A Drum Circle for One
“That’s the strange world we live in... that all of the advances and understanding are used only to continue the nonsense which has existed for two-thousand years.”
- Richard Feynman
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| Turns out speedbagging provides the perfect setting for understanding physics. |
Richard Feynman was a bongo drummer. A drum circle enthusiast. He was a physicist. He was right about what I can only refer to as the general wholesale pissing away of scientific discovery to the ad-infinite bull$#!t and stupidity of man-[kind]. I don’t know if he ever knocked about the speed bag.
For those readers who know little or nothing about speed bagging (or punch drumming as it is sometimes called), other than having seen Stallone light it up in a Rocky montage, I’ll do my best to explain.
The speed bag is a small balloon shaped bag with an internal air filled bladder which hangs from a circular overhead platform, the drum, using a speed bag swivel which governs the bags range of motion when it is struck.
The concept of speed bagging is quite simple. Wearing the appropriate eye-protection, one gets into position in front of the speed bag’s mount with the center of the bag adjusted to hang at around eye-level. With arms raised in a boxing stance, the object is to continuously strike the bag with your fists while making adjustments as you go to your body’s position, the style and delivery of your punch and of course, the volume of the speakers as they belt out some of your favorite tunes.
While the title of the exercise seems to suggest speed as the primary objective, rhythm is the true name of the game. That rhythm, for every speed bag enthusiast is different and no one session from my experience is ever quite the same as the next.
Caution, speed bagging can be addictive! I think it’s the inescapable feeling of harmony, peace and tranquility that surfaces while synchronizing the beat of the song to the repetitive marching beat of the bag as it rebounds off the drum. When a speed bagger begins to discover that those beats can not only be tuned to ones own heart beat but that they are actually a reflection or extension thereof, the experience can be truly transcendent.
Sure, speed bagging is a great conditioning tool and it will give you a tremendous cardio and upper body work-out as well as providing the benefit of strength, coordination and stamina building if practiced across time but what draws this blogger back into the drum circle, time and again is that which is gained while seeking that rhythm.
The very process of finding that rhythm, your rhythm, regardless of the rate of speed, punching style, striking force or the time it takes you to begin to be able to get your speed bag to travel to where you want it to in a way that meets with your expectations consistently, to the very beat of your own drum, is the hook that begs the effort.
Failing to mention the pure thrill and adrenaline rush that goes with finding the forces from within oneself to be able to step up to the bag and dial it up to break neck speeds, just wouldn’t be doing ‘speed ’ bagging justice. In fact, if you are thinking of taking up the sport and entering into this ‘drum circle for one’, this part of it can be a real good motivator.
Recall the feeling you get watching that Rocky montage as the bag rattles into a blur before your very eyes alongside the beat of some spirited motivational tune to charge the action? For a speed bag enthusiast, nothing beats that feeling; of being able to generate the energy required to create that storm, from the calm, at its center and in complete control. Now, imagine yourself actually doing it.
It goes something like this...
With the firing of a neuron resulting in a singular burst of energy, you lead with a right! The stillness explodes into an intricate order of purposeful motion and a tumultuous storm of physical activity erupts around you. Time seems to slow down as you slip into the stream of action and reaction and realize control.
Your fists whip into a cyclonic furry as they begin their thunderous roll across the surface of the bag and with that first lightning strike, it launches forward and away from you towards the drum, the resulting percussive blast signaling the beginning of the bags march in successive response to your actions.
As the bag rebounds off the back of the drum and begins its gale force like rush back towards you, you feel a cool blast of air jab at your face like an invisible shadow boxer serving to cue your next strike. Although the bag is still a full two beats away you begin setting up for that next strike because your target is now moving. Fast! It is travelling so fast now that it is beginning to appear to be, from your perspective, in super-position. (How cool is that!)
The bottom of the bag flickers in and out of sight just inches before your eyes, the flash seeming to carry along with it the next shockwave as the bag collides with the drum for a second time and begins its reverse trek. Time marches outward as the wave expands around you and the bag continues in its frenetic search for equilibrium.
Your left edges closer, as somehow your brain mediates exactly what it is going to take to rally the speed bags motion forward with that second lightning strike... timing. The sound reverberates once more as the bags third and final collision echoes of the drum ahead of you bellowing at your left, now!
Your muscles tighten from your butt all the way through to your forearm and a pattern from your efforts emerges as your left connects and with a resonate one - one, two, three - one, the cycle begins to repeat.
All of that, in far less than the time it takes to blink an eye (It takes roughly 400 milliseconds to blink an eye)! Now, mash all of that action up with a song like the one from this timeless video classic I rediscovered on YouTube over Halloween and by the time that song has played out you’ve clobbered that little bag through a chorus of thousands of beats!
If you’re thinking of taking up the speed bag, I strongly recommend that you go ahead and give it a shot but don’t take it too seriously, relax and have some fun with it. I can almost guarantee that you’ll find yourself hooked from the second you lay down that first beat and your own rhythm rings out around you. Or like they say in the video, “With a bit of a mind flip, you’re into the time slip and nothing can ever be the same”.
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