Everlast XS on day 4

[bagger_vance]

So I have been speed bagging for 4 days as of yesterday. I must say, this is a great sport that I have been missing out on for years. Yesterday I put 50 lbs of sand on the drum and bought the Everlast XS. Is this a 4X6? (yellow and black) After reading through the forums I was suprised that it did not seem more dificult to hit than the Everlast 11X8. I have an extensive music background starting with piano at 12, trumpet and marching band from 12-18 (all jokes welcome), and guitar from 14-present). I can only imagine that my background in music is a tremendous help with speed bagging. Any thoughts? Already I can keep a steady and moderately fast pace with both hands, front forward roll, use my right elbow in two ways while keeping rhythm, and another combination that alternates between one and three rebounds. This is a great sport! What is the correct way to increase speed? Hit the bag harder? When I watch the videos it looks like they aren't hitting the bag hard. Are they making it look easy when they are really pounding the crap out of it? Thanks for any and all advice/information.

One more thing: I live in Louisville. Any videos out there of Ali on the bag?

[Speedbag]

...I have an extensive music background starting with piano at 12, trumpet and marching band from 12-18 (all jokes welcome), and guitar from 14-present). I can only imagine that my background in music is a tremendous help with speed bagging. Any thoughts?

Speed bag is physical activity requiring certain physical skill and technique, but I think it's most unique feature is it's sound, or "beat". The repetitive rhythmic sound of its beat, peppered with accented and unaccented beats makes it an attractive activity for musicians. If you can play one or several instruments, and have the skill level to freely improvise on those instruments, than you must have an innate sense of rhythm, beat, pulse and timing. For people like that (Myself being one) the rhythmic pulse and bag beat attracted them immediately, and I have worked with many musicians over the past 35 years or so who have been drawn to it. Obviously drummers feel the beat and pulse immediately, but any musician will quickly be drawn to its sound. But oddly enough, you don't have to have a good sense of rhythm or beat to be good on the speed bag. I also know several very skilled baggers who appear to have no rhythm for anything else. They can't dance, play any instruments or have any sense of the bag beat to music. But they are very good on the bag, proving to me that if you can master the timing of the physical movements, which has it's own skill level, you can excel on the bag without sensing it's beat. To them, it's a great physical activity that they enjoy, but I don't think I would call it an outlet for personal rhythmic expression, which it is for musicians. Personally, I have always been attracted to the aura of it's beat and rhythmic potential much more than it's exercise activity. As a musician, you may find hitting it to music (which I call punch drumming) makes it a lot more fun.

by the way, we have a large cadre of very talented musicians as board members, and I know many professional musicians (jazz, rock, bluegrass and classical) who avidly use the speed bag.

What is the correct way to increase speed? Hit the bag harder? When I watch the videos it looks like they aren't hitting the bag hard. Are they making it look easy when they are really pounding the crap out of it? Thanks for any and all advice/information.

Hitting harder Will make the bag go faster, but the problem is, the harder you swing, the longer and larger your swing movements may become. the larger your movements, the more distance your hands will travel and the longer the distance you must swing, (at some point) the longer the time required to return your fist to the hitting zone. Say you swing as hard as you can continuously and your fist "movement arc" is 12 inches. It will take time to cover that 12 inches. If you can reduce the size of your movements, say to a 9 inch arc, you are removing three inches and the time it takes to cover it. So, one of the secrets of speed is reducing the distance you have to move to make continous contact. Now, to cover less distance with the same force will take a much cleaner technique of punching. That means reducing or eliminating wasted motions or "pre-swing" actions that slow you down. Of course, at some point - swinging smaller will not allow you to generate the same power or force as a larger swing, and it there is a point where your punching force will stall due to the shortness of the distance. But in my own experience, I have always hit "faster" when I wasn't trying to swing Harder, but actually concentrating on swinging more relaxed. At some point, swinging harder continuously (remember, speed bag is not ONE or TWO full power punches. it is hundreds of repetitive ones...) will create muscle tension, and tension will reduce the speed of movment. Think of all sports requiring speed. The top level athletes always concentrate on relaxing, and removing tension, not increasing it. I find swinging smaller and relaxing allows me to go faster and more proficiently than swinger harder, which always increases my swinging arc and stalls my speed. I always think I can hit harder on the speed bag, but it never gets me faster. To use your phrase, If I hit hard enough to look feel like I am "pounding the crap out of it" I won't go quite as fast as if I feel like I am almost at top speed but not quite there. I do enjoy turning on the "afterburners" for short periods of punching, - but over time I will stall or slow down due break down of swing technique or fatigue. Either way, a mis hit or two and it all breaks down. At the end of day, continuous speed bag "speed" is all about "control", not necessarily force.

At least that is my own experience.

One more thing: I live in Louisville. Any videos out there of Ali on the bag?

Ali on speed bag for about 3 seconds 22-25sec

[atgatt]

Thanks Speedbag. I try to relax before I punch but I need to focus on that more, like you said.

Here's a statement from the article:

http://www.taekwondomalaysia.com/Download/PDF/REF01-Improve%20Your%20Speed.pdf

"Finally, relax to create speed. Tense muscles have more difficulty responding to your intense demands than relaxed muscles. Relax just prior to the movement and maintain a minimum amount of tension during the movement. Relaxation conserves energy and lessens the amount of force necessary to move your body quickly."