Due to other committments i find that i use my makiwara very rarely, and having straw rope surface i didnt have the build up of skin and constantly ended up with scabs bruises and blood, even after only 10 minutes or so of practise. As the solid calous' take years of daily training to build up. My discontinual, sporadic training was like going back to stage 1 every time. personally it didnt bother me but being a student it was frowned upon and it is rather unsightly writing at a desk looking like a gypsy boxer. so instead of giving up my makiwara practise altogether i have replaced the very abrassive straw rope with A LEATHER BELT. It has worked for me very well as it is nowhere near as abrassive but still fairly unforgiving.

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