Jane: Heavy Bag Blues

So we black and brown belts were working out with the heavy bag on Saturday at Tae Kwon Do. The drill was to hit it hard with 5 roundhouse kicks in a row. BamBamBamBamBam. Put your foot down only briefly in between.

I turned to Master Hughes at one point and said "you know this isn't my favorite."

I hate the heavy bag. It hurts to hit it--with the top of my foot (roundhouse kick), with the bottom of my foot (side kick, or reverse kick), with a punch. It hurts to hit it with a flying side kick and have my foot bounce and roll off it, twisting my ankle.

The others, mostly teen boys like Robbie and his buds, were having fun. They wailed on the thing, making satisfying noises and making the bag swing wildly. When I hit it, it barely moved. I felt bad--sore and wimpy.

But as I went up to steady the bag from (barely) moving after I kicked, I noticed something I hadn't noticed before.

Where I kick it--kind of lower than where most people kick, due to my . . . . lower height . . . the bag is rock hard. All the sand, or whatever it's filled with has settled to the bottom of the bag. Where I am hitting the bag, the bag is like a bag of cement.

Right above that, where these lanky teens were kicking, the bag had a bit of slack. The sand or whatever wasn't packed down so much. It has more give to it. If I could REACH there, I could kick without getting hurt so much. Maybe I could have Master Hughes build me a little podium for kicking :-)