Target Training Equipment? Help.......

Hey guys, before i ask my question i just wanna say this is an awesome site. I've never posted on this forum, but i've been a long time fan of the site. I just started taking TaeKwonDo and am trying to work on my speed and target kicking. I've been looking for a standalone focus pad/kick target (or unit) that i can mount on a wall and move around to practice by myself. I was thinking of buying a Focusmaster Training System G-1000, but its like $700, pretty steep. Even the Century VTS is like $500 and i dont think its near as good as the Focusmaster. I was wondering if anyone here knows of any good ones that i can look at. Preferrably single ones that aren't part of a unit. I haven't been able to find anything good anywhere. Any help with this would be really appreciated. Thanks all! =-)

 

You know I don't believe you have to go crazy and buy all the expensive equipment! I think a lot of it you could improvise! I often practice my kicks on walls! especially side kicks, jumping side kicks, back kicks just so that I can work out the distance! Try hanging a piece of paper from the ceiling and practice kicking that! Or you could probably get a good punch bag cheap! mark targets on the punch bag to hit.

 

Grab a chair, turn it back facing you and pretend it is a body from the waist down. Legs are legs, back is body.

Upper body targeting, use a mirror if you can.

Paul M.

Cheap, free training and fun are my specialty

 

Hanging a tennis ball from the ceiling is a good, cheap target.
And they're small enough so they aren't super easy to hit.

-Dave

 

Hanging little things will not absorb the kick, and will usually cultivate bad biomechanics. Kicking stuff on walls or chairs, likewise, since you can't follow through. Even In the end, I think it's more worth your time and money to get a "heavy bag" and paste on colour pictures of hated politicians and world leaders using clear, strong packing tape.

 

I only meant the paper exercise to be used for practicing focusing strikes for accuracy! The problem is that some people can't afford punch bags or they have small rooms to practice in, or just no space at all!
I do have a punch bag, a floor to ceiling speedball and focus mitts! But because I'm moving to a smaller property I won't have anywhere to hang the punchbag!! I can only practice my strikes when I'm training! So when I'm not in class i will do as much at home and even at work, but can only practice kicking and punching the air!!

 

Tony, what I am saying is that if you tighten up your accuracy on "non-strikes" (since you really can't properly follow through on the paper) you are going one step forward, two steps back. Some people are surprised at the lack of skill transfer when they hit a hanging tennis ball, etc. and then spar with contact. I mean, if it were a simple matter of hand placement, you could get the same practice just by turning a light switch on and off as fast as you can (retracting your hand every time). Which is absurd (but not above some martial artists, I realize).

Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. Practice the wrong thing, and you'll get very good at doing the wrong thing.

 

Well, all im really looking for is something that i can use when i train alone and something that has a little give to it. Something like a Standalone or wall mounted Kick paddle, like the regular kick paddles we use in schools when training with others would be perfect. I know i've seen them in Korean TKD videos, but i just cant find these things anywhere on the net. This is the perfect example http://www.fightbacksystems.com.au/store/pics/PT41A.jpg but these guys sell it for like 64 bucks, that's way to expensive for one little paddle.

 

Meh, it's your time and money. I personally wouldn't. If you really want to do this sort of thing make your own with PVC piping for an arm, carpet underlay (for padding), duct tape, and a spring or Dynaband.

 

One night at class I was really beating the crap out of the heavy bag. My back fists were so hard my hands were bright red. My teacher is like "great power, Rachel! Someone is inspired" and I said "I gave the bag a name". You don't need politicians to paste on. How about child molesters and kidnappers. Think about them when you're beating that bag. One drill we do on weekends is get out the heavy bag or BOB and one of us will beat it as the rest of us yells "come on! Get him ! He's taking your child! Don't let him take your child!

 

I agree. Hit the bag, kill the bag. The bag is your enemy. Put somebody you don't like in the bag. Hit the bag.

 

Be careful, there are lawyers and activists out there trying to pass laws that will make it illegal to use pictures or representations of humans or actual people as targets for firearms target practice. I've seen Gloria Allred on Fox News arguing vehemently that if we allow people to pretend to commit violence against imaginary humans it's a short step before they will decide to commit real violence against real humans. How short a step is it before it's illegal to tape someone's picture to your heavy bag? How long before you have to look over your shoulder before you call your heavy bag by the name of your most hated college professor? How long before the cops kick in the dojo door and arrest you for pretending to take out your aggression on your least favorite hollywood pretty boy, (damn you Richard Grieco), and they drag you away and stick you in a hole where there is no heavy bag and no hope?

How long?

With all the talk in the industry about government regulation and review boards, how long before they take those BOB targets we all love to pound on? Will they come into your school and say, "What? You actually hit people? These students could go out into society and HURT SOMEBODY! There oughtta be a law!"

-Rob

 

I love BOB. That is the awesomest product ever.

 

I agree. I like the way they molded his face so he looks like he is in need of a severe butt kicking. It would be harder to execute a spinning backnuckle to his cranium if had a sappy smile and big sad eyes.

Have you worked with his kid Billy the Bully? That snot nosed little punk is always sitting in the corner giving me dirty looks during the kids class. Sometimes when no one is watching I go over there and give that little green runt what for.

-Rob

 

Yes, I love BOB, he's always mean mugging and it feels really nice to give him what you have. Only problem is he keeps staring you down even when your exhuasted!!

7sm

 

Yah, I always end up giving up before he does, but one of these days I'll win. And when he's staring up at me from the floor with his cold dead eyes, I'll laugh, and then I'll go send his son to join him in hell.


-Rob

 

Poppycock!

Those methods have been used for years. Some of the best fighters I know hang nerf balls from the ceiling.

I suppose shadow boxing has no benefit either.

 

With Allred at the helm and the 9th Circuit Court here in California anything is possible. :barf:

 

If you say so. BTW, how do you know they're such great fighters? (Direct question, not sarcastic.)

The other issue being that even if they are great at what they do--and if this is indeed what anyone would qualify as "fighting", this does not prove the effectiveness of that practice in skill enhancement. Many great fighters of the past and present have employed ludicrous, pointless practices, and have attained great success due to OTHER elements in their training regimen, or innate personal skill.

 

And yes, I ABSOLUTELY avoid shadow boxing for the same reason. A bit for warmup and recall is nice. But in general, shadow boxing ought to occur in front of a bag or other impact device.123