warped bag?

[jojojunfan]

I have been going to the Title Boxing store in my area and exchanging bags, they have been very accomodating so far. I settled on a small pro-mex. Here is the deal, when i hit it, it seems to want to spin the laces around to face my direction, even though i purposely start with them facing to my right. I know bags can't be perfectly shaped. So is this something to worry about, or is it just my lack of skill at this point? The guy at title said that one customer came back 9 times, so i could go back if needed. Just wondering about your thoughts on this, thanks.

[jumpcannon]

ok this is technical but i think depending on the swivel and weight of the bag this will happen. sometimes the swivel controls the bag instead of the bag controlling the swivel. if your using a chain link then the laces will always be front or back. a u bolt will make laces on the side. on a ball hook my promex will always find its way with the lace to the side. my everlast pro 6x4 will never turn on me with a ballhook. this being said......my swivel leads my promex while my everlast bag leads the swivel. i dont have any other bags to really compare

[Speedbag]

......my swivel leads my promex while my everlast bag leads the swivel. i dont have any other bags to really compare

That's an interesting perspective. I've never heard that before but I have noticed certain bags tend to "hang" certain ways. With some bags the laces stay facing front, others almost always face the side. I never thought of the swivel being the controlling force. I always figured it was bag shape and distribution of weight, or maybe the laces really liked the view on their chosen side. Never thought of blaming the swivel, but swivels do have their own weight and internal dynamics that I suppose could effect the bag angle.

[jojojunfan]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I just dont have enough experience at this point to know what to do. I will probably lay awake tonight obsessing over wether or not i should get a new bag! Also, the ball hook swivel is unforgiving, so again it is probably my skill level. I will probably just get my hands toughened up by hitting those laces anyway. One day i will get another bag to try, it seems like most people have at least a few different ones. And...I cant blame the bag ALL the time...

[jumpcannon]

When i got my promex i used it on a U-bolt for a couple months.....hitting it constantly. I think it sorta widened it out because it was only being punished on 2 sides. Now that i use it on my ball hook it kinda tends to end up in the position as if it was on a u-bolt (laces on the side). So maybe its the bag shape....i should put a few thousand hits on it using the chainlink because it will rotate the bag 90 degrees different than the ubolt. then it may even my bag out. who knows? LOL

[jojojunfan]

That makes sense. My daughter wants a u-bolt swivel because she says the ball-hook is too hard. I may get another bag and swivel. I am building another platform, so i can let her work on the pro-mex and maybe it will change shape. Thanks for the input. Oh, thanks for sending the icy hand of winter our way, I just about froze hitting the bag in my garage today. I gotta get a heater!

[jojojunfan]

I was just wondering if every bag has a slightly different sweet spot. It seems like when i really focus i can feel where it is on mine. of course this is when it stays facing the direction i statred in. One miss hit and it starts to spin slightly clockwise to where the laces start facing me instead of being on the right. A couple times i intentionally hit more towards the bottom right of the bag to try to turn the laces away from me. It was cool to see it start to rotate the other way, but then i totally lost control of the bag. I am just going to slow down with the goal of control, i just really want to learn some good looking combos!

[PIEFURZ]

ok this is technical but i think depending on the swivel and weight of the bag this will happen. sometimes the swivel controls the bag instead of the bag controlling the swivel. if your using a chain link then the laces will always be front or back. a u bolt will make laces on the side. on a ball hook my promex will always find its way with the lace to the side. my everlast pro 6x4 will never turn on me with a ballhook. this being said......my swivel leads my promex while my everlast bag leads the swivel. i dont have any other bags to really compare

JC is right on about the chain link and the U bolt, they naturally travel in one plane which will make the laces on a certain side. On shorter bags the laces come down further for the size of the bag so you will be hitting them more, especially with a chain link where the face front or back. I noticed on a ball hook that they will also settle in a pattern, probably more so in basic front and back punching where you're not forcing them to change. I have made a couple eye hooks out of eye bolts and the eyes have different sizes and weights which the momentum probably forces them to settle in a pattern. Don't know why but on my new small Title Pro Mex and a chain link the laces seam to end up facing me, possibly a weight difference between the front and back. Maybe need to take them to a tire shop and have them balanced. I've looked at the punching "bag?" that is all rubber and is on a spring loaded pole from a floor stand, wondering if it could be used as a hanging bag. It appears to be way to heavy and not bouncy enough. Don't know if there is an all rubber solution to replace the inflated bag.

[Speedbag]

I was just wondering if every bag has a slightly different sweet spot. It seems like when i really focus i can feel where it is on mine. of course this is when it stays facing the direction i statred in. One miss hit and it starts to spin slightly clockwise to where the laces start facing me instead of being on the right. A couple times i intentionally hit more towards the bottom right of the bag to try to turn the laces away from me. It was cool to see it start to rotate the other way, but then i totally lost control of the bag. I am just going to slow down with the goal of control, i just really want to learn some good looking combos!

Yes, and I think it is due to bag shape. Sometimes it seems the contact point is a bit above or below the exact bag belly.

I find that If I hit normally I'll notice my fists will almost always contact in the same place (horizontal line) on the bag, and that varies just a bit from bag to bag. It is not a concious effort, but I tend to hit a bit lower on bananna bags. (longer, thinner).

[Tim]

I was just wondering if every bag has a slightly different sweet spot.

Probably, however I will tell you I punch on a variety of bags, and don't particularly think much about where I'm punching. I think you tend to adjust subconsciously. It does take me minutes or hours though to "Warm up" to a new bag, or one which I've not punched on in awhile. Also having dual platforms, I tend to use two different size bags when I workout (right now using 8x5 Title Gyro and 6x4 Platinum Atomic XXS). There is a very big difference between those two bags!

[jojojunfan]

A funny thing happened on the way to the Title store. I kept going back because i was getting frustrated with my bag, so i kept switching them out. I went ahead and got a Promex medium, actually I got 2, so i could see how 2 of the exact same bag reacted. This was after 30 minutes of switching bags on the platforms set up at the store. I even brought my bag and put it on different platforms. Well, as it turns out my original bag was fine, wich you guys with more experience probably knew already! So I just stopped hitting for a couple days and worked on some other things, when i went back, everything changed. I was fixated on the possibility that since my bag was not " perfectly" shaped, I was somehow not going to learn. Once i realized, and I mean really realized, " not just thinking ...yeah I know.." that no bag could be perfect, I was fine. Tim, thanks for the subconcious advice also. I was trying to explain it to my daughter, I told her that I was not really trying to "hit" the bag, I was just making sure that my hand was in the right place for the bag to hit it. At a certain point it is going to move too quickly for a concious effort, you have to trust the timing and just have your hand there. Plus you need to just have fun and it will happen. Thanks for letting me ramble everybody, keep baggin!!! I will!!