Expert: Alan Kahn - 6/23/2004

Question
I bought a speed bag the other day and found I have no idea how to use it. What are some ways to punch the speed bag?  

Answer
Hi Angela,

Great!  so now you are a real live beginner, with no bad speed bag habits to break.  OK the best thing I can do is refer you to some articles about speed bag training on the internet. Here is one I wrote for RossBoxing.com:

http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym20.htm

Here is another post on that forum about ways to use the speed bag for "speed training".

http://p201.ezboard.com/frossboxingforumfrm9.showMessage?topicID=875.topic&index...

I post regularly on RossBoxing forums. They are an active, intelligent and civil bunch of folks. and Ross is VERY knowlegeable about fitness training and boxing.

here is another article you may find interesting about learning to use the speed bag, with a few pictures. ( I will refer to the pictures more later.)

http://enabledonline.com/BackIssues/February2001/health2.html

Now, basically you want to get the equipment set to the correct height for you.  You ideally want the "belly" of the bag you are using (no matter what size..) at about your mouth level. This puts it in the proper position for the circling arm motions. If the bag is too high or too low, it can alter the correct swinging movement.

Make sure you bag is not overinflated. This makes it hard as a rock and difficult to control ( speeds it up, too.)

I recommend starting out with a mid-size large bag. that is about 11x8 or 12x9. ( link - see 11x8 gold or 10x7 )

http://store.titleboxing.com/titlespeedbags1.html

The 9x6 and smaller 8x5 are normally too fast for beginners to learn on....  you CAN, but the frustration rate is higher.  However, if you find yourself with a bag that is too small or very fast, let a little air out.  this makes it a bit mushier and slower. ( easier to control also.)

Also, don't rotate your hand to hit the "back" of your hand. For most speed bag work your palm is facing the floor. some folks roll their hand over to hit the back but this is wrong.  they may argue that "old mr. so & so told me... blah blah" but they're wrong and do not even know why most of the time ( This rotation puts the elbow way down out of position and forces that same fist to make a return punch from under the bag in and upperward direction.  This is disasterous to an experienced user.)

Front Fist Rolling is a very easy and catchy technique to do.  Simply overlap your fists slightly and roll them in circles around each other.  The bag hits one fist, rebounds once and hits the other fist - continuously. The far left and far right pictures shown in this article show me doing a Front Fist Roll.  Note the fist and elbow positions. Roll them FAST. It is harder to do this technique slow.

With two fists and two elbows, speed bag techniques can have up to four parts. There are 24 techniques that I demonstrate and show in The Speed Bag Bible, but you don't need them all to have a great workout on the bag. referring again to the enabled article, the middle picture in the  wheelchair shows me setup to do the Outward-Triple Elbow Strike.

I hope this is enough information to get you going.  In a short time ( few weeks) I hope to have my teaching website up and online. It will be: www.speedbagcentral.com and will have a lot of teaching information about equipment, techniques and training methods.

Thanks for asking a question and if I can help you out further, please do not hesitate to ask again.

good luck and train safely in speed bag and all other activities.

sincerely,

Alan Kahn
author, The Speed Bag Bible