there’s obviously no point kicking one that opens towards you,” says Dan Hampton, a former NSW cop who used to work the Maroubra beat in Sydney’s east, and has put his boot into a fair few. He says the key to getting through a door (one made of wood, not steel) is surprisingly simple: “Kick it just next to the doorknob.”

Why? Because hitting this spot targets the structurally weakest part of the door, concentrating force where the lock meets the frame and causing the wood to splinter. “Sometimes you’ll feel like a hero and get it first go but, often, it’ll take two tries before it bursts open,” he says. Personally, I’d feel like a legend if this happened at all, but I’m also the sort of person who’d try to kick in a door that opens towards me.

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There’s a handful of legitimate reasons why you might want to do this instead of just knocking (assuming your name doesn’t end in “Van Damme”). Most of them have to do with nailing crooks or rescuing someone in danger on the other side. Hampton has been in both situations (he also once did it in his own share-house when he was plastered, but that’s another story). He weighed 100 kilograms at the time and wore Strike Force boots; I’m 70 kilograms and wear New Balance sneakers. Surely size matters?

“If it’s a normal door with no deadlocks, most people will get through it,” he says. “It’s psychological, especially the first time. You just need to lean into it, transferring as much power as you can from your body weight into the kick.”

What if the door has multiple deadlocks, as many modern fit-outs do? “You have no hope of kicking that door in, so don’t even bother,” laughs Hampton. Another tip for the uninitiated: it may look like an easy, shiny target, but never kick the doorknob itself: it’s “just a good way to twist your ankle”.

Still not psyched up enough? Fake it ’til you make it. “We mimic what the police do,” says Daniele Clements, an Australian stunt actor whose credits involve the upcoming Street Fighter reboot. “Also, the effects team can create a door that’ll work immediately. If it needs to come off its hinges, they’ll take out the screws. It might look like a wooden door with a massive lock, but it’ll be made out of foam, plywood or plastic.”