adjusting to swivel?

[mobileaudio25]

at the local gym i was using a cleto reyes 9x6 (loved it, faster than the 3 bags ive tried) on a bull hook swivel. i could hit accurately and fast.

i built my own home platform (pretty much vibrant resistant) on a watkins ball hook swivel. im having A LOT more trouble with my combinations on this swivel. is this normal? have been exchanging bags so i havnt had a lot of practice to just bag, i seem to be picky about my bags. thanks,kyle

[ukspeedbag]

at the local gym i was using a cleto reyes 9x6 (loved it, faster than the 3 bags ive tried) on a bull hook swivel. i could hit accurately and fast.

i built my own home platform (pretty much vibrant resistant) on a watkins ball hook swivel. im having A LOT more trouble with my combinations on this swivel. is this normal? have been exchanging bags so i havnt had a lot of practice to just bag, i seem to be picky about my bags. thanks,kyle

I haven't used a watkins swivel mate but, would say just stick at it and you will become accustomed to it. I used a U bolt swivel and changed to a ball hook. It took some time to get used to it.;)

[Speedbag]

I haven't used a watkins swivel mate but, would say just stick at it and you will become accustomed to it. I used a U bolt swivel and changed to a ball hook. It took some time to get used to it.;)

Do you like the ball hook now? Judging by your latest punching, it seems to like you. :)

[Griffin]

This was a topic I was about to bring up --

I haven't been hitting long at all, just under two months -- this was entirely on a platform at the local gym with a U-hook style swivel.

Well, I just today got everything together on my home platform (AND received Alan's book and DVD's!) -- the platform has a ball hook swivel, based on recommendations from the forum.... and my quick report is it is a TOTALLY different experience.

It seems to me that the U-hook is MUCH more forgiving, and I now realize my true level=Beginning Beginner. LOL!

Wow, is all I can say -- the ball hook demands a TON more precision, in my very inexperienced opinion. Just keeping my basic beginner punching going is more of a challenge, but a good one.

I'm definitely sticking with it though, for this reason: I believe it will ultimately prove to be a superior swivel, especially on side punches, which the U-hook does not perform well with....

My $.02....

[ukspeedbag]

Do you like the ball hook now? Judging by your latest punching, it seems to like you. :)

I wouldn't change it for any thing else. I purchased the plastic ball hook swivel, installed it, found it hard to control and removed it for the U bolt. Then after reading so many views on the ball hooks, I thought I'd fit it again and persevere. Best thing I ever done!;)

[Griffin]

Yup, I can see why you stuck with it --

I followed Alan's tip and put the Watkin's ball hook swivel in the plastic Everlast base with a pinch of white lithium grease (ran 1/4" brass machine screws through the platform, and sucked it all down with large wingnuts.)

It's crazy smooth and fairly quiet.

Now if I could just tame the helicopter....!

[royalewifcheese]

at the local gym i was using a cleto reyes 9x6 (loved it, faster than the 3 bags ive tried) on a bull hook swivel. i could hit accurately and fast.

i built my own home platform (pretty much vibrant resistant) on a watkins ball hook swivel. im having A LOT more trouble with my combinations on this swivel. is this normal? have been exchanging bags so i havnt had a lot of practice to just bag, i seem to be picky about my bags. thanks,kyle

ma25,

you're not crazy, you have come accustomed to the equipment at your gym. so did i. the gym that i go to has a chain link a bad chain link. however i have compensated to hit well with it. my point is just give it time you'll get accustomed to the watkins. you will have to put more power behind the punches to get the same rebounds. i'm going to get my dremel tool out and polish up the ball and the housing inside the base. it's kind of like a performance mod.

bags are different and like you i was hitting the larger bag at my gym. non boxing gyms tend to go with the bigger bags because they require less skill. i love my everlast 4 x 6. i've found that once i got used to it, it's much easier especially when i'm behind the bag.

i think you're trying to look for the gym experience on your own equipment. it won't happen. you may have to take a few steps back before making progress with the new gear.

[paranday]

... i'm going to get my dremel tool out and polish up the ball and the housing inside the base. it's kind of like a performance mod.

Blueprinting a swivel, great concept! ;)

[SpeedBagScissorhands]

good question,
ive always used a U swivel- ive only used a ball hook once or twice and its a different feel. you just have to get used to each swivel. the ball hook is probably easier to land the side punches i would imagine because the ball rolls in the direction you punch. i like the U and will stick with it. im too lazy to unscrew my platform:D

[spinsmashpop]

I honestly like them all. My favorite is the metal ball hook. And after bagging on Skunk's custom and having him explain that he likes a longer distance on the shaft out of the ball because it gives him that split second of time to get around the bag with all his super-advanced elbow combos, I can now see why.
The U-bolt is cool too for controlling basic speed. I don't work on that enough and need to step that up a bit. The same goes for the chain link. I think the two are quite comparable. The sides punches don't happen as easily, but if you take it a bit slow, you can get it going.
The Speed Bag Truck's metal ball hook swiv is a custom from Alan Kahn. The shaft is screwed as far into the ball as it can go. Plus, it is a faster-than-normal swiv. Put a Everlast 6x4 up on that and it is total speed! But if you're like Skunk, and have long arms, yet have great power, you want a little distance in the swiv shaft dept.
I think the main thing to remember, as far as I can tell is; every combination of board, swiv and bag is different. I don't think you can narrow an analysis down to science. We all know the ball hook is the hardest to control, but the U bolt and Chain are faster, but the 6x4 Everlast on the Kahn custom metal ball hook is gonna be faster than 8x5 gyro on a Ubolt.
Bascially, if your sitting under the board with time to bag, that's half the battle beaten right there!
BAG ON!

[SpeedBagScissorhands]

to me the chain link is hardest to control. you hit the bag and it bounces in any random direction. its really all about the bagger likes and wants to use. i know one thing- i hate the chain link swivels!

[fingers]

good question,
ive always used a U swivel- ive only used a ball hook once or twice and its a different feel. you just have to get used to each swivel. the ball hook is probably easier to land the side punches i would imagine because the ball rolls in the direction you punch. i like the U and will stick with it. im too lazy to unscrew my platform:DMe too! i think i will stick to the u bar....i don't do much in the way of side punches anyway:D that's 2 members for the u bar appreciation section then:cool::D<)Y

[mobileaudio25]

"The Speed Bag Truck's metal ball hook swiv is a custom from Alan Kahn"?? what swivel(s) does this involve? im all about speed, i box at a local gym. elbows are awesome though:D

[Tim]

"The Speed Bag Truck's metal ball hook swiv is a custom from Alan Kahn"?? what swivel(s) does this involve? im all about speed, i box at a local gym. elbows are awesome though:D

I think I have a closeup pic of it, I'll look for it later tonight. Basically it's an Everlast metal ball hook where the eye hook is mounted way far into the ball, which significantly reduces the rebound arc of the bag.

[Tim]

"The Speed Bag Truck's metal ball hook swiv is a custom from Alan Kahn"?? what swivel(s) does this involve? im all about speed, i box at a local gym. elbows are awesome though:D

Here it is

[mobileaudio25]

i want it, and the shorted boxing gear speed hook that i had purchased and never received :(

[Tim]

i want it, and the shorted boxing gear speed hook that i had purchased and never received :(

your best bet is probably to keep an eye on eBay and your local Craigslist site. You can often find the metal ball hooks either alone, or with an older platform. The metal ball has a set screw that keeps the eye hook in. simply mount the eye hook deeper into the ball... although Alan will have to say whether he did anything more beyond that.

[Speedbag]

your best bet is probably to keep an eye on eBay and your local Craigslist site. You can often find the metal ball hooks either alone, or with an older platform. The metal ball has a set screw that keeps the eye hook in. simply mount the eye hook deeper into the ball... although Alan will have to say whether he did anything more beyond that.

Whenever I loosen the set screw in the ball (http://www.speedbagcentral.com/ssp/speedbag_swivels#A) (part #5) and take the eye shank (#2) out, I normally coat it with superglue and put some glue in the hole. Then I put the eye-shank back into the hole as far as possible, but I normally don't want the shank to stick out the other end of the ball, because most of those swivels have a very close tolerance between the wood of the board, the base plate of the swivel and the ball inside the housing. If the metal shank extends past the hole on the board side of the ball, it may contact the wood.

I sometimes put duct tape on the shank which is a feeble attempt to reduce the metal clanking sound as it hits the housing. I suppose it could also reduce the chance of fine metal flakes coming off also.

[Speedbag]

to me the chain link is hardest to control. you hit the bag and it bounces in any random direction. its really all about the bagger likes and wants to use. i know one thing- i hate the chain link swivels!

I agree. I think that random variation is due to the mechanics or alignment of the links. I just believe that sometimes (rarely but sometimes), the link alignment will interfer with the rebound direction, particularly when doing constant linking combinations from all sides. When performing continuous Front,Side, and Reverse Double punching combinations at high speeds there just seem to be odd or unusual rebounds on chain link swivels. I notice it as slight mis-hits due to bag angles of rebound. Perhaps not enough to cause a complete miss or breakdown, but enough to make me fix my gaze on the swivel links when I'm using one in a demonstration on someone elses equipment, which is the only place I would use one.

[Roc Stone]

If you can use a ball hook swivel proficiently then you should be able to manage pretty good on all others.

It all depends on what your goal is. Boxers, amateur or professional aren't going to be focusing their SB training on hitting from all around the bag, so a U-bolt swivel would be perfect for them. If you just wanna hobby hit the SB using al the SB tricks then a ball hook swivel is the best. If you wanna do a bit of both then, in my opinion, the chain link may be more appropriate. Having said that, it is not something you should be over concerned with until you've got all the basics covered.

I've been strongly considering removing the 'S' hook all together from the B/H swivel to reduce the moving parts and attaching the bag straight to the eye bolt using a cable tie. I've been finding on all my small bags that I get a lot of bag or swivel float after stiking the bag, which can effect the bag rebound as much as a miss-hit would.

[paranday]

I've been strongly considering removing the 'S' hook all together from the B/H swivel to reduce the moving parts and attaching the bag straight to the eye bolt using a cable tie.

I agree with your idea. The 'S' hook is a convenience, but not necessary.

Someone posted a video showing the bag being hit tied to a broken chainlink swivel with a shoelace. Following his lead, I've removed the 'S' hook from a plastic ball hook and tied the bag to the eye with a shoelace, and it works fine, but you get "float" with some bags on a plastic ball. Should work better with the metal ball.

I want a silent swivel. So I sawed a chain link swivel completely off, until there was nothing left but a flat plate that swiveled on a vertical plane, and then drilled through that vertically and attached an eye bolt. With a bag tied onto it with a shoelace, you get an omni-directional swivel action with no ball at all, the shoelace and eye hook handle all of that motion. But the fit and workmanship of the average chainlink swivel is crap, and on my example there are spots where the swivel will briefly stick and not rotate perfectly freely; with lighter bags the lace will wind-up on the eyehook and cause some minor rebound errors - but nothing like the random crazy action of the original chainlink.

Let the experiments continue. Your idea should eliminate one of the sources of metal shavings, plus you can vary the rebound arc somewhat by varying the length of the cable tie. Let us know your results.

[royalewifcheese]

at the local gym i was using a cleto reyes 9x6 (loved it, faster than the 3 bags ive tried) on a bull hook swivel. i could hit accurately and fast.

i built my own home platform (pretty much vibrant resistant) on a watkins ball hook swivel. im having A LOT more trouble with my combinations on this swivel. is this normal? have been exchanging bags so i havnt had a lot of practice to just bag, i seem to be picky about my bags. thanks,kyle

you can see machine marks inside the watkins base where the ball sits. that's where the friction is coming from. i'll polish that up and update y'all on how she performs.

[Speedbag]

I agree with your idea. The 'S' hook is a convenience, but not necessary.

Someone posted a video showing the bag being hit tied to a broken chainlink swivel with a shoelace. Following his lead, I've removed the 'S' hook from a plastic ball hook and tied the bag to the eye with a shoelace, and it works fine, but you get "float" with some bags on a plastic ball. Should work better with the metal ball.

I want a silent swivel


Here is a Ball hook modification that is very quiet and very efficient.

1. take an everlast plastic ballhook swivel apart. unscrew the shank and take ball out.

2. Put a metal ball into the plastic housing. I've been using the older style everlast metal ball since it has flat tops and no taper on the end to protrude out of the hole.

pictures are below. I put superglue on the metal shank when I put it into the ball hole and push it up as far a possible before tightening the set screw in the ball.

I think this swivel works Great (http://www.youtube.com/user/speedbag1#p/u/5/h6LdxsTErM8) and you never hear the metal hitting the plastic housing.

[goju]

I wouldn't change it for any thing else. I purchased the plastic ball hook swivel, installed it, found it hard to control and removed it for the U bolt. Then after reading so many views on the ball hooks, I thought I'd fit it again and persevere. Best thing I ever done!;)

same here mate, best thing i ever did too, would never go back to a chain link or U bolt.