strikemate a review

Strikemate a review

As a person with a passion for hand strikes really can’t begin to tell you the value of a constant measuring tool for striking, the idea of having something that is as good as a trainer at picking up the subtlety’s of a good punch, with me its sound and feel and I have spent good money on items that were supposed to measure your power the consistency was terrible, so when I heard about the strikemate I was interested but had heard it all before..

So I've tried it, and I have to tell you it’s Very very good, a Serious scientific bit of kit, to finally have a tool that can constantly measure the power strike is great, and when I look at some of the film when I’m striking it. I can see or hear the strike was less or more and the strikemate picked up on this, like Kevin  Franklin said, it’s at a detail above and beyond what any person could measure, the surface is very nice to hit, even bare knuckle. Though I've never been a fan of the foam used, in many ways I think it’s perfect the job though a little stiff, when you hold this sort of pad against you there’s very little direct energy lost and it transfers energy well, basically hurts more, when you hold it against your chest unlike a soft pad, because of the stiffness of the pad there’s energy fired back at you as well, it spits the hand of instantly which it should. So I’m saying it’s an ideal bit of kit for anybody who’s interested in striking for sports/martial arts and why every top gym in the country hasn’t got one is beyond me? Time to break the cycle of repetition with striking and get some science behind it, and the gyms who have across the world are already benefiting massively, so form an orderly line guys this really is a must tool, to test and perfect the power of your kicks and punches, if you think about it for solo training, it’s like having a coach 24/7 to tell straight away if an tweak here or there makes a difference in your power!

So while nothings perfect and I’m a fussy git, I want to talk about what the strikemate doesn’t measure and its limitations, but please don’t take this as a criticism, it’s  just that  power and impact are so complicated to understand,  never mind  measure. So to me there two parts of a strike, the power generation and then  the impact on the end. So I doesn’t measure initial or surface impact, I noticed when I tried a palm heel  hook a score of 12000 when the same core mechanics with  a hook punch was high 43000,now I know that the smaller area has more force but, with the open hand there is a massive amount of initial surface impact, this isn’t picked up on the strikemate, that in turn tells me that when the punch lands it’s not measuring that initial impact either and to me this is when it’s at its peak power, so to get a full reading you would have to measure the initial impact on the end of the strike x the power built, the strike mate is really spot on for the power measurement, and because of this, when I tried the different shockwaves at full power  it picked up on the differences in overall power, because the increased initial impact lifted the overall power, but if I tried the shockwaves lightly which would still hurt human, there was very little measurement. it’s great for kicks punches elbows sharp strikes, but its not good for the more concussive strikes like palm heels and hooks ,slaps or finger strikes

I would say don’t change anything about the strikemate it’s a great bit of kit, the power trainer which I initially compared to my water bag, is really very different as a standalone pad I think it’s just the job for power development but very similar to a hard heavy bag in many ways, but with the give not as hard on the arms or body, but once you add a measurement its a whole new level. And from what i can tell the power trainer is fully upgradeable. The water bag is all about learning the speed snap or impact in many ways completing the two parts of the striking puzzle.

I can’t help thinking Kevin how good the power trainer would be with an impactometer? Something that measures surface impact alone x that with the strikemate measurement job done......if only it was that easy..Something to think about?

Great work.