What to Fill your Wallbag With

What to Fill your Wallbag With

A common question we get from customers is, “What do I fill my wallbag with?”  Typically our answer is, “Ask your Sifu!”, because your Sifu is the one in charge of your training and many Sifus have specific requirements or specific recommendations for your training.  But if you are new, without a Sifu, or just curious then this is what we recommend:

Our recommendations are compiled both from our experience and training as well as from the Wing Chun community at large and in no particular order:

Beginners:
– Beans (soy, mung, or etc)
– Plastic beads (as used in BB guns) or glue pellets. (Good for areas of high humidity where beans would get moldy)
– Rice

Beginner to Intermediate:
– Slowly remove beans and add sand to the bags.

Intermediate:
– Tossed sand grains (like those used in aquarium tanks) (This is better than “play sand” because there is not as much fine dust partials (you don’t want that in your lungs!) and the rounded edges won’t wear the bag down as fast.
– Sand (typically washed “pool filter sand”) (again less particles).

Most people can actually start with sand for punching, but it might be too much to start with for Iron Palm. Sand is the most common filling in schools and tossed sand (or washed sand) is the best if it is available in your area.

Advanced/Iron Palm:
– Pea Gravel (for intermediate iron palm)
– BBs or Ball Bearings (iron or steel – for advanced iron palm)

Again, please check with your teacher/Sifu.  Although we train ourselves, we do not make training recommendations – and be warned you can cause serious damage to your hand, and serious damage to your body with improper Iron Palm training.  You train at your own risk.

Also, Here are a few customer comments on Filling Volume:

These amounts have been submitted by customers for fill volume of 1 compartment.

1) 10 cups of beans minimum
2) 11kg sand max
3) 7000 x 8mm ball bearings. (Andrew O. says this “works great in the bag you sent me last month”).
4) Tom says 1.5 lbs of rice per compartment in a 3 section bag.
Plastic Pellets5) Joyce says: I have purchased some plastic pellets – the stuff you use for stuffing a stuffed toy (see picture right). They normally can be purchased in either 500g or 1 kg. 1 section = 1.75 kg of plastic pellets (3 bags of 500g + 1/2 a bag of 500) therefore 3 sections for a 3 section wall bag would be 5.25 kg.
If you have amounts or suggestions to add, please email us!

15 thoughts on “What to Fill your Wallbag With

    1. Punching pebbles is never a good idea. That type of thing is the realm of Iron Palm (using the palm, fingertips, etc, not the fist). Personally, I think those pebbles look a bit large for iron palm as well.

    1. I took a look at the site you are shopping on. I personally was taught on the 10-15 mm ones. That seems to be a common size I see for Iron Palm. The bag will hold any size, of course. You should check with your teacher on the best size for your personal training.

    1. it has to do with the surface area you are hitting. larger rocks = smaller surface area. So it is like hitting all the force on fewer contact points. Smaller pebbles = more surface area so more of your entire hand gets conditioned. Typically you do the smaller surface area at the steel ball-bearing stage. You start with bbs (large surface area hit) and over time increase the ball size so that less and less of your hand makes contact points on each strike.

  1. Hi. I live in the UK. Sainsbury’s (a UK supermarket) currently sells rice for 45p a KG. So, I filled my 3 compartment wall bag with 8.5KG = £3.80 / $4.30. I found it to be the cheapest method of filling them.

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