“I've seen several sources say shadowboxing is more important than bag work. Would you agree? I have only done a little heavy bag to try to condition my hands and haven't done much speed bag at all. Am I really missing out? It seems like most guys do basically a backhand on the speed bag. Is that useful?”
-Gregor
Gregor, the heavy bag is a tool without which a hard-hitting boxer will not be made. It is a must. I will address the heavy bag in its own article. Likewise, the other bags will each have its own article.
Shadowboxing
This is the paramount training method of the top boxer, and has been for 2,500 years. The Hellenes called it Skiamakhia, or “shadow-fighting.” You should do one round of shadowboxing for each total round of bag work according to a progression like this.
1. Slow and easy
2. Slow and methodical working on a specific skill
3. Tactically, as if you are fighting
4. Tactically, as if you were getting beaten, making sure to put yourself in the kind of bad positions you are prone to, and then working out of them
5. Tactically, as if you are turning the tide against, and finishing, an opponent
6. A methodical review of combinations
7. A high work-rate round
8. A defensive round with no punches thrown
9. An easy warm down
Shadow boxing requires imagination and an ability to understand the possible pit falls of every move you make. If you have no imagination, wrestle.
Speedbag
The speed bag is an exercise device and a rhythmic target. It is a good place to learn the jab. It may also be used as a maze ball to practice slipping punches.
The exercise is this:
1. Stand with your face just below the rim of the platform from which the bag hangs.
2. The bag should hang at the level of your face. If it does not, adjust it, otherwise you could damage your shoulder.
3. Hold your elbows and lightly clenched hands up.
4. Paw the bag with your left hand, striking with the middle joint of the fingers, like a rounded hung-fu leopard paw punch.
5. As the bag bounces three times, rotate your forearm around the elbow joint and strike the bag with a hammer fist, not a with a backhand.
6. The bag will now bounce on a diagonal track to your face, right into the forehand paw of your right.
7. Hammer fist the bag with the right and it will bounce in line with your left paw.
8. Paw, hammer, paw, hammer is the rhythm
9. This is the basic drill. I will do a video showing this and other applications.
What are the purposes of this strange exercise?
1. Developing rhythm
2. Relaxing your trapezius muscle and sloping your shoulders while your hands are raised. Without this ability you will punch like a muscle-bound egg-tester—if you can crack the egg it is not Grade-A
3. This will help balance out your shoulder development and make up for the over use of the front deltoid muscle and build some strength in the rear deltoid, helping with injury prevention
4. At the end of a round, when you are really fatigued on a muscular level, having work the speed bag will help you keep your shoulders relaxed so that you can keep your hands up even when they are blown.
