Having good hand speed is an absolute must in boxing as all famous boxers, including Mike Tyson, achieved success because of it.
You land punches quicker and shock the opponent when you have fast hands. Plus, it helps you defend better against the incoming blows. As such, developing your hand speed should be an integral part of boxing training.
However, if you’re not sure how to go about it, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll look at a few exercises that can improve your hand speed.
Without any further delay, let’s get straight to the good stuff.
Exercises To Improve Your Hand Speed In Boxing
These are some exercises that’ll help you develop good hand speed.
1. Using Speed Bags
In boxing, speed kills, and that’s why most professional boxers would agree that speed bags are their best friends. Even though it might take some to get the hang of punching a speed bag, you will be hooked once you do.
They serve as exceptional workout items, one that specifically works for your hands and develops your speed. Once you have learned how to use a speed bag, try punching it as fast as possible with each cycle.
The faster you hit it, the faster your hands get. Speed bag training improves punching accuracy, timing, rhythm and hand-eye coordination, which is why it is an important and effective tool to improve boxing skills.
2. Weighted Shadowboxing
An important workout to improve hand speed is shadowboxing. Besides familiarising you with the movement of combat, it conditions your body to be always ready.
One of the best ways to improve your shadowboxing workouts is using a lightweight dumbbell and adding resistance. If you are new, start at a low weight and perform your shadowboxing drill with the dumbbells in hand.
Slowly increase the difficulty level and work out the muscle involved in punching. It is also a great way to build muscle memory, essential for developing moves for the actual fight.
Overall, shadowboxing with weights is a great workout to improve your hand speed in boxing; rest assured, you’ll soon see positive results.
3. Stimulating The Core
You can throw punches in quick succession when you have strong core muscles. Daily core workouts ensure proper blood circulation and oxygen delivery to your muscles, which is essential in maintaining an overall fit body. It is crucial in boxing, where you have to move your upper body constantly.
So, to improve your core, perform leg raises, obliques, crunches and sit-ups. Consider breathing exercises because they help condition your body to spend energy efficiently and wisely.
4. Using A Jumping Rope
Another effective way to improve your hand speed is by working out with a jumping rope, as it helps develop the muscles required for throwing powerful and fast punches. When you are in rhythm, increase your jump speed to train all the necessary muscles to ensure that they act and react faster than usual.
Besides developing your hand speed, you can use a jumping rope to build endurance. Remember that jumping rope requires skills developed with practice and dedication, so don’t worry if you are not that good initially. You will soon learn this technique and enhance your punching speed with regular practice and focus.
There is no need to force your body to do something it’s not used to on the very first day. Try to incorporate a simple routine, to begin with.
5. Performing Fast Push-ups
Performing fast push-ups is undoubtedly crucial to training your muscles to react faster. It specifically strengthens the shoulder and pectoral muscles to fire repeatedly and quickly, which helps you generate more punching speed. However, it’s essential not to lose form when performing fast push-ups.
6. Resistance Training
One of the most important strength training exercises for developing fast hands is clapping push-ups, where you push up as fast and hard as you can. The idea is to create separation between the ground and your hands. If you can rise high enough to clap between the reps, that’s even better.
The medicine ball push-up is also important. For performing a medicine ball push-up, you place one hand on a medicine ball and the other on the ground. Now, as you reach the peak of your movement, bring the hand placed on the ground to the ball.
Then shift the other hand placed on the ball to the ground. After that, lower yourself and repeat the entire process.
Keep in mind that having speedy hands is not just about throwing punches but also about a quick recovery. When you throw a punch, the hand should return quickly so that you can punch again. So, to train muscles for speed, you need to include a plyometric style pulling exercise.
The plyometric body row consists of movements similar to those used for punching. To perform this exercise, you need to hang from a bar in a horizontal position, placing your arms in front and feet on the ground. Try pulling explosively, letting your hands come free as your chest reaches the bar.
Now, catch the bar once again as you prepare to come down, controlling your drop to the starting position. You can even perform this exercise using resistance bands for better results.
7. Partner Drills
One of the most important parts of training fast hands is learning to react to the unexpected. And obviously, what’s better than another person, helping you train for the unexpected. When we talk about partner drills, target training is the most common form, and the punch mitt is usually the preferred target for coaches.
As far as speed training is concerned, ensure that your partner presents you with a series of random targets. Once you have touched the target, he has to pull it down and present you with another target quickly and possibly in a new location. Ask him to make you respond in quick succession, as it will significantly improve your reaction time.
8. Work The Heavy Bag
Let’s face it; it doesn’t matter how fast your hands are in the first round if you can’t even move them by the third. Hence, it’s important to develop endurance. Interval training on the heavy bag is one of the most effective ways to develop endurance. But it is important to note you have to take time in choosing the right punching bag.
Interval style training is a good way of imitating the start and stop of a boxing round. Set your timer for three-minute rounds, keeping 30 seconds or 1-minute rest in between.
Now, make your training partner stand on the opposite side of the bag. One partner holds the bag, while the other punches it for 20 seconds non-stop with all their energy. Then switch.
Keep doing this back and forth until the round comes to an end. You need not worry about completing the exact 20 seconds. Stop and take the bag from your partner when you think it is time. Your arm and back muscles will develop the required endurance to punch fast during a real fight with enough practice.
Additional Tips To Improve Your Hand Speed
Here are a few additional tips that you can follow to improve your hand speed most effectively.
1. Don’t Throw Hard Punches
Many fighters have a preconceived notion that punching fast results in fast hands. Even if it’s true to some extent, in reality, what matters is how fast you can think when you are in the ring.
Firstly, forget about throwing hard punches, at least in the initial stages. If you keep thinking about punching power, you will punch slowly.
You need to ensure that you get the punch off quickly, make precise contact and return to the guard position as soon as possible. Instead of thinking about hurting your opponent, focus on touching your opponent without them noticing.
2. Stay Relaxed
We can’t stress enough how important it is to stay relaxed. Note that being relaxed doesn’t mean being complacent or lazy; instead, it means freeing tension.
Ensure that you don’t let your shoulders hunch, fists clench, or biceps tighten. Instead, keep your joints and muscles free or loose, always ready to jump into action for throwing explosive punches.
3. Trust Your Muscle Memory
Last but not least, you’ve got to trust your muscle memory. You don’t want to overthink defending yourself or what punch to throw next in the ring. That’ll make you slow.
The less you think, the faster your punch will be. Hence, we strongly recommend practising shadow boxing repeatedly as it helps build good muscle memory.
Improving Your Hand Speed
With that, we have come to the end of this guide.
We hope that it has helped you gain valuable insights about improving hand speed in boxing. By now, you must have realised that having fast hand speed is a lot more than just punching in quick succession.
More than anything, developing fast hand speed relies on the boxer’s brain and vision. Just give it some time and believe in yourself! If you work hard and practice enough, you will develop fast hand speed in a matter of months.
On that note, it’s a wrap. If you have any suggestions or queries, get in contact with our team.
Until next time, take care!