Working the heavy bag, I'm very rusty but feel free to flame, or leave comments!...

[Stormin' Norman]

your jabs need to be full extension's and use your shoulder/torso and legs. you are just using your triceps, after about 30 seconds in the ring using that your opponent would realize your jab ain't for real.

youre right about the full extension, that is something I should work on a bit...But you assume that only seeing 4 mins of me that I don't put my legs into my jab is a mistake, ive knocked mouthpieces out stepping in with just the jab, believe me, when I want to put some sting on my jab, it is, quote 'For real'

[Stormin' Norman]

You do need to get fitter you were breathing heavily after a minute. You need to snap your punches. The bag was moving way too much. Moving the bag higher could help as it looked to low down. You been to a boxing gym or taught yaself?

Your right, my problem is that the spring is neccessary, and it's pretty much the only place for that bag. I know. I am too tall for it..

I spent about 5 months in a boxing gym, took it very seriously, sparred all the top guys in the gym until they quit coming around anymore. I think the reason the real top guy who quit was because of his girlfriend, girls **** your head up. Been hit with some pretty good shots, granted I've never been ****** enough to disrespect a punchers power and walk into it right on the chin, but I've had my chin tested and never ever been dazed or hurt. I went to the cheapest boxing gym I could find. Coach was a racist guy, he would only help out the bruthas when it came to mitt work, and when I sparred a brutha and landed some shots, he'd tell us to stop and give the brutha advice. So I just focused on working hard on my punches and using my power as an attribute since my coach neglected me...i had a hand injury which ended up taking about a year to completely heal in which a tendon was graphed from my right foot, connecting my pinky finger tendon to another tendon down by my right wrist...So now I can make a fist with my right and finally get a sanctioned bout, thats what I'm trying to get in shape for..

id be nice to find a gym that actually worked with me but unfortunately the only gym within radius is a place called Gladiators Academy and it's mma-oriented, and im not into that bull****.

I smoke about half a pack of cigs a day, but I'm about to quit cold turkey and take this **** seriously..ive seen the guys who fight for the Louisiana State Heavyweight Title and these guys are supposed to be professionals and well, I just think that if I put my mind to it I could really surpass those guys......anyway, sucks that Quantas Graves got beaten in the olympics today hes a local guy from a town called Cut Off..but he did pretty good and I respected his effort.

[Stormin' Norman]

anyways I got some old footage of me sparring back in september of 06 when I was pretty much unable to throw a right cross because of that hand injury, i only used it as a feint (and it worked pretty good most guys expect a big guy like me to have a big right cross so when u flick that right hand they get wary, real quick...allow me to sneak in the left hook upstairs springing off my toes)

lemme know if you wanna see it, ill throw it up here. if u thought that bag work looked nasty youll think the sparring is anchovies and milk.

[JayCoe]

I'm not only writing this for you, i'm writing this for me because by telling you what you should do, i'm telling myself and, well, at the end of the day i'm learning just like you.

Everyone else has noted the main points, use your legs and extend your arms fully. It is worth noting people that depending on the weight of the bag it's sometimes very hard to throw a proper jab. If it's a heavy bag, though admittedly what you have isn't, your arm will have a greater force repelling it than you are able to throw with a jab and therefore you can't "push through" the target to extend your arm. The reason that has to be kept in mind is simple, if you focus so much on having a perfectly correct full extension of your left jab on a heavy bag you will probably be out of the ideal range because you punch shouldn't extend fully to hit the target, it should extend fully once hit which pushes through to the back of the target. Like I always say, the bag isn't the target, the bag is a wall, break through it. Does that make sense? So if you end up perfecting the properly extended lead jab on a heavy bag, come a spar or fight you won't be punching through. To practice the jab ideally you use a lighter bag. Heavy bags are for power shots.

Remember the following;

Gloves up, elbows tooked in, feet diagonal, body slightly side on.

Remember not to signal your punches, don't draw back a punch unless you've got them.

As people say, use your legs to push power through but also, which I think people tend to ignore, is use your knees! Your hips are vital to a big shot but so are your knees. When you slam in with a right to the body, for example, that knee should dip towards your left knee as your body twists and hits like a whip.

That'll do for now.

Keep up the work.

[Stormin' Norman]

I'm not only writing this for you, i'm writing this for me because by telling you what you should do, i'm telling myself and, well, at the end of the day i'm learning just like you.

Everyone else has noted the main points, use your legs and extend your arms fully. It is worth noting people that depending on the weight of the bag it's sometimes very hard to throw a proper jab. If it's a heavy bag, though admittedly what you have isn't, your arm will have a greater force repelling it than you are able to throw with a jab and therefore you can't "push through" the target to extend your arm. The reason that has to be kept in mind is simple, if you focus so much on having a perfectly correct full extension of your left jab on a heavy bag you will probably be out of the ideal range because you punch shouldn't extend fully to hit the target, it should extend fully once hit which pushes through to the back of the target. Like I always say, the bag isn't the target, the bag is a wall, break through it. Does that make sense? So if you end up perfecting the properly extended lead jab on a heavy bag, come a spar or fight you won't be punching through. To practice the jab ideally you use a lighter bag. Heavy bags are for power shots.

Remember the following;

Gloves up, elbows tooked in, feet diagonal, body slightly side on.

Remember not to signal your punches, don't draw back a punch unless you've got them.

As people say, use your legs to push power through but also, which I think people tend to ignore, is use your knees! Your hips are vital to a big shot but so are your knees. When you slam in with a right to the body, for example, that knee should dip towards your left knee as your body twists and hits like a whip.

That'll do for now.

Keep up the work.

thank you.

You're right, what I have there basically is just a jab bag, it would be nice to get a good quality heavy bag and hang it up high. it has a D ring on the bottom, I need to fill a backpack up with some sand and tape it on there or something, to prevent all the swinging.

[Blue Öyster]

hey Stormin' Norman you need to relax!!! your far to tight and tense as you punch!!

its making you slower!
and your punches will have a bit more snap if you loosen up!

[Stormin' Norman]

hey Stormin' Norman you need to relax!!! your far to tight and tense as you punch!!

its making you slower!
and your punches will have a bit more snap if you loosen up!

thanks blue oyster I'll work on that btw Don't Fear The Reaper one of my all time favorite songs...

...So I haven't had a cigarette all day today, no ****. that's pretty big for me. my job is stressful, went all damn day without smoking and I'm usedto smoking at least 8 a day. I haven't been smoking but for about four months, but on and off before that I had smoked for like , 4 years. I'm just tired of it.

Tired of wasting money on cigarettes and killing myself at the same time. All it's gonna do is make me end up an old man with less money than if I didn't smoke, in terrible health. I made a decision today that I'm gonna stick by, not because I want to live to see age 90, but because I want to build up my stamina and clean out the local amateur heavyweight division so I don't grow old with regret, thinking "I had a good punch, coulda, woulda, shoulda..."

[JayCoe]

I think the reason your bag swings so much is down to the physics of the actual bag in relation to how it's hanging. You have it on a very long chain which in itself would increase how much any bag would swing. Also because the bag is not exactly long in length this would also increase how much it swings. That place isn't ideal for hanging that kind of bag, if you want to keep using that bag look into a wall mount if you're ceilings are too high, I don't think where you've got your bag at the moment is a great place for any kind of bag but it is however ideal for a floor to ceiling ball. They are also cheap. Only people ignorant to the sport of boxing think "a glove's a glove" no matter you buy it from, there is far more to a glove than just leather and padding and you can get much better gloves than others etc and the same goes with punchbags and what's in them, their weight distribution etc. etc. however with floor to ceiling balls they are basic. It's just an inner ball coated with leather which you pump up, attached to two strands of elastic. I think an Everlast floor to ceiling ball would have cost me £30, I bought one from TurnerSports for £10 and it was just as good as others i've seen. You needn't place your trust in a company's reputation for a floor to ceiling ball because they are simple. So you can get them cheap without concern. Gloves and bags are a different matter however. Saying that, you can find companies which are just as good as the big names but they're a thousand times cheaper. I bought some Lonsdale gloves, £30 they're crap. Good enough for bag work but no hopers for sparing, your fist would go through the padding haha. For the same price I bought some from a company names Blitz and they're awesome! I don't doubt for a second that to get gloves of equal quality from Lonsdale, Everlast etc. you'd have to spend £60, £70. It was someone on this forum who told me a while ago, if you spend your money at Everlast you'll get good stuff, if you spend on a budget you'll break your hand and the other fighters jaw. It's like they actively make their cheap stuff **** and solid. I know that you personally know all of this stuff, you said you'd done boxing before a while ago but i'm a gabbler, start on one topic and i'll talk about boxing for a month, plus other people read this stuff and well it might help them out.

[P4PKING_2008]

I think the reason your bag swings so much is down to the physics of the actual bag in relation to how it's hanging. You have it on a very long chain which in itself would increase how much any bag would swing. Also because the bag is not exactly long in length this would also increase how much it swings. That place isn't ideal for hanging that kind of bag, if you want to keep using that bag look into a wall mount if you're ceilings are too high, I don't think where you've got your bag at the moment is a great place for any kind of bag but it is however ideal for a floor to ceiling ball. They are also cheap. Only people ignorant to the sport of boxing think "a glove's a glove" no matter you buy it from, there is far more to a glove than just leather and padding and you can get much better gloves than others etc and the same goes with punchbags and what's in them, their weight distribution etc. etc. however with floor to ceiling balls they are basic. It's just an inner ball coated with leather which you pump up, attached to two strands of elastic. I think an Everlast floor to ceiling ball would have cost me £30, I bought one from TurnerSports for £10 and it was just as good as others i've seen. You needn't place your trust in a company's reputation for a floor to ceiling ball because they are simple. So you can get them cheap without concern. Gloves and bags are a different matter however. Saying that, you can find companies which are just as good as the big names but they're a thousand times cheaper. I bought some Lonsdale gloves, £30 they're crap. Good enough for bag work but no hopers for sparing, your fist would go through the padding haha. For the same price I bought some from a company names Blitz and they're awesome! I don't doubt for a second that to get gloves of equal quality from Lonsdale, Everlast etc. you'd have to spend £60, £70. It was someone on this forum who told me a while ago, if you spend your money at Everlast you'll get good stuff, if you spend on a budget you'll break your hand and the other fighters jaw. It's like they actively make their cheap stuff **** and solid. I know that you personally know all of this stuff, you said you'd done boxing before a while ago but i'm a gabbler, start on one topic and i'll talk about boxing for a month, plus other people read this stuff and well it might help them out.

Ever heard of paragraphs? Damn. **** reading all that. Learn to type before you post here again.

[JayCoe]

Why are speaking out of turn again? Don't speak to me in that kind of manner you little *****, you aint even ****ing man enough to be my girlfriend let alone threatening. If I was going to sit down and write an essay I would put in perfect grammar, spelling, long words and neat little paragraphs but I was just writing free flow like a conversation. You ***** too much, stop it, come on the forum, read about boxing, write about boxing. I don't give a flying **** if you want paragraphs, if some guy's "snitched" or the other crap you seem to concern yourself with.