The makiwara / straw pad is thought to have Okinawan origins and used for supplementary conditioning used by Okinawan martial artists. Makiwara is the Japanese word for ‘rolled straw’.

Mounted on a forging to measure the strike of the practitioner, this device can be compared to the punch bag for a western boxer. The straw pad mounted on the forging post allowed the practitioner to judge and measure the effectiveness of their strike where a poor technique would bounce of the straw pad. And an effective technique would penetrate the target area.

Since the Korean art of Taekwon-Do has historical roots with Karate,this training aid was soon adopted by Taekwon-Do practitioners.