Things to hit!

[mook jong man]

Hmmm..... methinks your punching must be so powerful that it caused the eyelet to try and escape from your awesomeness in fear.

Nah I haven't had an eyelet fall out , but I have worn a hole through the canvas and patched it up with denim from an old pair of jeans.

Just see if maybe you can glue it back in , if you can't , then get a washer to put over the hole and put the screw through it , that should hold it firm and stop the screw from tearing through the canvas.

On next weeks show we will be showing you how to build a retaining wall for the garden and a beautiful childrens playhouse that the kids will just love.

 

[Supra Vijai]

I can help with retaining walls! Oh and I'll show you how to build an inexpensive dog house using a paper clip, a box of matches and some bubblegum. I learnt that one from MacGuyver!

In regards to the topic itself though, thanks! Yeah we use a vertical fist in Ninjutsu as well as well as palm strikes and hand edge strikes, elbow strikes etc. When I mentioned speaking to my instructor first it was because when I first started I tried some strikes out on a boxing bag and ended up tearing up my knuckles. I may just have been using the hammering action to my strike though. So yes overall very useful advice I can use this type of thing to get hand conditioning happening and look at a smaller frame type thing for a heavy bag to work on power generation. As you said, even with the padding until some serious conditioning has happened you don't want to be using full power against a tree or a brick wall...

 

[Asmo]

Hmmm..... methinks your punching must be so powerful that it caused the eyelet to try and escape from your awesomeness in fear.

Nah I haven't had an eyelet fall out , but I have worn a hole through the canvas and patched it up with denim from an old pair of jeans.

Just see if maybe you can glue it back in , if you can't , then get a washer to put over the hole and put the screw through it , that should hold it firm and stop the screw from tearing through the canvas.

On next weeks show we will be showing you how to build a retaining wall for the garden and a beautiful childrens playhouse that the kids will just love.

I don't think my punches are that powerful. It'd be nice though. :ultracool

I'll have a go with both of those ideas and see what happens.

Thanks!

 

[geezer]

Hey, Mook.

Speaking of wall bags. Have you ever had one of the eyelets fall out? One of mine fell out the other day, and I've been trying to put it back in.

I'm not too sure that losing one would cause my wall bag to tear, but I'd like to be certain it won't hinder my practice.

Thanks.

Yeah, I've also had the eyelets gradually tear loose from the weight and stresses. They last longer if you really concentrate on good technique like Mook said... punching straight-on and not hammering downward. Another thing, when hitting, shift your focus point a couple of inches to the side of center. So you hit, for example, ten reps a bit to the left of center, ten reps on center, then ten reps to the right of center, ten more back on center, and so on. That spreads out the wear so you don't have to put the iron-on denim patch on it quite so soon. It also keeps the bag filling from compressing so much, which is better for your hands (unless you like hitting rocks).

On the other hand, you could just go to Everything Wing Chun and get one of their bags that use D-rings instead of grommets. I've seen one that's similar and it's a superior design. They cost a bit more, but if they last longer, it's probably worth it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Have you considered Wing Chun wall bags , as the name suggests they are supposed to be mounted on the wall.

But if you have a sturdy enough tree outside and nearby you could whack a few nails into it , hang your wall bag on it , do your training and then take the wall bag back inside with you.

They come in the 1 section variety for hand strikes and also the 3 sectioned variety for hand strikes and kicks.

Usually they are made of canvas but these days they make them in vinyl as well , you can use a variety of materials to fill them such as sand , rice , grains etc.

I use mung beans in mine , I got them pretty cheap from an Indian grocery store , don't worry about the weird look you get when you tell them what you want them for.

I like these as well... and I like a good heavy bag as well

But if you listen to what my Sanda sifu said...all are a waste of money when trees and walls are free...
I like these as well... and I like a good heavy bag as well

But if you listen to what my Sanda sifu said...all are a waste of money when trees and walls are free...

But I do not recommend using trees and walls for strike training unless you have someone to train you how to do it correctly so you do not hurt yourself very badly

 

[Supra Vijai]

Thanks Xue I think I'll stick to slightly softer things than walls and trees for now lol

Just a follow on question, what are the (if there are any) advantages to breaking? I don't know if there is a technical name for that either. I was checking out the canvas bags from a local retailer and will be picking some up in a week or so and while I was on the site, was looking at makiwara boards and what not as well just to get an idea of what's available. One thing that caught my eye was "re-breakable boards". They range in colours from what I gather with Black being the hardest then brown then red then green then yellow then white (easiest). I've tried hitting a brown one in the past with a hand edge strike and, not surprisingly, didn't do much apart from bounce my hand off. Wondering if it's a matter of power or targetting/angling etc?

 

[Sukerkin]

From my own experience with more traditional materials (wooden boards), breaking is a matter of targeting (aiming beyond the strike point) and relaxation. It's the latter that is counter-intuitive ... how you be relaxed and hit hard enough to break something .

But it is true - if you are tense at the wrong point in the strike then you will not break the boards and you may well hurt yourself ... my bruised knuckles from a few decades back taught me that .

 

[Supra Vijai]

Thanks Suke, it's good to have a reminder that even the pros had to start somewhere

 

[Xue Sheng]

Thanks Xue I think I'll stick to slightly softer things than walls and trees for now lol

Hey, what can I say, he thought my heavy bag was a waste of money. But when you start your day, every day, with 30 minutes to 1 hour of tree hitting, as part of your 2 hour workout, I guess you can think this way

He has trained me in some of this and I can’t stress enough that this is not something you should just go out and start doing because you will injure yourself. This is definitely something you would need a sifu for.

 

[mook jong man]

Xue Sheng's backyard after a light training session.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Xue Sheng's backyard after a light training session.

HEY!!!! How did you get that picture.... no one gets into my backyard :mst:

 

[Sukerkin]

ROFL - excellent job ... and well done Xue, that one there is no mere twig :lol:.

 

[Asmo]

Yeah, I've also had the eyelets gradually tear loose from the weight and stresses. They last longer if you really concentrate on good technique like Mook said... punching straight-on and not hammering downward. Another thing, when hitting, shift your focus point a couple of inches to the side of center. So you hit, for example, ten reps a bit to the left of center, ten reps on center, then ten reps to the right of center, ten more back on center, and so on. That spreads out the wear so you don't have to put the iron-on denim patch on it quite so soon. It also keeps the bag filling from compressing so much, which is better for your hands (unless you like hitting rocks).

On the other hand, you could just go to Everything Wing Chun and get one of their bags that use D-rings instead of grommets. I've seen one that's similar and it's a superior design. They cost a bit more, but if they last longer, it's probably worth it.

Thanks for that, I'll give it a go. The wall bag itself is pretty tough, so the holes may not wear but I'd prefer not to have the remaining eyelets fall out.

 

[mook jong man]

HEY!!!! How did you get that picture.... no one gets into my backyard :mst:

It wasn't easy , and um you might want to keep that shower curtain closed too. :erg:

 

[Supra Vijai]

It wasn't easy , and um you might want to keep that shower curtain closed too. :erg:

Telephoto lens my friend... amazing how far you can see with those - or be cheap and get a sniper scope off Ebay for around $30 and see upto 3 miles or something Now if I could just learn to curve the damn bullet....

 

[Mark Jakabcsin]

Supra,
My suggestion is neither. Treat yourself to an art that allows / encourages contact. Striking bags, dummies (that don't breath), boards, pads, etc is of limited use. Every year I get a significant number of 10, 15+ year martial artist come to one class and are amazed that they actually hit people. The common comment is "In 10 (15+ years) I have never hit anyone or been hit by anyone, without padding, gloves, etc." It is an eye openner, especially when I ask them to punch me as hard as they can in the solar plexus. Few, very few, can strike someone without negative emotion. The problem is negative emotion reduces our abilty to move properly and leads to poor decisions under stress. Treat yourself to an art that includes fear training, tension awaremenss and stress reduction training. IMO, worth far more than any type of striking thingey.

MJ

 

[Supra Vijai]

Supra,
My suggestion is neither. Treat yourself to an art that allows / encourages contact. Striking bags, dummies (that don't breath), boards, pads, etc is of limited use. Every year I get a significant number of 10, 15+ year martial artist come to one class and are amazed that they actually hit people. The common comment is "In 10 (15+ years) I have never hit anyone or been hit by anyone, without padding, gloves, etc." It is an eye openner, especially when I ask them to punch me as hard as they can in the solar plexus. Few, very few, can strike someone without negative emotion. The problem is negative emotion reduces our abilty to move properly and leads to poor decisions under stress. Treat yourself to an art that includes fear training, tension awaremenss and stress reduction training. IMO, worth far more than any type of striking thingey.

MJ

Hi MJ,

Our school actually encourages full contact (with intensity and power dependant on rank and experience) and the only gear we wear are Gi. The higher level seniors may wear padding to go a lot harder and faster for certain drills with each other but as a rule in normal classes we do tend to hit each other both unarmed and during weapons drills. The dummies or bags are more for me to supplement my training outside of the dojo/partner training to help with targetting, power generation and conditioning. We also train extensively for adrenaline based responses, free form attacks, group attacks etc so that's all covered fairly well