Episode 1055 - Martial Arts Equipment: The Good & the Bad
In this episode Jeremy and Andrew sit down and discuss the good and bad of some of the most used martial arts training tools.
Martial Arts Equipment: The Good & the Bad - Episode 1055
SUMMARY
In this episode of Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio, hosts Jeremy Lesniak and Andrew Adams discuss the pros and cons of various types of martial arts training equipment, including kicking shields, focus mitts, paddles, and more.
The conversation also touches on the significance of safety, technique, and the psychological aspects of training with different equipment. The hosts conclude by suggesting future discussions on innovative training tools and techniques.
TAKEAWAYS
Training tools are common for martial arts practice.
Using a variety of equipment can benefit students' training.
Kicking shields allow for powerful strikes but can be cumbersome.
Board breaking can boost confidence but carries injury risks.
Focus mitts enhance accuracy and technique during drills.
Heavy bags provide a realistic striking experience.
Upright bags offer maneuverability for dynamic training.
Cleaning training equipment is crucial for hygiene.
Innovative tools can enhance training effectiveness.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
02:36 The Importance of Diverse Training Tools
08:13 Kicking Shields: Pros and Cons
12:03 Board Breaking: Benefits and Risks
22:15 Paddles
27:25 Focus Mitts: Enhancing Technique and Accuracy
33:06 Heavy Bags vs. Upright Bags: A Comparative Analysis
40:30 Conclusion and Future Discussions on Equipment
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SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Jeremy Lesniak (04:03.977)
Hey everybody, what's happening? Welcome back to another episode of whistle kick martial arts radio. I'm Jeremy Lesniak joined by my great friend, co-host and producer. The co-host with the mem host, Andrew Adams. And on today's episode, we're talking about martial arts equipment. We're talking about the training tools, the focus mitts and kicking shields and all of those things. And we're going to talk about the good and the bad.
Andrew Adams (04:15.137)
I'm a ho-host.
Jeremy Lesniak (04:33.685)
that comes with using each of them because let's face it, training tools are necessary, but a lot of schools get pigeonholed into using the same one, two or three things over and over again. And I would say you're doing your students a disservice. We're gonna talk all about that and things that you can do to overcome that. And some of what we're gonna talk about is even appropriate for home training, for individual training. So stick around for that. If you're new to what we do, here's what I suggest. Start at whistlekickmarshallworksradio.com. This is episode 1000.
50 something, maybe even 60 something. I don't know. We've been at this for over 10 years. It's kinda crazy. And we drop two episodes a week, all for you, the traditional martial artists of the world. Our goal here being to connect, educate, and entertain all of you. Now, Martial Arts Radio checks a lot of the boxes for educate and hopefully entertain. But if you wanna connect with us, the best thing to do is go to whistlecape.com. This is where you're find out about our events.
As we're recording this, we've got a free training day upcoming. We've got Marshall Summit upcoming. We've got a tournament upcoming. And we are building out more and more events as we go on. You can learn all about them at whistlekick.com or you can follow us on social media. And this episode is brought to you by Marshallitics, our choice for school management software. Get yourself a 60 day free trial instead of the 30 days they typically give you by mentioning us when you sign up for your trial. And you can learn more about
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Jeremy Lesniak (06:07.957)
I haven't done one of those in a while. That seemed pretty good. It's like I've done it a few times.
Andrew Adams (06:11.214)
That was good. This is episode. This is episode 1055.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:16.826)
1055. That's a lot of episodes.
When are you gonna stop? Can't stop, won't stop. It's like training. When are we gonna stop? We're not gonna stop. There is no stop.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:33.683)
No but you i grew up in a martial arts school that did not use a lot of training equipment and that was because much of the time. We had big classes twenty thirty forty people on the floor at least in the adult classes and that meant. Most of the tools that we would be using just the numbers didn't work out.
Jeremy Lesniak (06:59.541)
What did you have going on?
Andrew Adams (07:01.518)
Yeah, are a much smaller school. so the equipment that we would use on regular basis was basically kicking shields, like the large, maybe two feet tall, three feet tall, maybe, yeah, probably about three feet tall, a foot and a half wide, six to eight inches deep, like those types of shields. And that's basically it.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:27.315)
That was about all we use too. I don't know how much of it was for student count reasons, but yeah, you can take three shields and split a group of 30 into 10s and everybody comes up and does one kick and goes to the back of the line. And if they're moving quickly, you can get through quite a few repetitions in a short period of time. And it wasn't until I went to college and started training in other places that I really saw other
Andrew Adams (07:48.728)
Yep. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (07:57.941)
tools that we would use, though I would be mistaken if I didn't point out we also had mats for practicing rules. I would call that a training tool as well.
Andrew Adams (08:04.577)
sure, sure, same.
Yeah, yeah. Although I don't think we would go into very much talk about that today because we've certainly done that. But yeah, and I'm talking with the first one, maybe two schools that I trained at, but that was it. Now there, you know, since then I've trained in other schools that used more. But when I first started out as a kid, it was just that kicking shit. That's it.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:12.917)
I don't think so.
Jeremy Lesniak (08:28.467)
Yeah, yeah, I'm remembering because we had a pretty open environment. People were able to contribute ideas. And I remember this one. I've about George a bit before he came in from a from a Shotokan school and he brought in X-ray film and we practiced holding that and dropping it and punching it, which is a great inexpensive tool for speed and accuracy. Those are the only two things I remember us.
doing other than occasionally breaking. Once in a great while we would do some board breaks, but it was so worth
Andrew Adams (09:05.452)
Yeah. And the second school that I trained at, obviously the kicking shields are still there, but that's where we started getting into some board breaking and we had re breakable boards. So we didn't have to keep, you know, purchasing wood or bringing wood in. had the re breakable boards and they were the UMAB boards. The ultimate martial art board was the brand and they make them in different colors and the different colors denote
Jeremy Lesniak (09:13.845)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (09:33.218)
difficulty. So the white board was a lot easier to break than the brown board or the blackboard. And so we would start using those. And then the other piece of equipment that we would use, we always called the pork chops.
Jeremy Lesniak (09:49.725)
Yeah, what a lot of people call paddles, single paddle. Maybe it's a double paddle, but usually if you're calling it a pork chop, it's probably not a double paddle. Yeah, it's a kicking target with a handle. Whistlekick made some for a little bit.
Andrew Adams (10:02.956)
Yeah, and and ours were maroon. So it kind of it wasn't like white or blue like I've seen a lot of them. So it kind of was the color of a pork chop.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:07.093)
Mmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:12.339)
It kind of looked like a slab of meat that you could kick. Yeah.
Andrew Adams (10:15.319)
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (10:19.103)
So we could run down a whole list and I don't know that we want to do a list and then come back because this is about the good and the bad. And I think that. I want to start by saying. Use of equipment in a drill doesn't mean it's not a drill, and if it's a drill, that means it has an upside and a downside. There are things that are good about that drill. There are things that are less good about the drill.
And I think it's important to point this out because those of us who spend any time on social media, we see people posting things and we look in the comments and there's a contingent of armchair martial artists out there who like to go through and point out where a drill lacks something and every drill lacks something. That's why it's a drill. If it wasn't a drill, it would be a fight to the death with you and a group of people.
Andrew Adams (11:16.419)
Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:16.969)
that's not terribly sustainable. But what I find interesting now as a school owner and someone who's responsible for putting together lesson plans is how dramatically different the inclusion of a simple piece of equipment can make a drill.
Jeremy Lesniak (11:34.857)
the difference between having two people kick at each other, even getting close, even making contact versus giving them a shield or a pork chop or a focus mitt or a rebreakable board. All kicking that those targets is different than kicking a person and kicking each of those is different from the next.
Andrew Adams (11:48.994)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (12:01.885)
And I think it depends on what the goal of the drill is as to when and how to use that equipment.
Andrew Adams (12:08.686)
Mm hmm. Yeah. And I think the important thing to keep in mind is the I think the largest benefit to the the three that you mentioned, the kicking shield, the paddles or pork chops, whatever you want to call them and hand focus mitts like the biggest benefit to those is you now have the ability to use them full force. You know, I can I can do a drill.
with another person with no safety equipment and I can, you know, punch them. I'm putting them in air quotes, punch and like just barely touch them, but I'm not doing full force. I can do a drill and not touch them at all. And I can punch the air full force, but we all know that that's not good for your joints. The minute you have something like a kicking shield or a focus, I now have the ability to hit it with full force and power, which you don't otherwise have.
Jeremy Lesniak (13:05.657)
And even if you're in a school where you make some contact and it's okay to hit people a little bit, most of us have had the experience, if you train in a school like that, it makes at least some people uncomfortable, especially early on. And that can be really damaging to someone's martial arts progress.
Having that variability, if someone's not ready or not comfortable or maybe they're recovering from injury or you know, there's a hundred options we could come up with for why hitting a thing is better than hitting a person. We've got some options for hitting the thing and you talked about full force, but let's face it, hitting a shield full force is different than hitting a board full force, different than hitting a pork chop full force versus a focus med.
Because if nothing else, the angle is different and the size is different. And the tactile feedback you're going to get when you hit things is different. We just brought in a set of cheap rebreakable boards. We're doing an event. And that's going to be our sort of gimmick at a farmers market sort of setup. And we're going to have people hammer fist and stomp through rebreakable boards.
So they came in early and brought them to class. And we had a student, I think it was like her third or fourth day. It was really early on. And we just took the thinnest board, the white one. These are actually these are color coded on the edges like the ones you're talking about, Andrew. And she was utterly terrified. Just the fear on her face. And she's hit focus mitts and we have we have kicking shields and we don't use
pork chops very often because we only have a couple of them. But I said here, come here, hammer fist this. And I mean, let's face it, it's not even as thick as my phone, right? Like it's pretty thin and it's designed to break. And I said, just, need you to trust yourself. And she did it and her hand went through.
Andrew Adams (15:10.926)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (15:22.109)
and the smile on her face. There's something really primal about destroying something, even if you know it can be put back together. There's something really kind of interesting about breaking. And if you out there, if you've had a chance to break, especially real boards or even concrete, it's pretty cool. Even if it's a simple break, even if you know you've done it 20 times, a thousand times, still feels pretty good to destroy something.
Andrew Adams (15:43.886)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (15:51.523)
Yep. And a lot of that, you know, the student that you were just talking about, it was all mental. And I've had the same issue with students when I started bringing my re-breakable boards to class, the white board, the easiest one to break, if you're not watching YouTube, you can't see what I'm doing, but I'm holding the board and I can pretty much take the board and break it with my hands. just, yeah, I can flex it and almost break it on my own, right?
Jeremy Lesniak (16:16.264)
You can flex it, yeah.
Andrew Adams (16:21.674)
And I would have students that would come up in the first couple tries not be able to break it with a hammer fist because they were afraid of it. And but if I was wearing a focus mitt, they would hit it. No problem. Because mentally, they're thinking this is going to it's not going to hurt because it's padded. Right. And I think that is a benefit, I think, to using that. This is a a pro of doing breaking is.
Not everything that you, if you get into an altercation, and I hope you never do, if your students get into an altercation, which I hope they never do, not everything that they are going to punch is going to be soft. And just mentally getting prepared to go through something that is, I'm going to put it in air quotes, hard, harder, right? You know, the plastic board is definitely harder than the focus mitts. But if you work towards being able go through it, it's not an issue mentally.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:20.019)
I think, I think the major upside to breaking, whether it's boards or re breakable boards, because this episode is about the good and the bad. think the big, the big, the big good is it is the closest you can get to hitting a person the way you should be hitting a person with your techniques. We know if you spent any time around breaking, you know that
Andrew Adams (17:44.066)
Yep. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (17:50.079)
good technique is more likely to break a board than bad technique. Whether that's a proper thrusting technique or a proper snapping technique, I don't wanna say it doesn't matter, but that is gonna work better than a big swinging haymaker sort of a deal.
And so I think that's that's the major up there. What do you see is the downside? I'm curious if we see it the same way.
Andrew Adams (18:17.685)
I actually think the downside to breaking is that for some people, their ego gets in the way of them using the like I have I have often been in class or reviews them and at the end of class often I will get a student I want to break the blackboard. Come on. Let me do it. And I know that the student is not ready for that, but they want to do it anyway. And
Jeremy Lesniak (18:26.197)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (18:42.708)
If you give into that and let them try, they can hurt themselves because they're not ready, but they see it as a game rather than as a training tool. And I think that can definitely be a downside.
Jeremy Lesniak (18:57.173)
it's same point from a different angle. It's injury. If you go way back on my TikTok, I break a board during a video. I actually
Did something to my hand i want to say i broke my hand but i did something to my hand cuz i hit it just slightly off cuz i took it for granted it was a single board and i just want bulk and i came in kind of at the wrong angle and now i've got if you look at my middle my middle knuckle they are not the same size one of them is far less pointy it took a year to heal. It was a year to heal properly and now it's fine and i've done i've done breaking with it.
But I've seen people set themselves back in their training because of fear, because of a missed break.
Andrew Adams (19:46.978)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (19:50.151)
whether it's perceived or you know it just kind of hurt or you know people being actually injured.
Andrew Adams (19:58.637)
Yep. So let's we talked about the, you know, the other things that kicking shields and focus mits and pork chops. yeah. Sorry.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:07.119)
I've got one more kind of negative on that one I want to throw out, which is they're time consuming, especially the rebreakable boards. If you're buying actual wood, then there's a cost there and you can't reuse them. But then the rebreakable boards, if you're talking about the difference between somebody coming up and kicking a shield, for example, versus having to reset that rebreakable board,
All of them that I've used are a little bit of a pain in the butt to get reset. You know, it doesn't take a long period of time, but it does take some time and.
Andrew Adams (20:39.49)
Mm, I-
Andrew Adams (20:44.322)
Yeah, I think it depends on the depends on the board that the rebreakable brand that you have. Some are definitely way easier than others.
Jeremy Lesniak (20:53.365)
Sure, but nothing else that we're going to talk about today has to be reset. Everything else we're talking about remains intact, and I think that that warrants pointing out. So what should we talk about next? We've talked about kicking shields a few times.
Andrew Adams (20:57.858)
That's Yep, yep.
Andrew Adams (21:07.79)
Let's talk about the bad of some of those ones we talked about, the kicking shield, the pork chops, right? The focus mitts. Yeah, so let's do kicking shield.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:14.865)
Let's go tool by tool. Okay. Go ahead.
Andrew Adams (21:21.934)
So we've already talked about one of the benefits, right, is that it's fairly easy to hold. You can use it for a lot of techniques, but it's a little more difficult to move with it.
Jeremy Lesniak (21:36.838)
Yeah, it's not as maneuverable. And the fact that it is so large almost encourages lazy positioning.
Andrew Adams (21:45.903)
Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah. I think another good thing we talked already about it is the ability to use full force. But a downside is that the person holding the shield is typically receiving a lot of power. And so you have to teach your students how to hold it properly. And if you I agree. Absolutely.
Jeremy Lesniak (22:08.341)
Yeah, I think that's both a good and a bad.
Andrew Adams (22:14.286)
And if you yourself are holding it, it is often difficult to critique technique because the shield is in the way. Now, if you're having another student hold it, you can stand back and watch and critique. But often you don't have that choice. As the instructor, I'm the one holding it, and I can't necessarily always watch what the person is doing because the shield's in the way. So that's a downside for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak (22:38.493)
one of the things we do at my school, I try not to be the holder when we're using shields so I can watch because I see my students learning to hold that shield, both the proper technique of it, because let's face it, if any of us have ever held a shield away from our body and someone large hit it, right, it teaches us a little bit about physics. But then also, I think taking a square shot through a shield.
Andrew Adams (22:43.382)
Mm-hmm. Yep. Exactly.
Andrew Adams (22:57.038)
You
Jeremy Lesniak (23:05.595)
is probably the safest way to experience forceful techniques. And I think that's incredibly valuable for someone. I try to, you know, we'll change order in the line. We'll make sure that, you know, the smallest person is not holding for the biggest person. And we, you know, we rearrange the lines when people are kicking. But there's a skill to it. And I think it's incredibly valuable. And we were actually taught because, you know,
Andrew Adams (23:13.698)
Yep, I agree.
Jeremy Lesniak (23:34.483)
I've never been a large person as anybody who's met me knows. and I had to learn how to receive that force, which meant being light on my feet, which meant there were plenty of times the bigger guys in class would kick and I would move. I wasn't walking away. I just stayed light on my feet and kind of timed it with a little bit of a jump. And I would, you know, I'd move six to 12 inches and that worked really well. Is there, is there a lesson in there? Of course there is. Don't be.
Andrew Adams (23:48.738)
Mm-hmm, sure.
Andrew Adams (24:03.791)
for sure.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:04.592)
landed to the ground when you're going to get drilled.
Andrew Adams (24:07.182)
Now, another downside is that it's really only good for one technique at a time. One or two techniques, like you're not going to be like kick and then step forward and kick and then throw a punch. Like because it's not maneuverable, it makes it a lot more difficult. It's basically a, a kick or a punch or a maybe one or two, but that's it.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:16.104)
Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:31.121)
is best used for people to practice a lot of power. That's where a shield really shines and if you're going to do combinations, I think there are other things that work better. But that because it is so good for that, it's what everybody wants to do with it. And there are two downsides that I saw. had it now if I don't see as many of these now, but in the old days we had
Andrew Adams (24:36.236)
Yep. Yep.
Andrew Adams (24:50.392)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (24:59.285)
two types of kicking shields. We had the really dense ones, which is pretty much all I see now. And then we had really squishy ones.
Now the squishy ones, especially if you were younger and smaller, made a great noise. It was a lot easier to make those make noise. So it would train less than ideal technique because it trained you to leave it out there to make the noise as opposed to snap or thrust and retract because you were focused on the noise. And so that's not ideal. And I see it now with my students and it
Andrew Adams (25:16.099)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (25:28.174)
thrust.
Andrew Adams (25:31.532)
Yeah, yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (25:36.979)
What it means is we have to do things, we have to talk to them about it and we have to make sure that we're modulating that instinct to, my goal ends when I generate power. And what we try to get them to do is recognize the goal is to generate the power, but then quickly transition to whatever the next thing is, which could be getting your place out of line, getting out of line for the next person or running to the back of the line. So we connect it so hopefully,
They don't just kick-stop leg drops.
Andrew Adams (26:09.442)
Yep, yep, exactly. Now, I would like to transition to the next tool, but I want to bring up one more thing with the kicking shields, which will lead into the next tool. The other pro and con to the good and bad with the kicking shield is accuracy is not as important. So for a beginner, this is a good thing. They don't have accuracy, right?
Jeremy Lesniak (26:32.392)
Absolutely.
Andrew Adams (26:35.214)
So now let's transition to the next tool, which we can talk about, which would be the paddles or the pork chop, whatever you want to call it. One of the pros is, one of the cons, one of good and the bad is that accuracy now becomes much more important. So for a beginner, using a paddle can be more difficult because you might not have that accuracy yet.
Jeremy Lesniak (26:58.453)
Yeah, and and I think we're gonna I Don't have as much experience with the double paddles. I tend to see those only in taekwondo. Some people call them clappers and There is absolutely some utility to that especially if you're correlating technique with the noise and you know how to hold it in such a way that it it incentivizes people primarily kids not that Adults are immune to wanting to make it make the right noise
Andrew Adams (27:09.335)
Yep. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (27:28.021)
But we'll talk about single paddles here because I'm pretty sure that's where both of us have our experience.
Andrew Adams (27:32.898)
Yeah.
Andrew Adams (27:38.563)
Yeah. And so, you know, it allows us to be way more maneuverable. You know, if I'm holding a paddle, I can easily receive a kick on it and then continue to back up. I don't need a special stance to really hold it. I can just back up however is convenient for me. And so it allows the person that's attacking to now be able to do multiple techniques in a row because I can back up and
and change the position. Maybe I'm holding it flat for like a round kick. And then as they come in, I can change it. Or maybe I'm holding two of them for them to come in with a punch or something else. So that I think that's definitely a plus.
Jeremy Lesniak (28:22.185)
You for sure it what I love about paddles is it gives the holder the ability to get into the drill. In a way that. Gets closer to a real situation, whether that's competition or self defense, because the striker, the attacker has to make some choices and they have to make them quickly. And here's a bonus tip if they're out there, you know we we made our paddles.
And I did something that I've not seen anybody else do with it, but you can mimic it with some electrical tape. We made them red and blue. One side was red, one side was blue, because it allowed the holder, if you wanted to do a drill like this, to give you the color and then put it out, or put it out and give you the color, and the attacker had to adjust. So instead of just hitting the target, you would now had to hit one side of it versus the other. You can do the same thing with some electrical tape.
You can have a red side and a blue side. And why was it red and blue and not other colors? Because they're one syllable and they're faster to say.
Andrew Adams (29:27.914)
Mm, yep. The other nice thing about the paddle is it allows you, it allows the person attacking to attack something at head height, which you can't really do with a kicking shield.
Jeremy Lesniak (29:37.215)
Yeah.
Jeremy Lesniak (29:41.278)
Not without going to pick it up each time. It's probably getting kicked out of your hands.
Andrew Adams (29:44.331)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, I mean, that's definitely a benefit. You know, again, one of the downsides is how it's so much smaller. So some students will have a much more difficult time because of the accuracy. So that can be a downside to it as well.
Jeremy Lesniak (30:03.189)
What are my favorite drills with that as a holder is to put it in different positions at different heights and it forces the attacker to adjust and overtime they stop thinking and it gets them a lot closer to being able to read openings on a live person.
Andrew Adams (30:17.998)
Mm-hmm.
Andrew Adams (30:22.956)
Yep. and then I had one more downside to them, which is that you really don't get, there's not much difference in terms of punching full force in the air with hitting nothing and punching full force in the air, hitting a paddle. So you're really not going to be able to train full force power like you can on a kicking shield because you don't have enough resistance.
Jeremy Lesniak (30:26.229)
Mmm.
Andrew Adams (30:52.214)
and you can hurt your joints.
Jeremy Lesniak (30:54.261)
we think about strength and speed on opposite ends of a spectrum, a kicking shield is all strength. It doesn't have to be, but that's kind of where it shines. And a paddle, I would say, is probably closer to 50-50. It's kind of in the middle. But even it shines, most of the drills I think people are going to do are more on the speed side.
Andrew Adams (31:18.732)
Yeah, yeah. Was there anything else with the paddle before we move on to the next one?
Jeremy Lesniak (31:24.149)
It's a downside that boards also have, is the holders fingers are going to get hit from time to time.
Andrew Adams (31:32.758)
Yeah, that's fair. Yeah. The next one I think we should chat about is hand mitts, like focus mitts, where your hand actually goes in and you're holding it with your palm out towards the person attacking.
Jeremy Lesniak (31:48.979)
Yeah, I the more time I spend training and instructing the more I like this as a tool. Because it allows the person holding to get much more out of the drill than they do when they're holding a shield or they're holding a paddle. They they become part of the dynamic of the drill if you want them to and.
Andrew Adams (32:09.538)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (32:16.435)
For me, that cuts my instruction time by almost half.
Andrew Adams (32:20.205)
Mm hmm. Yeah, I think there are a lot of good and bad with the focus mitts. know, one of the good, as you mentioned, is it allows the person holding them to kind of be a part of the drill. It allows the person attacking to now the last bad thing I talked about with the paddle in terms of not being able to really put full force into your punches. I can do that if someone's holding the focus mitt, if they are going into it as well.
Right. Think of, you know, boxers. You see the stereotypically boxers with those holding the like, I'm not just holding it flat when the punch is coming in. I'm pushing forward so that the person has some resistance with the paddle. There's no resistance. I could have the focus mid on and not have resistance, but if I do put some resistance in there, the person gets to use full force on their hand techniques, which leads into one of the bad things is they're not great for kicking.
Jeremy Lesniak (33:19.987)
They're not any kind of, you know, I would say that sidekicks are where you have the hardest time because holding it for a sidekick is probably the toughest. But we do plenty of drills where round kicks, front kicks, hook kicks do work. You know, certainly the holder has to be experienced and know what's going on and, you know, understanding the drill.
Andrew Adams (33:46.22)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (33:49.681)
You could make that argument of any drill and any piece of equipment. But where I'm liking them with kicks is kind of similar to the drills with the paddles, where we're varying heights. But now, because there's two of them, we can build in some combinations. And not to say that you can't hold two paddles.
But what I have found is that it is more difficult because you could hold a paddle. I don't I don't have anything. Pretend this is a paddle to flat surface, right? Marshall Summit card notes for next year's Marshall Summit card here. I'll hold the blank side. I can hold it like this so you're kicking the side and I can also flip it so you have a flat surface and I can move that back and forth. And what I've observed is that. Holders have a more difficult time moving that around than they do myths and changing with myths and.
I'm sure there's a reason for it. I don't know what it is. It just, it's more natural with the mitts.
Andrew Adams (34:46.957)
Yeah, yeah, I would agree. And I think it's because when you have the mid on, basically, the person attacking is going to be hitting my palm, the palm of my hand. So it's easy for me to manipulate where my palm is. But that's what makes it difficult for some kicks. Like it's hard to like do, you know, unless I have it off to the side. So, you know, that's definitely a not so great thing. The other not so great thing about them is cleaning them is a
Jeremy Lesniak (34:56.116)
Hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:00.565)
That makes sense.
Andrew Adams (35:16.013)
can be a pain.
you know, insides.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:19.282)
The best thing I've found is shoe disinfectant.
Andrew Adams (35:24.492)
Mm.
Jeremy Lesniak (35:26.031)
disinfectant spray is the best thing I found to clean those out. And if you're not cleaning out your mitts you're gross and you need to. There are very few things that we come on this show and say you need to do this you need to clean out your gear that's gross. Please don't give your students staph infections.
Andrew Adams (35:38.901)
Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Adams (35:45.773)
Anything else with the focus mitts?
Jeremy Lesniak (35:54.463)
When we pull gear out, is the thing that I think.
connects the students together the most. When they're holding a shield, the holder is intimidated.
when they're holding a paddle, I mean, we barely use them anymore, but thinking back, it seemed more technical. But when they're holding mitts, they're both learning, they're both part of the drill, they're collaborating in their mutual education. And for that reason, that is the piece of equipment. I mean, I mentioned we just bought some rebreakable boards, but it's mitts. Mitts are what we're using the most.
Jeremy Lesniak (36:39.381)
But it's also because they're small, so it forces some accuracy. And there isn't a trainable skill that we haven't been able to make a drill using a you're looking for reaction time? Put the mitt out and they have to hit it. you're trying to work range, distance? The holder's backing up and either keeps them out or puts them out when it's time to hit it.
If you're even mildly creative, you can come up with a use for those, whether it's one or two. We've even got drills where each person's holding one.
Andrew Adams (37:17.378)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (37:18.837)
and they're relatively inexpensive, they're easy to transport, I can take a duffel bag and I can outfit a whole class for almost the space of two kicking shields.
Andrew Adams (37:31.938)
Yep. Yep. All right. Are we ready to move on? I've got two more, which I don't think will take as long as the other ones, but are we ready to move on? Okay. So I think we've talked about the ones that are the most common in schools. But if we start to go down the list, most common, go down, think the next ones would be heavy bags and or stand upright like a, like a wave master or a Bob or something like that. think.
Jeremy Lesniak (37:37.215)
Okay. All right. What else we got?
Jeremy Lesniak (38:00.533)
Yeah, heavy bag or an upright, a freestanding bag. Yeah, and those are, those are great. And I think we can treat them almost the same. 95 % the same. And I think the reason most people have moved to the freestanding bags is you can move them out to the floor and then off the floor. Whereas, you know, I've seen some schools that have some really elaborate heavy bag setups, very expensive.
Andrew Adams (38:01.26)
Those are the next. Yeah. Yeah. Those are, think the next two.
Andrew Adams (38:12.331)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
I would agree.
Jeremy Lesniak (38:30.709)
And I mean, what's the whole what's the main thing that those tools allow you to do that none of the others do? You can train yourself. You can hit things hard solo.
Andrew Adams (38:39.533)
Yep. Yep. Exactly. think the only like you I would agree they're 95 % the same. The maneuverability of the upright ones are definitely a benefit. The other major difference between that I have seen is that heavy bags are heavier and have more denseness to them. And most uprights standalones
are a lot more squishy. I'm thinking like a kicking, like a kicking shield, know, punching a heavy bag definitely feels very different from punching an upright.
Jeremy Lesniak (39:09.375)
Generally,
Jeremy Lesniak (39:16.821)
Sure, sure.
Jeremy Lesniak (39:22.767)
It I think that density I think is a pro and a con depending on what's going on anybody out there Who's hit a heavy bag? There's a good chance you've hit an older heavy bag that has settled And you find yourself. I'm gonna kick a little higher today Because the bottom of that heavy bag it hurts and that's a good thing, right? And because if you can if you can get good at hitting a really hard surface Hitting the body hitting a person is isn't
Andrew Adams (39:28.587)
Absolutely, absolutely.
Andrew Adams (39:34.946)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (39:52.917)
As bad. But if we think about how people use those bags, you can move around them, which the other tools that we've talked about, you really can't move around. I can't connect my techniques as quickly as I want to without putting my partner, my holder at risk, right? That there has to be an understanding of a drill. I can train on one of these two and whatever I feel like throwing, I can throw if I if I.
lose my positioning putting my foot down from a kick, I can come in with something kind of wild, kind of blind and unexpected, and I'm not putting anybody at risk but myself. And I think there's a lot of value there.
Andrew Adams (40:33.259)
Yep. Yep. And I think one of the, is going to sound like a strange, bad thing, but I think, I think you will see where I'm going with it is that using a heavy bag requires a lot more understanding of your body than people realize. And so a lot of people that I know have said, I'm going to train at home. And I got a heavy bag and they ended up hurting themselves because they, think
I can go full force now right away on day one. And if it is completely stationary and I hit something and I know it's not going to move, that's great. But when it starts to move and I come in to hit it, and if I'm not lined up exactly right, because it was swinging a little faster than I anticipated. Now my, my, wrist is not in the right position and I ended up hurting myself. And so.
I think one of the downsides is you to these heavy bags, less so with an upright, but with a heavy bag for sure is you really need to start slow and understand how your body needs to be aligned when you hit it.
Jeremy Lesniak (41:48.009)
those bags are rounded, think it's a really important difference because everything else we're talking about has a flat surface. There's no point on a stand-up bag or a hanging heavy bag that's flat other than the bottom or the top, right? And that changes the way you hit things. You have to be more precise. And your best case scenario if you get injured is that you've dragged your knuckles or scraped your toes.
Andrew Adams (41:51.405)
Hmm.
Andrew Adams (42:16.043)
Yeah, that's best case for sure. And I definitely know people that have hit a heavy bag with their wrist bent and seriously hurt their wrist. I don't know anyone that's broken their wrist, but definitely sprained it pretty badly because they were in the right position. So I think that, you know, keep keep that in mind. But a but a benefit is once you are comfortable with it, it does allow you to train by yourself and as much force as you want to put into it.
Jeremy Lesniak (42:46.427)
are variations on those bags that are specialized purposes, right? You've got double end, single end, like a speed bag, tie bags. Most of these are conceptually the same, even though they're adjusted in a way that allows you to train something differently. There's a pro and a con to each. A speed bag, you're probably not kicking it.
Andrew Adams (43:11.445)
Yeah, exactly. Yep. They're a little more niche, but the concept is the same.
Jeremy Lesniak (43:15.807)
Yeah, and then I know you heard you say that those were the last two. There are other things. Yeah, there are. If you're looking at. Youth classes these days. Pones have become really popular. And when you're thinking about how to.
Andrew Adams (43:21.325)
Main ones.
Andrew Adams (43:32.909)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Lesniak (43:40.167)
Apply what I call and if you come to a mattock course, we call them parameters, right? How do you how do you apply a restriction? So that people are more focused on the goal of whatever the drill is cones are really good for that in my school We we have cones But what we use more are beanbags because beanbags are a lot more versatile. We have them in different colors So we can put them, you know Instead of saying left and right because not all kids know left and right. We've got
Andrew Adams (44:01.655)
Yep. Yep.
Jeremy Lesniak (44:08.821)
the green side and the red side. And we can toss them and they can punch them or kick them out of the air. That's a favorite drill. It teaches accuracy. And they're cheap.
Andrew Adams (44:09.281)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Andrew Adams (44:15.725)
Yeah.
I'm wondering if we should do another episode sometime on the the nonstandard, putting this in the air quotes, nonstandard martial arts equipment, because I'm also thinking of things like pool noodles and dice and lots of other things. So we'll have to do maybe we'll have to do another one and come back to this. One other thing I wanted to bring up, though. It's.
Basically the same as a heavy bag slash an upright, but I think there is an important distinction in using one of those body opponent bags, one of the uprights that looks like a person often known as a Bob. and I think the biggest difference with using a Bob is actually mental.
Jeremy Lesniak (44:58.441)
Yeah
Jeremy Lesniak (45:08.735)
Does it get you closer to hitting a person? Yeah.
Andrew Adams (45:10.711)
Correct. And some people have a problem with that, which is understandable. But if you get into an altercation, which I hope you don't, it's going to be with a person. I mean, I guess you could get into an altercation with a snake, but it's not the same.
Jeremy Lesniak (45:25.205)
I hope you don't do that either.
Andrew Adams (45:27.019)
Yeah, yeah, But, you know, for some people mentally, it's challenging to like, my gosh, I have to hit this person in the face.
Jeremy Lesniak (45:35.423)
Yeah. You know what I think we should do, Andrew? Because I'm realizing that one of the things Whistlekick doesn't do is say, here's how you punch, here's how you kick. But there are a lot of things that we could do with equipment that would be broadly applicable drills. I think we should do a series of episodes showcasing various pieces of equipment and the drills that we would do with them. And I bet we can give folks some ideas for their own classes or their own
Home training, we can probably come up with drills that people can do with students of various ages, ranks, complexity, but also home training involving all of them.
Andrew Adams (46:10.305)
Yep. And I think and I think they'll have to be video episodes. So people will need people will need to go to YouTube and like and subscribe and get notification bells on click all of those buttons so that you'll be able to be able to see those drills that we come up.
Jeremy Lesniak (46:15.82)
of course.
Jeremy Lesniak (46:28.145)
If you're still only listening to these episodes, are missing a lot. You're missing the versatility of hairstyles that we bring to these episodes, our well-thought wardrobe.
I like how that's going around the headphones. That's fantastic. And you miss our great facial expressions and sometimes some inside jokes that we let you in on and everything. But you know what? Audio is the only form you can consume while you're doing other stuff. So if you're listening to us while you're driving in the car or doing the dishes or mowing the lawn, we do appreciate you being with us. Thanks for spending some time with us.
Andrew Adams (46:47.979)
Yep, you'll miss out on all the cool stuff.
Jeremy Lesniak (47:09.203)
the two of us as we talk about martial arts, because it's what we love to do. And if you want to go even deeper, if you want the bonuses, the behind the scenes, if you want the the outtakes and we finalized the format yesterday for a recurring bonus format that will only exist in the Patreon, which is how we pay the bills for this thing. Patreon.com slash whistle kick.
You can also just sign up for the newsletter and get notified when new episodes come out because we put some stuff on there too. And why do we do that? Because we want to make sure you don't miss episodes because when more people watch and listen, it spreads things and algorithms and more new people are exposed and everybody wins. And Andrew, how do they sign up for that newsletter?
Andrew Adams (48:00.088)
they would go to whistlekickmarshallartoradio.com and click the subscribe button at the top.
Jeremy Lesniak (48:06.515)
that's pretty easy. Everybody should do that. We are putting a lot of resources into this because let's face it, social media is not showing everybody the things that we're doing as often as we would like them to. This is a broad issue among creators and the best thing we can do is get you connected with our email. So please do if you haven't yet. Check out Marshallitics if you have a martial arts school. It is the best school management software and we went and found them. They didn't find us. So that's how you know.
Andrew Adams (48:11.255)
I agree.
Jeremy Lesniak (48:36.625)
I was the first one using it, not out of everybody, but on the team. And I think that's it for now. Is that it for now? All right. We appreciate you. Hope to talk to you again soon. Until next time, train hard, smile, and have a great day.
Andrew Adams (48:45.997)
That's it.
Andrew Adams (48:52.215)
Train hard, smile, and have a great day.