I would like to improve my punching speed

[kmcat]

Re:

quote \”Jay99\:

…

I also noticed a few of you mention speed bags. Are they really worth the investment?

I’ve done just a little bit of work with a speed bag at our school. It is a lot more difficult than it looks. I could tell with what little I have done that it would improve my speed and timing if I worked with it more.

[klem2]

Sometimes people change their technique when they spar vs drill. When shadowboxing or even working with the pads you snap your punches, rotate your body, and focus on a quick sharp contraction. When it comes to sparring, the tendency is often to either push the punches or reach with the punches. It is usually done because of an uncertainty of how hard to hit or a lack of committing to the punch in fear of being hit back.

It’s a natural reaction and I sometimes find myself doing it in a sparring session. Just check yourself next time in the ring and see whether or not you are changing things.

[badge54]

Two things that haven’t been discussed or at least emphasized that made a big differance for me I got from John Whitman in Tenn.

He explaines the Contraction Vs. Retraction of the punch. We focus on throwing the punch out as fast as we can but forget in order to throw the second punch we have to retract the first. He broke the punching down and had us focus only on the retraction. Throw the punch prepared to retract as fast as you can. My other hand started coming out faster.

The second was a little nuance in breathing that was new to me. I sounded like a Choo Choo train, each punch with an sepperate exhale. Try sounding like a tire loosing air..SHHHHHH…throught the whole combination. One exhale for three punches. Each time you Choo, Choo your diaphram contracts and stops. This is counter productive to the relaxed state you should be in.

Badge54

[anonymous]

This reminds me of something I was told to think of at a different martial arts place: They said when punching you should imagine holding a taut rope in both of your hands that has been placed around a pole in front of you. As you pull the rope toward you with one hand, the other arm will be pulled forward, as it would be in a punch. When one arm is completely extended, the other will be close to your face. Then, if you pull the extended arm back, the other arm will be pulled forward etc. It’s a good thing to visualize to coordinate your punches and might also increase speed.

_________________
Giantkiller

[vicious]

Re:

quote \”CLFMak\:

In my opinion, good power and impeccable form should be the focus, not speed, especially in the beginning. Also, when you’re good at timing and distancing (developed mainly in sparring) you don’t need to be especially fast. In sparing, grappling etc, its never the really fast ones I find the most difficult. Its the guys that can move slow and relaxed . Its actually more discouraging because you might know what’s coming, but it still gets you.
On the topic of shadowboxing with weights: although there is a perceived quickness of the hands, the weights don’t provide the right resistance. For punching you’d want resistance against the muscles that extend the arm. The weight on the other hand mostly puts resistance towards the floor. Aside from that, I think hand speed is kind of a misnomer. Body speed is a more correct characterization if you’re punching correctly.

agreed. Remember physical speed is not as important as reaction \”speed.\”

[badge54]

ViCious, That reminds me of something I saw the other night. Our instructor was showing one of the students how to use rubber bands to create resistance in kicking. Same can be done for punching. Wrap the band around a kicking bag and punch away from it. Instead of the weight being relative to the floor it is pulling against the movement of the punch.

Badge54

[vicious]

Re:

quote \”Badge54\:

ViCious, That reminds me of something I saw the other night. Our instructor was showing one of the students how to use rubber bands to create resistance in kicking. Same can be done for punching. Wrap the band around a kicking bag and punch away from it. Instead of the weight being relative to the floor it is pulling against the movement of the punch.

Badge54

Those are great exercises for multiple reasons… besides being lower impact, bands replicate the resistance of a real punch.

When you lift weights the hardest part of the lift is at the beginning of the lift… that’s the inverse of resistance experienced when punching. When you punch most of the work occurs at the point of extension (contact.) Just like when you use a band and it gets harder as you extend the band.

[Author]

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