A little while ago, the folks at Martial Art Supplies sent me their Heavy Knee and Elbow Bag to review. So I took it to my Sanshou class and gave it a test run. I’ll write some more about it here below but first, you can watch the video review to see some of the abuse I put it through. :-)
I started by working on it with my biggest student, taking turns holding the pad for each other. That way I had a better idea of how it reacts to impact, how to hold it, place my hands and elbows, check if the handles don’t move too much, stuff like that. If those things work out against a heavyweight, then the bag will do just fine. And it did. We had no trouble doing any of the techniques we practiced on it.
Next up was some heavy striking. Now the bag is primarily meant to be used with knee and elbow strikes but obviously you can practice more than just those two on it. So I punched and kicked it a bit too to see what happened.
It was great. I didn’t have to hold back, nor did I have to worry about injuring the pad holder. This is always a concern if there’s a big weight difference between you and him. Especially for me as I’m a heavyweight, I have to be careful of my training partners. I can’t just cut loose and risk injuring them, which has happened before when I worked with less resilient equipment. As you saw in the video, my student was fine afterwards, though I did knock him back a couple times.
I enjoyed working with the heavy knee and elbow bag so I can recommend this product without reserve. It can take a substantial amount of punishment, no problem. This is primarily because of the good manufacturing quality and the materials used: Thick canvas for the exterior with a big synthetic cover up front so you don’t cut your skin when you land shots on it. The stitches are well done and the handles are just the right thickness. The foam on the inside absorbs even heavy blows without problem.
All in all it’s a great product and if you’re looking for a good bag to train MMA, kickboxing or even boxing techniques on, you can buy it here and give it a try.
Just to put this review in perspective:
There are some really crappy striking shields and bags out there. I’ve consciously stayed away from them because they invariably cause injuries for either myself or my training partner. Which is why I prefer to work with good quality equipment and am loathe to replace it. I’ll try to get the most life out of it as possible, to the point where I’ll resurrect it as a zombie if need be. Simply because finding a good replacement can be pretty difficult. With this bag here, I’ve finally come to the end of just such a quest…
Here are a few pictures of my 20-year old kicking shield I took that same class.
This old one is a similar model to the one Martial Arts Supplies sent me, though it ‘s a little bit bigger. I’ve trained hundreds of students with it, used it for my own training when I competed and basically put it through hell for two decades. So if you needed more proof that this model of striking bag is VERY tough, here it is. You could do worse than buying one of these…
Quick plug: If you need some inspiration on how to use this equipment, you might enjoy my Pad Man: A Video Guide to Full-Contact Partner Training video. In it, I cover many drills and extensively all the possibilities of this kind of bag.
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