Poppa's got a brand new bag.

Just something to think about the next time you are running bag drills...

CINCINNATI -- A Cincinnati-area family got a smelly surprise when they opened a punching bag they purchased earlier this year.

Joe Heckel said he and his son were moving a TKO brand heavy punching bag from their garage to the basement when they decided to see what was inside in case the bag later leaked. But Heckel said that instead of sand or plastic pellets, he found the bag full of men's and women's underwear, some of it used.

"(There were) bras, thongs and bathing suits. We could not believe there were clothes inside instead of sand," he said.
sponsor

Heckel said the smell was "bad, real bad."

Heckel said that contacting the store where he'd bought the bag didn't go anywhere.

"I called to ask them if they could tell me if these were clean underwear, but I don't think that he believed me," Heckel said. "I said 'I'm a cop, I'm telling you that's what's in there!' He stated that he had never looked in a bag so he didn't know what was in them."

Heckel described the discovery as "gross but kind of funny in a way," and couldn't help but chuckle as he told his story. He and his son finished installing the punching bag after taking pictures, but he says they have yet to use it.

A spokeswoman for the store told partner Web site WLWT.com that they were unaware of what had happened, but asked for Heckel's phone number so they could contact him about the matter.

Attempts by WLWT.com to contact Technical Knockout Inc., the company that owns the TKO brand, have been unsuccessful. A number listed for the company was "unassigned."

But on Thursday, a company representative saw Heckel's story on a Houston Web site and called him.

Heckel said Thursday that the representative told him that the underwear in the bag was a "quality problem" that they were dealing with, and that the people who had made the decision to put underwear in the bags had been fired.

The representative said a new, non-underwear-filled bag would be shipped to Heckel shortly.

Step One- Get the old guy on his back

Here's the first photos of one of the OAC members rolling. Vegas Dave (the bald one) fighting to get the kid off his cross-side. This roll ended abruptly when I got gassed and started dry heaving (keep the cardio conditioning up folks). The roll itself was about fifteen minutes though. Not bad for an old fart.
Our thanks would like to go out to our new team photographer, my five year old son Dashiell. Working his new Polaroid like a pro.

From Political & Thoughtful to Testosterone Laden Pig in 60 Minutes

Yesterday's class was nothing but rolling. No instructor, no drills, just rolling. We were on the mat warming up, and suddenly we were in a deep political discussion (I believe gas prices started it all). Talking ethics, the pros and cons of various political candidates....

Then we rolled for an hour and a half.

As we were in the dressing room getting ready to leave the topics were much different. Sex, women, sex with women, things to do while having sex, butts, boobs, yadda yadda yadda.

Who knew that you could raise your testosterone to the top of neanderthal mountain in just an hour?

Keep it clean!

Ok, for those of you unused to contact sports, you can pick up all sorts of nasty stuff at the gym. You are dealing with blood and sweat and in the case of the near south, a warm environment. These are conducive to passing all kinds of nasties.

• Get a health screening before you start. Find out what you have and don't have. Then fix and or protect.
• Don't roll when you're infected. Period.
• Shower as close to immediately after your workout as you can.
• Carry alcohol wipes and band aids to protect mat burn and cuts.
• Use Gym Soap and Defense Wipes
  
• Get regular checkups.

Hope these tips help.

d3o Technology...Would it work for Jiu Jitsu?

In high school I remember a science experiment with cornstarch. As long as you kept applying force to it, it was a solid; let it rest, it became runny goo.

d3o is a soft, pliable, almost silicone type material. Soft and pliable that is until you apply blunt force to it. When force is applied, the molecules of d3o lock together and form a protective layer in thousandths of a second.

Now imagine a rash guard with d3o pads in the elbows. Or even small pads down along the spine. Maybe even compression pants with d3o in the knees or protecting the tailbone? For all you MMA guys, think of how much easier training would be with less bulky padding. Muay Thai shin guards and sparring helmets would be lighter and much closer to an actual match.

If their ski stuff wasn't thermal, I would get a top just to try it as a rash guard. I hope that the come out with compression shirts soon I would love to try one out. DO YOU HEAR ME D3O DEVELOPMENT TEAM?!

Less injuries training, means more time competing. Ain't technology grand?

Hey how 'bout some sports...hold the felony.

Okay, I have had it. there are too many hard working, upstanding, and outstanding athletes out there for this to happen.
Let's say you are the coach of a university football team. Now this guy comes to you and says "I know you have thousands of other qualified athletes to choose from, but I have this guy who is will run circles around them...Oh and he's got eleven prior convictions."
A sensible man would say "Go shit in your hat." But apparently U of L coach Steve Kragthorpe said "Yeah, he's the guy for us."
Now, not even halfway through the season, they are one man short because dingle-berry Willie Williams lined himself up for conviction number twelve. Damn you'd think that Kragthorpe would have seen it coming. Way to go Willie on making it an even dozen! Way to go Coach Kragthorpe for giving hope to an eleven time loser!

Dog fighting, doping, assault, DUI, gambling, bribes, the list goes on and on. The money and fame that pours into pro and college sports make people lose their damn minds. As I had pointed out last year in June, it's hard enough to get them to act like sportsmen when the camera is rolling, let alone act well when they are unsupervised.
Owners and coaches need to clamp down on this behavior. Williams should be thrown out of the school and then sued for the scholarship he stole out from under some deserving athlete. Michael Vick should be banned from the sport, and forced to pay the franchise for legal fees, this seasons back pay, signing bonuses, and the general waste of time the non-arrested team members had to spend answering media questions.
If you want to correct a behavior in athletes, make the punishment absolute and final. And make it sting. If a governing sports body makes punishment harsh enough for an infraction, the infractions will cease.

The governing body for cycling knows that many of their members have been known to dope for that extra edge, that's why they drug test. That's also why Lance "Mr. Clean" Armstrong is one of my heroes.
The governing body for Lacrosse knows that their ranks are full of cheats, that's why they do a random equipment test at the end of each quarter. This way, everyone is following equipment regulations. Same with Jiu Jitsu, they check your kimono before each match to make sure that you are following regs, and haven't made your pants too short or sleeves too narrow.
God forbid a Sumo wrestler screw up. An entire nation would ostracise him, too the point he would probably have to emigrate.
What I am saying, is if we as a nation would like to have sportsmen back in sports. Make the rule breakers pay, make it sting, and make them an example so that up and comers won't get any ideas in their heads.

The First Stripe

Today El Jeffe and Vegas Dave earned their first white stripe. Coming back from an injury and brief medical problems, El Jeffe was back at it and rolling like a champ.

In celebration - We present The White Stripes