How to improve speed of punches ?

[j]

I have been to that website before and that guy is a monster. How come he is not a pro boxer, his conditioning is insane

rossboxing does rock, i love his workouts.

some people dont actually need to be pro fighters to be good at fighting.

i wonder if he was an am boxer though. either way, i love his creativity. it is missing from 99% of workouts i have ever known from boxing guys.

[JayCoe]

I got my punching speed up with the basics;

Practice sending 1, then 1-2, then 1,2,3,4, and so on until you're throwing 8s. (1 = jab, 2 = straight right in our code). This really helped because the first thing I learnt was it's more natural to throw one punch at time, so you have to break that barrier.

Wearing heavier gloves than you need, mine say 14 oz. they feel like 16 oz.s though. They're the Lonsdale Super Pro Sparring, awesome gloves.

Practice combinations. So, it's no longer about 1-2-3-4 etc. It's about turning these into real combinations you can send, my fave being 1 (to the head), left hook to the body, right hook to the body, left hook to the head, right hook to the head. Being a welterweight that's not too much to try and do and it does work, i've landed it and I didn't even think to, it was all natural, he caught me with a nice 1-2 in my face, I went in and just did it through reaction. So, practising actual combinations on the bags actually entrenches them in something called "muscle memory" which means your body just does it from reaction.

Light dumbbells and shadow box with them. You can actually get weighted shadow gloves, they're just normal thing hand gloves (not boxing) with a weight on the back of the hand. I thought they were an awesome idea because it'd enabled you to shadow box with weight, without having something clumpy on like big gloves or dumbbells. For some reason though the weights on the hand aren't very heavy, not too similar from boxing gloves so no point spending your £15 on them. Might as well continue with the old fashioned way.

[SpeedKillz]

hand speed drills are good

hold 1-3 pound gloves, weighted hands, dumbells, whatever you got, and throw punches as fast as you can for sets of 4-8 punches, concentrating solely on speed.

1=jab, 2=straigh right (or left for southpaw), 3=hook, 4=uppercut

1,2,1,2,1,2 - repeat 3-5 times
2,3,2,3,2,3 - repeat 3-5 times
4,3,4,3,4,3 - repeat 3-5 times

you can add or reduce the number of punches you throw per set, as long as concentrate hard on pure speed and form

IMO, these handspeed drills should be done before your workouts to ensure top speed and form.

[FeFist]

Repetition. After a while your muscles become more adapted to certain movements and you have to think about what you want to do less.

[Aftermath]

Thanks for the advice guys

[stacatto99]

isometrics and plyometrics ( look it up) are key to being fast AND powerful. isometrics teach your muscles to store energy, and plyometrics allows them to release powerfully and fast.
an example of the circuit training would be holding 80% of your max in full squat position then half squat. then do 2-3 reps. immediataly after do no weight full squat explosive jumps. another is benching the near max and then explosive pushups or medicine ball (which can help your abs 2 for 1). anyway, there are many ways, but like the others said its training your body to reflex quickly. the more u shadowbox the easier your muscles will respond to that kind of movement and then the faster you will be as well.

[j]

repitition is great work. hard and rewarding ultimately. when i used to do karate when i was maybe 6 years old, i used to do each kick, 100 - 300 times per side everyday, and there were 4 or 5 kicks to practice per day. needless to say they got to be natural to me and the naturalness was a big key back then to helping with speed.

however, i still had to load and reload. now, i have found a type of power training where i didnt need to reload and have no gaps in timing. and i can maintain the same force at all times - so my speed is as quick as i need it to be.

i'd also like to thank a dude in chi-town i know who challenged my speed and made me really have to use speed to stop his attacks or hit him. little-ass dude, but strong and was blurry type quick. almost made me rethink how to use and handle speed as well as how important having superioir speed can be in some situations.

but for me, it was the different type of speed that i found that made the huge "ah-ha" moment for me. since i started training that, i can sort of physically be slower yet faster than my opponent.

[Slater P Persin]

relaxed coordination and proper teaching. there is no substitute. not weights, or bag training, or any of that.

those will make u slightly quicker from point a to point b, but not make u "faster"

"relaxed coordination"? That doesn't even make sense Bruce lee. What are you going to say next "Brick no hit back"?

[P4PKING_2008 :)]

It is humanly impossible to improve hand speed.

[SpeedKillz]

It is humanly impossible to improve hand speed.

what?......

so you're saying a beginner walks into a gym to train, and 1 year later his hand speed wont be any faster?