Century BOB XL with Base Unit is a very popular piece of kit amongst martial artists and self defence enthusiasts.
Because the Body Bob has a real “Purdy” face it gives you something to focus on and makes your experience of striking it that bit more realistic.
Why not a five star? Well, despite being such a great product, like all products the punch bob has it’s draw-backs, as I’ll explain shortly.
Unlike hitting a standard punch bag where you are just targeting a featureless spot on the bag, with the BOB you can target specific parts of the face and torso.
With the body bob, your fingers naturally curve over the head, as they would do on a real opponent.
With the BOB you will have no such problems, as you can move freely around it.
Lastly, if you are an instructor like me, the punch bob is great for teaching students exactly where on a person they should be striking and how to do it, which is difficult to explain with a featureless hanging bag.
Ability To Add Garments For Added Realism Yes, BOB is also Barbie Bob, as you can if you wish, dress the big fella up in whatever clothes you feel like.
Adjustability You can make the Century BOB taller or shorter according to your needs, which is good if you want to practice against different sized opponents.
Portable Versatility The Century BOB is quite easy to move around, unlike most heavy bags that are chained or secured to ceilings.
BOB sits atop that wobbly base, so you simply twist him off and roll your base to the new location before setting BOB back on again.
The Dodgy Base As I said, the Century BOB is mounted on a plastic base that you will have to fill up in order to keep BOB grounded.
If you are going to keep your punch bob in one place, then I suggest you fill it with sand instead, or even small pebbles.
Legless The body bob has no legs, which means practice of low kicks are out.
Yes, you could simulate the kicks, but if you make contact with the plastic base you’ll probably hurt your leg and also damage the base, which will make it difficult to disconnect BOB if you need too.
Marks Easy BOB is obviously made of rubber, so anything that can mark rubber will mark him as well.
The odd battle scar on BOB doesn’t bother me at all.
Big Softy Despite his hard man image, BOB is really a big softy, in that the rubber he is made out of is very pliable.
Final Analysis As mentioned earlier, I have chosen to give the Century BOB a four star rating.
The punch bob certainly will not replace the heavy bag, and nor was it ever meant too.
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