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Knut Erik Landgraff
Knut Erik Landgraff's picture
The heavy bag is staring at me!

The following is a way to get variation, inspiration and perhaps ad a taste of reality when training self defence/protection at home: In the cold winter months I sometimes bring the dangeling heavy bag from the garage into the house. I can't find a strong and safe place to suspend it, but that's ok. Instead I put it on a chair and place it in different places where I can work on it from time to time. To get variation in angles etc I prefere to put the bag in narrow and awkward places, following the advice from my first instructor several decades ago: If you can't use a certain technique inside an old red telephone box, then it is not for self defence, but for sports, play or kung fu movies. In the past I put eyes, nose and a mouth on the bag using duckt tape etc. I admitt felt a little weird in the beginning, but the ugly face on my heavy bag surely added to the fun of training. I swear the bag was staring at me with evil intentions! I truely felt the face helped in visualisation and also made for a little more precise targeting. I sometimes dressed the bag up in a big winter parka to get arms to work with, even tied on some working gloves. Great tool for visualisation in daylight, and an almost chilling real feeling when training in the dark. I stuffed the sleeves with whatever clothes and pillows I had at hand, even sticks sometimes. I also put the chair's legs into a couple of big lumberjack boots so I could target knees, shins and feet. With some care not to destroy the chair, off course.

I hope this crazy mobile-heavybag-on-chair idea can be of inspiration to at least some of you good guys out there who don't have the opportunity to train with fellow martial artists during the pandemic. Have fun! :-) K.