Speed bag and gym question.

[Animal Squabbs]

First off, I just want to announce that I have finally figured out the speed bag. Up until a about two months ago I couldnt jump rope. SO I went and bought a jumprope and practiced everday and now IM great at it. Well Ive never had anyone show me how to use the speed bag, and since I didnt know how to do it I never did. Today I worked on it for AWHILE and now IM good with that too. Nice to finally have that behind me.

Second, when you guys go to the gym, do you go in your boxing shoes, dressed out and ready to go? or do you wear regular clothes dress out there. I show up dressed and botted up and go right into jumping rope.

[fraidycat]

Good to hear. The rope and the speed bag are the two things short of fighting that will show people that you're a boxer, and what degree of skill you possess. If you're visiting a new gym, your skill on these two will tell them what they're dealing with. If you want to mouth off about your "ski11Z" that's one thing; walking into a sporting goods store and making the floor-demo speed bag your ***** is something entirely different.

Similarly, a lot of guys at my yuppie weightlifting gym have taken up skipping rope lately -- there's even a "fitness rope" class now, I am not making this up -- so when I step into the aerobics room with my speed rope to warm up before throwing some weights around, there are now usually a couple other guys in there. I can skip about five times faster than most of them can: I can run with high knees, cross over, double under, skip backwards (rope front to back, coming in from behind my heels), lunge forward-back and side to side, high kick, switch guards, and even jump in a crouch. Everyone stares, but few things say "I'm a boxer," like skipping rope expertly. Ditto for owning the speed bag, and of course knocking some guy the **** out.

You should, IMO, do rope work and speed bag work every day. I sucked at both when I started, but I've been working hard at them for a year, now.

[Kid Achilles]

I am just getting back into both. I'm much better at the speed bag than the jump rope. To be honest, I trip up a lot.