Our speed bag community has grown by leaps and bounds over the past years. We have a tightly knit group, a family, of incredibly talented members hailing from various locations.
I believe we have reached the point, a critical mass, where we simply must organize a national level gathering of speed bag enthusiasts. Between the speedbagforum.com, speedbagcentral.com, youtube, and offline communities we have an outstanding roster of talented individuals, such as:
Speedbag (Alan Kahn)
Speed Bag Skunk (Zach Ruffo)
Dee Pooler
Paulie D (The Punch Professor)
BillyMackk
Spinsmashpop (Brian Tichey)
Showtime Johnny Pal
Biff
Speed Bag Scissor Hands
John Baca
Rocky Greiner
(and the list goes on and on)
It's time to take the next step of synergy, camaraderie, and promotion of the art of the speed bag.
I propose we arrange to meet, in person, next summer at a centrally located public location for a multi-day speed bag extravaganza.
I have thought long and hard about this originally with Alan, and most recently with Brian and Skunk. I believe I have a proposal for an economical, and workable solution, which I shall describe below:
What
An in person, face to face gathering of speed bag enthusiasts - of all skill levels. An event (a convention) spanning multiple days of learning, practicing, teaching, competition, and freestyle bag punching.
When
Allowing sufficient time for personal planning, scheduling of travel, and reserving resource availability dictates a timeframe of Summer 2010 (June, July, or August). This would be a multi-day event, probably spanning a weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) during one of those months.
Where
A public location (Hotel with conference center, or a gym) in an easily accessible city. I propose Las Vegas, NV for a number of reasons: cheap and available airfare and lodging, a multitude of private gyms (MMA), and an abundance of hotel/conference centers.
I believe with the speed bag community we have, we can reasonably expect between 6 and 24 baggers participating. Perhaps we would get "walk ins" depending on our location, but I think 6 to 24 is a reasonable expectation for this summer.
As such, this dictates the need for lodging for that number of people and a number of speed bag platforms (the more the better).
I believe our best bet would be to arrange a group rate at a hotel and reserve a conference room in which we would setup several speed bag cages, similar to mine, but having multiple platforms (6 or more). I have a preliminary design by which I can create a transportable cage that can be setup in 60 minutes but would house 7 to 9 speed bag platforms of varying height, simultaneously , depending on configuration (more details on that later).
Alternatively, we could meet at a local gym (boxing or MMA) that already has speed bag platforms. I believe the conference room option is more desirable because the hours will be more flexible and open to our use for any purpose (no worries of disrupting kickboxing class with the sound of the speed bag, punch drumming, etc.) Also , I've not yet seen a gym, other than Ruffo's gym, that has a sufficient number of speed bags to keep 6 or more baggers engaged at once.
How Much?
Airfare to Las Vegas NV is readily available and cheap. Lodging is also cheap there. Most recently I've sent employees there for conferences and we paid $249 for round trip airfare, and $79 night for a GOOD hotel. This is very reasonable, compared to costs at other cities.
Airfare: $250- $500 (Depending on your location)
Lodging: $79 - $99 / night for 2 nights
Conference Registration Fee: To be determined but perhaps $75, $100, or $150 ?
The conference registration fee would cover: The cost and expense of renting a conference room at the hotel, the creation and transport of one or more "speed bag cage"(s) to the location, rental/transportation of audio equipment (maybe a live drum kit?) and stereo system for punch drumming, and probably some swag such as: autographed speed bags, autographed speed bag bible, autographed drum heads, shirts or hats, etc. for each participant. Maybe a raffle for a sponsor donated item (a really nice platform, etc.)
NOTE: We may need to pursue corporate sponsorship to offset some of the costs. Several of us (Brian, Skunk, and myself) have multiple ideas of how to accomplish that.
I should stress this would not be run as a for profit event. Any registration fees would be used for the equipment and facilities needed for the event, not for any one's personal gain.
So I will ask, would you be interested in participating in an event such as that described above?
I believe if we can get a reasonable commitment from a number of people we could commence serious planning. If the commitment is not as large as expected we could scale back the event (most likely by meeting at a gym with speed bag platforms, rather than having our own, minimal swag, etc.).
And lastly, all of the above is a PROPOSAL I am open to ideas and input to make this successful!
I believe we have reached the point, a critical mass, where we simply must organize a national level gathering of speed bag enthusiasts. Between the speedbagforum.com, speedbagcentral.com, youtube, and offline communities we have an outstanding roster of talented individuals, such as:
Speedbag (Alan Kahn)
Speed Bag Skunk (Zach Ruffo)
Dee Pooler
Paulie D (The Punch Professor)
BillyMackk
Spinsmashpop (Brian Tichey)
Showtime Johnny Pal
Biff
Speed Bag Scissor Hands
John Baca
Rocky Greiner
(and the list goes on and on)
It's time to take the next step of synergy, camaraderie, and promotion of the art of the speed bag.
I propose we arrange to meet, in person, next summer at a centrally located public location for a multi-day speed bag extravaganza.
I have thought long and hard about this originally with Alan, and most recently with Brian and Skunk. I believe I have a proposal for an economical, and workable solution, which I shall describe below:
What
An in person, face to face gathering of speed bag enthusiasts - of all skill levels. An event (a convention) spanning multiple days of learning, practicing, teaching, competition, and freestyle bag punching.
When
Allowing sufficient time for personal planning, scheduling of travel, and reserving resource availability dictates a timeframe of Summer 2010 (June, July, or August). This would be a multi-day event, probably spanning a weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday) during one of those months.
Where
A public location (Hotel with conference center, or a gym) in an easily accessible city. I propose Las Vegas, NV for a number of reasons: cheap and available airfare and lodging, a multitude of private gyms (MMA), and an abundance of hotel/conference centers.
I believe with the speed bag community we have, we can reasonably expect between 6 and 24 baggers participating. Perhaps we would get "walk ins" depending on our location, but I think 6 to 24 is a reasonable expectation for this summer.
As such, this dictates the need for lodging for that number of people and a number of speed bag platforms (the more the better).
I believe our best bet would be to arrange a group rate at a hotel and reserve a conference room in which we would setup several speed bag cages, similar to mine, but having multiple platforms (6 or more). I have a preliminary design by which I can create a transportable cage that can be setup in 60 minutes but would house 7 to 9 speed bag platforms of varying height, simultaneously , depending on configuration (more details on that later).
Alternatively, we could meet at a local gym (boxing or MMA) that already has speed bag platforms. I believe the conference room option is more desirable because the hours will be more flexible and open to our use for any purpose (no worries of disrupting kickboxing class with the sound of the speed bag, punch drumming, etc.) Also , I've not yet seen a gym, other than Ruffo's gym, that has a sufficient number of speed bags to keep 6 or more baggers engaged at once.
How Much?
Airfare to Las Vegas NV is readily available and cheap. Lodging is also cheap there. Most recently I've sent employees there for conferences and we paid $249 for round trip airfare, and $79 night for a GOOD hotel. This is very reasonable, compared to costs at other cities.
Airfare: $250- $500 (Depending on your location)
Lodging: $79 - $99 / night for 2 nights
Conference Registration Fee: To be determined but perhaps $75, $100, or $150 ?
The conference registration fee would cover: The cost and expense of renting a conference room at the hotel, the creation and transport of one or more "speed bag cage"(s) to the location, rental/transportation of audio equipment (maybe a live drum kit?) and stereo system for punch drumming, and probably some swag such as: autographed speed bags, autographed speed bag bible, autographed drum heads, shirts or hats, etc. for each participant. Maybe a raffle for a sponsor donated item (a really nice platform, etc.)
NOTE: We may need to pursue corporate sponsorship to offset some of the costs. Several of us (Brian, Skunk, and myself) have multiple ideas of how to accomplish that.
I should stress this would not be run as a for profit event. Any registration fees would be used for the equipment and facilities needed for the event, not for any one's personal gain.
So I will ask, would you be interested in participating in an event such as that described above?
I believe if we can get a reasonable commitment from a number of people we could commence serious planning. If the commitment is not as large as expected we could scale back the event (most likely by meeting at a gym with speed bag platforms, rather than having our own, minimal swag, etc.).
And lastly, all of the above is a PROPOSAL I am open to ideas and input to make this successful!
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