freestanding bags

[spetnatz]

Does anyone have experience using Century´s Body Oponent Bag or the electronic punch bag Slam Man? What do you think about them?

[Thai Bri]

I have the Spar Pro if you're interested in knowing about that.

[spetnatz]

Yes, I am interested. how do you think it compares to a more traditional heavy bag?

[Thai Bri]

Its great, but not a full replacement.

Spar Pro is an anatomically correct torso and head. It has no arms or legs. (Or genitals, just telling you so that Falcon doesn't waste his money and order one). It has eyes to jab, a throat to strike, a chin to uppercut, ears to grab etc.

I do all my work without gloves. The thing is quite hard on the hands, and have toughened mine up a little soo it doesn't hurt at all now. But I don't punch, I strike with the open hand. So I reckon most people would need bag gloves if they dodn't want to bleed all over it. You can either set it upright, or slightly leaning forwards for a variation in the angle.

But I still like to kick low, knee etc, and can't do that on SP. I set up a 6' or 4' bag near it, and blast away at both.

I highly recommend it as an aid to self defence training, but it isn't cheap.

[eXcessiveForce]

I like the BOB bag from century and they have made some improvements on it in the last few years, some options will allow you to pad the base so that you can kick the base.


They are durable and give you a better idea of where on the body you would be hitting.

The adjustable height is nice as well. fairly short to over 6'3

Fill them with water and they are light and move when you hit them. But you can fill them with sand and is quite a bit heavier.


Bob's run about 300 at century but i usually sell them for 250.
so it pays to shop around.

[adacas]

I would recomend the little brother. Little brothers make good punching bags. They are perfect for kicking and punching and instead of going out to buy a new bag because it wore out you just give the little brother time to heal and he is as good as new. The only problem seems to be the sudden burst of crying right after you first hit it.

[huey]

well, if you are talking about the water filled, octagonal shaped, plastic based, round on top, kicking bags ... i hate 'em.

give me the 60 80 100 pound hanging heavy bags anytime.

if i am working on the power kicks (our versions of the roundhouse, forward thrust kick, walking side,rear, etc) i end up spending half the time picking the damn thing back up. this makes the workout time small because i just lose interest in doing that. hanging bags for this reason are less work.

[eXcessiveForce]

if knocking them over is a problem, put sand in it and set it next to a wall. then you will not knock them over.

[Thai Bri]

The problem with little brothers is that they eventually catch you up in size. You then realise that your beatings have toughened them up, amd they kick your arse.

I know. I was that little brother.

[spetnatz]

What about the Slam Man eletronic bag? It is advertised as the 21st century heavy bag and as far as I know is the only computerized freestanding bag in existence. It is said to bring reflex development in heavybag workouts to a new level, through its flashlight system. Does any of you ever heard anything about it? Do you know any other computerised freestanding bag?

[Thai Bri]

If its the one I'm thinking of it looks crap.

The man is only vaguely shaped like a human (no neck to get your fingers in). And it has lights on the front that light up at random. You hit the lights as they light up.

That may help with identifying targets quickly, but they aren't really in key areas anyway.

[adacas]

I hate stand up bags. The bases are usually too big so I can't get in close to the bag. I especially hate that slam man thingy or whatever its called. It doesn't feel right to me. A friend of mine has a hanging bag that is real tall. It must be over six feet and I don't know where he got it but it is cool because you can do low kicks and punches wihtout adjusting the height. I do think its a champion brand or something.

[Thai Bri]

The Spar Pro base is designed to be mostly behind the SP itself, so you can get in close.

[eXcessiveForce]

I have been told but have not experience for myself. that the slam man is not made for full power strikes but rather to work on timing and speed. I was also told that if felt very cheap on the construction.

But i've never got to hit one.

[spetnatz]

The Slam Man is advertised as being suited to aerobic kickboxing. That is probably why it isn´t that sturdy.