Is heavy bagwork a waste of time compared to...

**melk** · Posted On: 11/10/2007 12:35pm

From my experience with heavy bag work(mostly just punches) it should give you good feed back on how much weight is being transferred into, by how much it dances and moves. I remember seeing footage somewhere of George Foreman working a heavy bag and dancing around like a seed ball.

**JabCrossHook** · Posted On: 11/14/2007 1:52pm

Sorry for the ignorance, but I'm at a loss as to what an air shield is?

Is it basically the same thing as a strike-shield?

**bobyclumsyninja** · Posted On: 11/14/2007 2:13pm

what's a strike shield? I'd assumed it was some variant on the thai pad

**JabCrossHook** · Posted On: 11/14/2007 3:20pm

http://images.google.com/images?q=st...=1&sa=N&tab=wi

Kinda like a giant thai pad which can be held at the side of the body for roundhouses, front of the body for front kicks/sidekicks etc.

**bobyclumsyninja** · Posted On: 11/14/2007 6:01pm

oh yeah, we use them sometimes...they sound out a bigger whallop, but I don't think they do much to condition the shins, or promote good kicking angles.

I love some thai pads....

**JabCrossHook** · Posted On: 11/14/2007 7:49pm

They won't do anything to condition the shins - although I'm not sure that's their purpose. We do American Kickboxing, so shin conditioning is not particularly relevant and occasionally we'll get these pads out and give them a smacking. They're good in the sense that you can use them in "reaction-type-drills" with the pad alternating position. You can also have a moving target too.

BIG downside though is that you rely on having a competant partner. He must be big enough to stand up to the kick (hitting a tiny guy will send him flying) and competant enough to move around realistically.

They're good to use once in a while, but don't come anywhere close to replacing bagwork.

Bagwork + Sparring > Everything.

PS: WHAT THE **** IS AN AIRSHIELD? AM I RIGHT IN THINKING THAT IT'S LIKE A STRIKESHIELD OR IS IT SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT?