(10 hours) #27 Punch bags - SLEEPY Boring Objects (Jason Newland) (30th May 2022)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland. This is Boring Objects. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes.

Now the object, oh the object, the object of this Boring Objects podcast is basically to allow you to relax by me talking about some random thing. And I just talk and it's boring. It's supposed to be boring.

It gives you an opportunity to, I guess, be a bit of a distraction from your life. It gives you a chance to maybe relax, perhaps even fall asleep. Whatever, whatever you feel the need or, you know, you wish to use this for may just be, it might be enjoyable.

I don't know. So, you know, it's just me chatting. I've done a few of these so far.

I'm not quite sure how many, if I'm honest. Let me have a look. Yeah, I've made 26 of these recordings.

So this is a 27th. So I thought today I would talk about punch bags. Never talked about punch bag before.

Well, I have but not, not on here, not on this podcast. And yes, that's going to be the subject or the object of this particular conversation. Yeah.

So hope you're well, hope you're okay. Hope you're able to just, you know, get yourself comfortable sitting in a comfortable chair, maybe lying down. And I'm just going to waffle on for a little while, telling you all about the punch bags that I've had in my life.

Now, for those that don't know what a punch bag is, it's a training tool that people, boxers, martial artists would use. It's basically just a big bag filled with, I don't know what's inside. It depends.

I mean, if you buy a punch bag from a shop, from a sports shop, then it would be filled already with whatever material they have in there. So I don't know, but my first punch bags, in fact, I'm going to include speed balls in this as well, which is another thing which stands up and it's like a ball and you punch it and boxers use those, although they're not very high, not very tall, but my dad had one.

So I used to play with it when I was about, well, when I was a child and I used to have this, quite springy, so it'd come back, so you'd punch it and then come back.

But there was a little bit of a board that you could stand on. Now, I've never seen one since then, but that was, that was quite good. And I used to stand on it and just, you'd punch it and then you'd dodge out of the way so the ball didn't hit you in the head and, well, that was very light, almost like a football really.

So I used to enjoy playing on that. I didn't get my first, I had to go on a punch bag when I took up kickboxing when I was about 14 and it was, the kickboxing didn't last long. It was a neighbour, basically my next door neighbour wanted to train with an adult who lived across the road who was a kickboxer and he was, he worked at the American forces, so he was on the American base.

I assume he was probably in his 30s or whatever and so I kind of, I knew him, I knew his kid because his son was a few years younger than me, but he was the neighbour so I kind of knew the other kids around. So my next door neighbour, who was, he was a couple of years younger than me, but probably bigger than me actually, but he was younger and he knocked on my door and said, do you wanna do some kickboxing?

I said, well, I'm watching cartoons. He said, not now, not right now, I mean, on Saturday morning.

I said, I don't know. He said, come over and you know, I went over and spoke to the man and because I'd met him before, but only through his son and he said basically he needed someone to spar with because he didn't want to just teach one person, he needed someone else around the same kind of size or age to spar. So I said, yeah, okay.

So that Saturday morning, I went along and there was this gym, it was on the docks and it was, no, it wasn't on the docks, it was on an American base anyway, so it's near the docks, I think, because after the second world war, the American, there was a lot of Americans stayed in England around on these different bases as they did around Europe as well, I think, and probably in America.

And so I went along and there was this gym and it was quite nice, it was quite big, there was punch bags, so I kind of had my first little taste on a punch bag, which was quite fun. And then, you know, we did lots of stretching and taught us some moves and some kicks and punches and got us all literally completely covered with safety gear, you know, leg protectors, body protectors, head protectors, everything.

So it's all very safe, but quite restrictive, you know, difficult to move around with all that stuff on. And then me and my neighbor had a punch up, which is weird, because I was gone with him and it was strange to have a fight with someone that I had no issue with. The annoying thing about it was my neighbor, the adult who was teaching us, was shouting at him to sort of, almost supporting him, come on Mikey, you can do it, go on.

I don't know if his name was Mikey or not, I can't remember. And that annoyed me. That annoyed me.

It's like, not as much as that motorbike that just gone past. So I didn't quite like that, because it wasn't fair. And I didn't want the person teaching me to be against me, if that makes sense.

So I went, I went a couple of times, but I didn't really like it. Maybe it's because it's just the two of us and, and I didn't really feel there was anyone in my corner. But it was fun.

The thing I really struggled with was the stretching really hurt. Yeah, and that's just normal, but it really, it was proper full on stretching. And I'd never done stretching before.

Not really, not really, you know, I mean, a skull, maybe a bit of touch your toes. Cough. No, I'm joking.

But it's, it's not much proper stretching. And it was painful. But I kind of, you know, I got a little bit of a taste for it.

You know, I did enjoy the sparring. And I didn't get hurt. I mean, it's practically impossible to get hurt with all that protective gear on.

And then I was at school. And this is exactly just around exactly the same kind of time within like a few weeks. And my friend, a good friend at school said to me that he was going to the local karate club that evening.

It was a Tuesday or Thursday evening, because it was open twice a week on a Tuesday and a Thursday. I think it started about seven till nine, something like that. And the reason he was going is because his brother went.

His brother was the year below us. I didn't know his brother at this point. And it was weird because the toughest kid in the year below us was kind of the toughest kid in the school.

And he was there he was going to the karate as well. He was best friends with my friends brother. They were both a couple of the tough kids.

But I didn't know I didn't know him. His brother, I ended up being good friends with him. Anyway, I went along.

So I said to my friend, can I come please, can I can I can I can I can I can. Please, please, please. And he said, okay.

So I went along. and it all we did was just watch we went along we sat down and it was in a gymnasium but not in our school it was in a different school so there's a bit of rivalry between the two schools yet at this karate club there was people from both schools there I quite liked that I quite I liked getting to know people from other from the other school so I didn't have that rivalry anymore that makes sense not not that a rivalry was with me anyway but

once I got to know the other kids at the other school it was almost felt like I was at both schools you know I felt quite comfortable so me and my friend we just went and we sat and we watched and one thing was a bit weird is seeing this this kid who was a year below me but he was like the toughest kid not just in that year but kind of almost in the school and I'd known I didn't know him know him know him I knew of him and

he knew of me like say hello to each other sometimes because he was good friends with my name my next-door neighbors but it was very strange to see him there because he was new he didn't even have a gi so he was just doing it in his tracksuit bottoms and t-shirt so he was he'd only just started himself and so he wasn't very good I mean no one's very good when they first start and it's really weird to see him doing that when I knew that he could probably beat everyone

up anyway without karate it was just weird and but he stopped doing it he finished I think that was like his last night he didn't go back but my friend's brother really loved it and my friend but we watched it for the whole evening for two hours then we left we came back with his brother I'm not sure if I got a lift or just walked I can't remember it wasn't a long a long distance it's basically just one straight road kind of and I fell in love with karate I

fell in love and my friend who I went with he decided to go as well so we both started on exactly the same night so I think we might be in there on the Tuesday night and then we started on the Thursday night and you know so I went every Tuesday and Thursday pretty much about fail he my friend he left he stopped doing it after a few months but his brother stayed and his brother was like really good and yes I became friends with him and for everyone else really

that was there and the so at that time because you might be thinking or what's this got to do with punch bags that's when I decided to you know train at home so it wasn't long after starting there I started going to the gym it all kind of coincided at the same time roughly because I was walking with my friend I don't know where we'd been but we were just walking around the corner just you know probably seven eight minutes from where I lived at the time and there was this

man unloading a van full of carpet but he was struggling a bit because he was just on his own it wasn't that the carpet was particularly heavy it was just it was long so he couldn't really you know and I think me and my friend or I did or he did I said do you need a hand and he said oh okay or no actually I think I offered to help him if I got free membership to the gym so I asked him what he was doing and he said oh

it's a new gym here and we're opening up next week and we're just moving all the stuff in but we have to move the carpet in first before the machines because it's just logical isn't it I guess unless you put the machines down and just cut the carpet around in the shape of the machine I don't know but he didn't like that idea and he said if you give us a hand yeah you can have free membership because I explained to him that we were just kids we're only 14 so

I didn't really have any money and he said I don't need that much information I said okay you don't need to be rude he said rude rude I said yeah he said okay and I said I'll give you a hand then we'll do it so we did both me and my friend helped him with the carpet emptied the van and pulled the carpet some of it downstairs some of it upstairs and took a couple of hours and then the next week I went back and I started using the gym for

free which is nice so I was kind of because I wanted to get I wanted to get muscular I mean it didn't really happen but a little bit but I wanted to you know get fitter and stronger for karate unfortunately I wasn't able to put any weight on I just had to I was very very skinny when I was a kid and for all the way up to really pretty much the age of 25 I was just skinny and even after that I still wasn't big until I didn't really put

any weight on until I was 30 or 29 yeah 29 so I started going to the gym and then I thought oh I want to get some weights now my dad had this big like a conservatory building at the bottom of the garden where he kept all of his tools because he was he was a tradesman so he had a lot of stuff that he used to keep in there an office and all that there's a big old thing big quite a big place not big but quite big if you

know I mean it was it wasn't a shed you know it was a proper kind of building like an outhouse I suppose it did have a toilet in there anyway he had he used one part for the office and he used some of it for equipment but there was a bit of space in there so I said to my dad is it okay if I use it for my weights I want to get some weights and he said you didn't need to say that twice just you know the fact he

said you wanted to use it for your weights meant I assumed that you were gonna get some weights I said why why are you picking up on that I'm just asking and he said I don't know it's just been a rough day I said fair enough I said what what's happened he said I don't want to talk about it I said why mention it then why mention it he said you just what's your problem I said I don't have a problem I did stump my toe earlier at school he said

does it hurt I said of course it hurts why would I mention it if it didn't hurt he said this conversation is not going anywhere is it I said no it's not really he said I hope you're not gonna talk about it on your podcast I said dad I told you before I'm 14 I don't start the podcast until I'm 26 or 36 at least he said okay so besides the internet doesn't exist yet I'll keep forgetting and so he said yeah so I went and got myself some weights bit

by bit because I had a part-time job so I had to kind of save up so over the over the weeks you know I got a barbell and then I got some weights got some dumbbells and I just bought them all individually a curl bar so that was kind of the main weights that I had and then but around that time I said to my dad I want to get a punch bag and he said oh and what we did is he I got myself a punch bag and he gave

me a punch bag and the bag was basically a like a kit bag like an army kit bag it was big and he filled it with straw I think straw or clothes it was you know so it was it was light and then the other bag that I bought he filled it with sand and he put a screw swivel thing in the ceiling which turned around you know with the bag so it didn't cause problems and I basically changed a bag over for whichever one I wanted to use if I

wanted to use a heavy bag or the light bag and you know I preferred the heavy bag but the light bag was also good just for practice just for speed and you know without worrying you know just technique and stuff so it was quite good to have both so that that was the first punch bag right two at the same time but it's the first time I owned my own punch bag and I was very pleased I remember once I was at school in the maths class and I thought about

the punch bag at home and I remember I smiled yeah so I that was my first punch bag now I used it every day every every every day in the evening after school or during the day you know in holidays and stuff so for two years I was using a punch bag solid whenever I could and it was really useful for getting rid of I mean if you think I was what that was my 14 to 14 15 two years when I was a teenager last two years of high school

it was quite a frustrating period and you know it was the punch bag was good for getting rid of excess rage or energy or whatever and I'm still training in karate twice a week so that was good so I was practicing the karate and stuff in the garden and when I wasn't and I used to go running every every day in the summer in the mornings so it's fairly good time from that perspective I had something that I was passionate about that I loved so that was karate kind of was

my first love in a sense and then I left school I was still 15 but it was you know my 16th year in a sense so I left school in April and I was 16 in August and the family dynamic changed so I was no longer living in the house I no longer had use of the punch bag or the weights and I still went to the gym a little bit but you know I had this job that meant I was working evenings most weeks most days which meant I couldn't

go to karate and you know I was always in in the back of my mind I'm gonna go back I'm gonna go back and I'd see my karate instructor and he'd say when are you coming back Jason and I said I don't know get off my back leave me alone I didn't say that and but I never went back that was kind of the end of my karate career and I didn't use a punch bag at all for years and years and years I'm trying to think the next time that

I used a punch bag probably I didn't use a punch no I did use a punch bag at a gym that I went to in 1996 so wow that's quite a long time it's nearly 10 years really and between well yeah 10 years so I didn't use a punch bag for 10 years and I started going to this gym in London and it was run by an ex Mr.

Universe lovely man and as well as the all the weights it was a really good gym it also had a punch bag so I used to get on the punch bag regularly so that was good but I didn't own a punch bag so I just used to go on there and then so I used to go there for a couple of years didn't do any didn't have access to any punch bags again until about 2002 I was living in a place that had a gym downstairs and there was a punch

bag so I used to use a punch well there was it wasn't always up but it was in a cupboard so I used to ask if I could get it out and he said what I said the punch bag he said oh okay and the man who was working at the gym he taught me some kickboxing moves and like how to kick the bag and stuff so that was that was quite nice so I did that for a few months went in there quite regularly and the next time I used

a punch bag again I didn't own me own punch bag but I used I started doing Wing Chun Kung Fu in 2004 and there was there was a couple of punch bags in that gym it was a big big old building and that was good so the Wing Chun we were learning that and but then the punch bag was there just to practice punches and kicks and I broke my rib during one of the exercises where we were elbowing each other in the chest which seems a bit of a silly

thing to do but we did have pads on but it missed the pad and I went to the side of it and cracked my rib so I wasn't able to train for about six weeks but after a couple of weeks where it started to heal a bit I went along and he had me doing practicing kicking and you know and then eventually I was punched in the bag but I had to wait for my rib to heal enough to do that and what one once and I know it's it wasn't

really me well it was me I was there but I punched the bag and the bag broke off of the chain and smashed against the wall it looked like I was a super I had superpowers super strength but I guess it must just be loose so I punched it and I wish I had that on tape because if that would have been it would have looked so good like I was super strong so that was that I was using a punch bag then in 2004 I moved into a place in

2005 and there was another little speedball punchball thing which was stood up and it was a bit bendy and you'd punch it it's like a football on top so I used to practice with that I don't know where that came from but it was in the garden so I used to play with that and then 2007 I moved to do my degree course to a different town and I think 2008 I started going to boxing to a boxing class amateur boxing class twice a week so I was using the punch

bags there there's lots of punch bags there and also bought myself a stand-up punch bag which was basically stands up on its own but it's got a base big big plastic base that you fill with water or sand or concrete or whatever and it bends it comes back but it's big strong heavy thing so I had one of those in the garden so I had that I used to go on that most days and then I left there in 2011 and I moved into a place for a year so I

didn't have a punch bag then but I did start doing Taekwondo and so there was no punch bag or anything but you know I was looking to get one at some point so after a year I moved to a different place and I got myself another one of those big stand-up punch bags so I didn't bring it with me I just left it in the garden I forgot about it so I bought another one and that was good so I had that for a couple of years no yeah about a

couple of years I had that in the kitchen a little kitchen area and there's one room in the kitchen it's quite small but it was enough it was just enough room to play on the punch bag and I'd get on it every day for an hour or something and then I moved to here and after about a year I don't know if it was a year or two years I bought a punch bag for this for this place and it is a bracket that hangs off the wall I mean literally

is hanging off the walls is broken so I need to fix it or something or find another way but it's a heavy bag and it's on the wall behind me so I've had that for two or three years so that's good I like to play around on there yeah so I don't know how many punch bags that is I've had it's a few a few different ones that I've played with over the years but it's fun you know it's fun to is I think it's quite good for strength upper body

strength I think and it's just this is fun so yeah that's the history of punch bags in my life I'm thinking again another stand-up one because it's good because when you're not punching it is telling you jokes did it boom boom so I might I might get one of them rather than have one hanging off the wall I'll see so that's it that's the end of this boring podcast about punch bags so thank you for listening remember to be kind to yourself because you deserve to be happy lots of love bye