Speed Bag Strikes

For decades, Baggers have experimented with punch styles, combinations and speed bag workout routines

Traditionally standard Speedbag Training had involved a relatively small number of punch combinations, however, Bible Style bagging which started to become popular in the 1990s introduced a variety of other techniques, and the range of punch combinations, and variations of them, increased dramatically. More recently Multi-Bagging has introduced the concept of using 2 or more speedbags at the same time, and the variations and permutations of punch combinations have exploded again.

Strike Types

Hand

  • Fist – a straight punch with the fist – usually with the hand in a vertical (rather than horizontal) position
  • Down – using the fleshy part of the hand and connecting with the bag in a downward hitting motion
  • Backhand – hitting the bag with the back of the hand – not used a lot in traditional or even bible style speed bagging, but with Multi-bagging this is a reasonably common and natural strike, because you don’t always have time to twist/turn your body/arm fully when striking a bag beside or behind you.
  • Side – hitting the bag with a sideways strike of the hand – using the outside or inside knuckle – most commonly used when hitting the bag on the side, or when linking
  • Uppercut – striking the bag from underneath (off centre) with an upwards motion
  • Fingertips – or open/cupped hand – you can’t get much power, but using fingertips or an open hand is a good technique for learning, and can also be useful to regain “control” of a wildly spinning bag after a mishit.

Elbow

  • Forward Elbow – strike the bag with the elbow tip when extending your arm
  • Back Elbow – strike the bag with the back of your elbow when bringing the arm back to the body
  • Downward Elbow – strike the bag with your elbow using a downwards motion (need to be careful you don’t hit the edge of the drum on the way down though).

Strike Areas

Boxers tend to primarily hit from the front (and sometimes the side) of the bag. However, the speedbag can actually be hit from pretty much any direction. Bible Style tend to use the whole bag and include a lot more side and even back hits than traditional boxing style.