Blog on the Lillypad
Monday, January 05, 2004
 | Back to the Basics
If you look closely at the picture on the left, you'll see that the platform of the standing heavy bag is rocking up off the floor. I was the only person who could do that at Gold's Gym. The bag is designed to absorb a blow into its padded, pillowy top section, and the semi-flexible "stem" is also designed to give so that the bag does not rock or move. Most other people who practiced on the bags could push them back with punches or kicks, but I could get the platform to rock up. I worked on this when I was developing hand speed to break concrete. To get such an absorbent target to rock up, you have to hit it fast and yet very solid. The only way to do this is to relax everything and punch from the hip with the knees slightly bent. At the last instant, you exhale and lock all the muscles and then immediately release. The camera got me at the exact right moment. I used to spend hours and hours on that bag, about two hours per session, three to five sessions per week, for about five months. That was in the mid and late 1990's. Eventually other training had to take priority over the punching as I prepared for fourth degree black belt. And then two years of back trouble benched me pretty effectively. |
This week, now that my back is beginning the slow recuperation process, I purchased a small "Wave" standing heavy bag and began to punch again, the steady, relaxed, rhythmic punching that amazes the mind by the slam of power after the relaxed execution. Hitting a heavy bag (or an opponent) is not done in a frenzy if the mind of the person is trained. The hardest, most devastating punches in the world come from a detached mind that has drilled and drilled and drilled on execution of technique.
How I have missed this type of training! I used to do it for a couple hours, and right now I can do it for 3 - 5 minutes at a time and don't dare attempt more than two sets. But how good it felt, after two years of near inactivity, to again feel the alignment of forces (like the universe is going through you) and to hear, in spite of relaxed delivery where power is expressed only in the breath and the final tighteniing at impact, the explosive slam, the feel of the bag "jumping".
And, probably because I have spent so much of my life in physical training, how good it felt to sweat again: to feel everything limber up and begin to work together, and the sweat form first on my neck, down my spine, and under my arms. A lot of people don't like to sweat and thus exercise turns them off. I always felt better in working out when perspiration started, and I always felt better after having perspired for 60 - 90 minutes (drnking lots of water, of course, to replace fluids). A shower feels a lot better after you've perspired hard, and it's easier to sleep after sweating profusely and replenishing with water and maybe some fruit, and then a shower.
Folk medicine, of course, is filled with recommendations to sweat in order to cleanse the body. I don't know how accurate that is, but it makes sense to me. I don't like just sitting and sweating, and I've never been one for sun bathing. Just sitting still and getting hot bothers me incredibly. But revving up my heart and lungs and working my muscles has long been one of my favorite past times. It felt great to hit that bag again, and I look forward to my next session.
