Anyone have an opinion on the Century Body Opponent Bag versus a standard heavy bag for intense strike training? I would have to hang the bag from a post, and probably lash it or chain it to keep it from swaying, which means that there’s always the risk of slipping past the bag on a kick and cracking my toe into the post. The Century B.O.B. looks nice, but I’m concerned with its stability from particularly powerful kicks. I don’t want to send it through a window or a wall.
I realize that the BOB would be more effective for precision training, but I’m interested to know how well it holds up to sustained abuse and powerful strikes. I’ve heard putting sand AND water into the base will help its stability also, but I still wasn’t sure how effective that would be overall.
[quote]Visgrail wrote:
Anyone have an opinion on the Century Body Opponent Bag versus a standard heavy bag for intense strike training? I would have to hang the bag from a post, and probably lash it or chain it to keep it from swaying, which means that there’s always the risk of slipping past the bag on a kick and cracking my toe into the post. The Century B.O.B. looks nice, but I’m concerned with its stability from particularly powerful kicks. I don’t want to send it through a window or a wall.
I realize that the BOB would be more effective for precision training, but I’m interested to know how well it holds up to sustained abuse and powerful strikes. I’ve heard putting sand AND water into the base will help its stability also, but I still wasn’t sure how effective that would be overall.
Thanks for the input.[/quote]
I use a Wavemaster XXL with 320lbs of sand in the bottom of it. Cost me $125 from a guy on Craigslist and about $28 in sand. Can be hit with full force kicks, punches and jump kicks if you are into that kind of thing. The only issue I had with the standard 150lb heavybag is that when I hit it with kicks I would have to wait for it to stop swinging to hit it again. If you aren’t doing any kicks then a standard one is well. I think the B.O.B. is used for precision striking and is also good for accurate weapon strikes in how it feels to hit with a weapon and the recoil effect ( nunchaku ) from it but in Kendo we use a standard boxing heavy bag at about 300lbs and it hangs to the floor so it really is a matter of choice in what exactly you need it for now and what you may be doing in the future with it.
All right, looks like the consensus is that the BOB is good for precision and you can fill them with enough not to worry about knocking them down, but that the heavy bag will meet my requirements for a solid strike-training utility just as much, if not more so.
I have a BOB, and I think it’s great but its really no substitute for a heavy bag. Im usually on the heavy bag, but on days that I want low impact(hands or body sore) Ill go with BOB. Heavy bags the way to go if you have to choose one.
I very much prefer a heavy bag. One of the BOBs at our gym that has a flaw that makes it fall over very easily so we practice stopping it from falling with a kick or knee, or maybe an uppercut. It’s an interesting change, but really just something to do when you’re bored. The heavy bag is best for regular training.
at first i wasn’t impressed, until i saw how great it is for transitions to the ground, and it does force the trainee to move around vs. standing and wailing on the bag.
this guy also makes a grappling dummy, and puts out a ton of free training info, btw…