Speed Bag Usefulness

Yea, when some hot girl walks in, even our old ass trainers jump on the speed bag.

 

There's a difference between punching a heavy bag and punching a man.
There's a difference between wind sprints and actual boxing.

I don't give a damn if a fighter dances the mambo to find rythym. Unless you want to be a face first brute who fights stiff with a short career and long-term head trauma, it helps to have it. And if you deny that the speed bag helps in that category, well, whatever.

You're concentrating on not only relaxing, but on hitting it properly and timing it. Nothing special about those things? Don't spar with me, sport.

...Do you know that you can punch it straight?

I see we have a novice in the house.

 

Just lol.

 

Hmmm, I'm just not convinced that speed bag drills have that much carry-over into how you perform inside the ring.

Good Bags:
- Heavy Bags;
- Double-end Bags;
- Slip Bags;
- Upper-cut Bags.

Probably Useless Bags:
- Speed Bags;
- Douche Bags.

 

A speed bag isn't totally useless, but in orders of magnitude and your endurance being in limited supply? It is so low on the list that unless you are in Olympic/pro shape and in the gym so much that you learn to use it just to use it and you are there? It is generally useless.

You "could" improve arm endurance using it, but why not a heavy bag? You "could" improve timing with it, but why not use a double end bag? You "could" improve rhythm with it, but why not just skip rope with that emphasis?

It is just a redundant tool.

 

I always assumed the speed bag was to train you to keep your hands/arms up so you don't drop them and get KTFO. I mean, you have to hold your hands up high and hit that thing rapidly for 3 minutes straight and for 3-4 rounds. It improves your arm endurance so you don't drop them when you're tired. But since amateur boxers only fight a few rounds, it's probably not as useful for them as oppose to a pro boxer fighting 12 (and used to be 15) rounds.

Heavy bag is for punching. Maybe you can improve your punching endurance (being able to throw more punches) by hitting it repeatedly. But I don't see how that will train you to hold your arms up in front of your face.

 

It a good warm up and also helps with focus and rhythm.

 

It doesn't matter much though when the technique doesn't translate to the ring.
i.e. I can learn to headbutt the speed bag in a rhythm, and to get the rhythm down I'd have to learn the technique, but who cares if that becomes second nature if I can't use it when I'm actually fighting?

You can do all of that with a sparring partner, pad work, heavy bag etc.
Except with those you'll at least be using just about the same technique as in the ring. If you see anyone trying to punch an opponent the same way they're hitting the speed bag then you're probably watching a three stooges movie or something.

If you're looking to punch straight you're better off using something other than a speed bag.



Moral of the story, not much use. Only reason I do it is because people would look at you funny if you told them you box but then are unable to use the speed bag, since it's become such a symbol of the sport in people's minds.

 

FINALLY! someone wrote it up.. i just was waiting for the proper answer, lemme quote from one of the greatest boxers 'Rhythm is everything in boxing. Every move you make starts with your heart, and that's in rhythm or you're in trouble.
—Ray Robinson'

Speed bag keeps the rhythm.. the first few times u calculate how many times it hits, second u hit slowly with one hand, third u start hitting fast with 1 hand, 4th u hit with both hands slowly etc. till you learn the rhythm so well u can hop on ur feet and swing side to side with a perfect timing.. the bag doesnt directly help you, it relaxes u and increase rhythm. You can do it with ur eyes closed cause use other senses, as soon as u hear the bag hit back u hit it again.. rhythm.. oh and it looks cool also

 

Um, this -

By your logic, people that play musical instuments would be incredible boxers as they can maintain a rythym while doing something not related to actual boxing.

 

How you use a bag is up to you and your discipline. If you use a heavy bag with your hands low? You are doing it wrong. You should be "fighting" a bag exactly like you fight a person unless you are doing a pure punching endurance session.

I do see the endurance benefit that you speak of though. :good

 

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Again, the speed bag is not primarily for technique. It helps develop both timing and rythym. It can help technique if you know what you are doing with it. It appears that several on this thread don't understand how to properly use it.

Again, there are many uses for it. If you don't use it, it isn't the end of the world, but to deny that it helps boxers is a pretty clear sign that you probably don't understand it or learned under trainers who didn't understand it.

Tell that to Harry Greb, Ray Robinson, Roberto Duran, Archie Moore, and legions of other great, great fighters who used it as a matter of course.

--They're all wrong?

 

By your logic, the only worthwhile exercise for boxing is sparring because it is the only thing related to actual boxing.

Come on, man. Yoga helps. Ballet helps. Street fighting experience helps. Grappling helps. Reading "Corner Men" helps. Freakin' Hypnotism helps.

--You think the speed bag is useless? I think you have much to learn.

 

Present me the only living one and I'll tell him. That argument means nothing.
Great sailors used to claim the earth was flat, doesn't mean they were correct though.

You've been on this board long enough to know the boxers of the past have done plenty of unnecessary and perhaps time-wasting routines.

But do you honestly believe that if any of those fighters never used a speed bag they'd not have still been great fighters...?

 

I like the arguments of "Well if you don't agree with me you're doing it wrong!" Always a funny read.