Double-end bag practice and the mechanics of a punch

I switched things up this weekend and deviated from the normal routine. I spent the weekend focusing on boxing skills by working the double-end bag.

Friday: I spent about an hour and a half at the gym Friday afternoon. Thursday night’s kickboxing class left me feeling frustrated, things just weren’t clicking and my partner during that class kept messing up the drill by throwing punches out of order. All day at work on Friday I was frustrated and annoyed and the only thing I could do to rid myself of those feelings was to get back into the gym.

The first thing I did Friday was take a run on the treadmill. Nothing great, just two miles in 15 minutes and 20 seconds. Then I got to work on the double-end bag. At first, the double-end bag intimidated me to no end, but after spending about 2 hours this weekend practicing on it I’m feeling more confident. The double-end bag is very difficult to hit at first, so in an effort to reduce my embarrassment I like to practice on it when no one is around. The double-end bag is similar in size and shape to the speed bag, but the double-end bag is secured by bungees from the top and bottom. The double-end bag has very erratic movement when struck, so it’s good for training accuracy and speed. Always trying to keep proper form and technique in mind, I practiced combinations. Jab then cross. Sometimes it would be jab, jab then cross.  

This is a double double-end bag, similiar to the one I train
on. The erractic movement of the bag and it's ability to
come  right back at you and hit you in the face make it useful
for practicing accuracy of your punches and also defensive
skills like slipping and blocking.

Saturday: The regularly scheduled Saturday classes were cancelled because Mr. Stuart and the advanced Haganah students were in Florida for a conference. Instead of having combat fitness, Haganah and knife fighting in the morning, I went in around 2 p.m. and worked the double-end bag again. While I felt like my accuracy was improving (I was able to hit the bag on consecutive combinations), my biggest breakthrough of understanding was on the mechanics of punching technique. This was thanks to Mr. Stuart’s voice echoing in my head: keep your elbows in, extend your arm, rotate your hips … It was one of those “aha” moments when I gained greater understanding of how I should be punching. It’s kind of hard to put into words, but I feel like I know what to do more with shifting my weight from leg to leg and using “rotational torque” generated in the hips to create a whip-like movement that results in a straight right.  

I visualize the power of my punch emanating from my feet, particularly my left foot (lead foot). I might be way off on this, but I feel like the greatest power for my straight right is generated by first shifting my weight (or energy) to my left foot, then pushing back with my left foot by straightening my left leg so the energy is directed up left leg into my hips, then into my right foot, up my right leg and out into my right arm. All of this done almost simultaneously and results in a sensation of pushing backwards with the lead leg, and forward with the rear leg so that your torso rotates sharply at the hips.

Just so I wasn't a total slouch, I did some fireman carrys with a heavy bag, burpees, dips and some rope jumping.

Sunday: I wanted some more time on the double-end bag so I put in a 45-minute workout on Sunday. I continued working the jab-straight combo and then added some slips into the mix. I would jab with the left, slip to my right and come back with a straight and slip to my left and counter with left hook. I had to do that drill pretty slow in order to hit the bag but it helped me develop a good rhythm.
 
I was using my finger-free gloves to work the double-end bag because I feel like boxing gloves make me too clumsy and less accurate. Since the boxing gloves are so much bigger than my hand, I feel like sometimes my hits on the bag aren’t really good punches, and I’m just kind of making contact with it. By using the finger-free gloves I feel like I’m able to throw more realistic punches. The downside to using finger-free gloves is that my second knuckles got pretty scrapped up. On Sunday, once I started seeing my blood on the bag I called it quits.