Century Wavemaster Training Bag

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3CADISUFM6B The Century Wavemaster Freestanding Training Bag is a decent bag for martial arts workouts. Our TeaKwonDo studio has about eight of these and we liked using them in our workouts. We were lucky enough to get ours locally and find it a very useful training aid. Here are my observations:

While I really can't speak to the packaging or shipping of these, the setup really couldn't be easier. This unit consists of the hollow base and the striking padding. The Base can be filled with water (which we use), sand, or a combination of both. When filled with water it is weighs over 200lbs and can moved around by tilting it on an angle and rolling it. The pad is inserted over the base shaft and can be adjusted by twisting and positioning it near the correct height and locking it in place (see video). The product description state that it is adjusted in 6" increments but ours (and all of the ones I have seen) are 3" increments.

The assembled and filled unit is fairly sturdy, but it does tend to move and slide around when it is hit with force (see video). We usually use ours in the yard or on mats in our garage so the movement isn't really a problem for us, but this would make a racket on a house or apartment floor.

The large base is not a target area and needs to be avoided when kicking. The base also rocks upwards and it would be possible to get toes caught under it on the bounce, so some caution needs to be used if advancing on the unit.

The striking padding is thick enough to absorb the hardest blows, but the covering can be a little rough on the knuckles if gloves aren't worn for protection. The covering has held up well, both on ours and on the ones we use in class.

This is a very good alternative to a heavy bag and really helps to develop better striking power.

Recommended, with the above caveats.

CFH