Using the Speed Bag for good, not evil...

Just hung my heavy bag, hung a pipe first to mount it on. So now I can work "in place" or I can work "forward drive".
And I'm liking that a lot.

The guy who sold me the heavy bag threw in a speedbag to the deal, and I hung that too (last week) and am enjoying it.

I see some definite benefits from the speedbag, attributes that it trains.
I also see some potential problems from working the speedbag.

Benefits:
Fun;
Coordination;
Speed;
Accuracy;
Getting used to throwing a barage of punches;
Fun;
Conditioning;
Teaches me to keep my hands up, rather than dropping them between punches (bad habit);
Fun;
Plus as a musician the damned thing appeals to me. It's a little violence drum.

Potential problems:

I could see a problem in that I'm practiicing hitting controlled, rather than hard. I think that's the main problem I see, but it may have a big potential in it.

I'm working on hitting hard on the heavy bag, which I hope will give me enough "hit hard" training.

What are your thoughts on using the speedbag to train attributes that are useful in a fight? Or useful in general? How would you use it, if at all?

JK

How's the heavy bag working out for you? That's a great idea and good for forward drive. How did you set it up?

Sea Bass,

The heavy bag has only been up for a few hours. I have a cold so I'm not training super hard, but already I'm seeing some good in it.

I hung a 1" steel pipe (10 feet long) between two existing 4x4 posts, set in cement, that support a light lathe house (an outside shade structure we have). It's convenient to regular use, if not ideal in terms of strength, but I find that "good enough that is convenient" is better than "ideal that I won't get over to use as much". Correct measurements, pipe flanges, and lag screws did the trick.

Hung a chain over the pipe, hung the bag off the chain. Not much to it, really.

There's some give in the pipe, which may prove to be a problem after a while, and I doubt that I'll try tackling or grappling with the bag while it hangs.

But it's good for hitting. I can work "accross" the bar, and have it stay mostly in one place. Or I can work "down" the bar, driving the bar back as I advance. I'm going to post another question about stuff I'm noticing with that (different ways of hitting the bag that move it differently), but I want another day or so to play with it first so I can really formulate the question properly. One thing, and one thread, at a time.

JK

Nice one Josh!

Does the bag have a D-ring at the bottom? If so im curious to hear what happens if you put it close to one of the posts and secure it, maybe with some bungee. Sometimes i like a heavybag NOT to swing all over the place and that may do it.

For times when your butlers occupied preparing dinner and cant hold the bag for ya, that is...

/Narco

Yeah tie it down for a better pound!

I make a point of only "defending" against properly tied up "attackers" - and then shooting them from afar. Anything else would be...well, dangerous!

Thread has drifted! Thread has drifted!

Trying to get back to my original question, which was:
What are your thoughts on using the speedbag to train attributes that are useful in a fight? Or useful in general? How would you use it, if at all?

JK

I think that the speed bag woud be great to help develop your seal blitzing skills. May be you can hook it up with your heavy bag so you can get your forward drive going with that as well.

I like the speed ball as a training tool.. you need hand to eye co-ordination.. but I like to let it cone CLOSE as close as possible and use some head evasion prior to hitting it..

It IS possible to over train fast and light.. but just PUNCHING it is not enough.. try getting it change direction by sticking the heel of the in the way of a return.. or even throw a back fist, or better still a side ways hammer fist

I have an expression I use .. "When the only tool you have is a hammer ... everything look slike a nail"

Paraphrase it .. "When you wear boxing gloves and have Boxer's training aids.. you think like a BOXER .."

get it?.. stop thinking BOXER... think STREET when ever you use training gear...

think street!