First off...I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on a home-made punching bag. I've thought of taking a bunch of old tires and stacking them up on top of each other, wrapping them in a canvas bag and dumping a bunch of sand in it. It didn't work too good though. So do any of you have plans or ideas for aking a home-made punching bag?
Second off...what are some tips in increasing punching power?
I don't have a coach or anything, so I'm pretty much on my own here. I've heard that technique is important, so are there any articles on punching technique?
I am assuming that you want to do this because you
lack the funds to purchase a punching bag???
Military bag filled with sand might work, if you have hard/strong hands. For better power, get with a boxing coach
Save up your money and buy a real, water-filled heavy bag. This is the best thing by far for your wrists.
I got a water bag from Century (I think) for around $100! Not bad at all!
-the Hook
Are water bags the ones that sit on a foundation? (And don't hang down?) I'm just asking this because, besides for the lack of funds, I don't think I have rafters or ceilings strong enough to hang a bag down from.
I think they are refering to the hanging bags that
acually fill with water. The ones you are talking
are a big plastic water tank with padding that slips
over top and can be adjusted to different heights.
I have two of them and they are great. I paid a little
over two hundred for one and then found another at a
yard sale in mint condition for thirty. They are great
because they dont shake your whole house when you hit
them.
Remember in Rocky one where he just wrapped an old
matress around a support beam in his apartment? You
could try that.
sand in bags settles to pretty much concrete hardness pretty fast, fill a canvas bag with rags and a sand filled trashbag core. then duct tape the entire thing with about 5 rolls of duct tape, layering it over and over to prevent tearing the canvas. Havent done it myself but on the kickboxing forum this is sugessted.
Also, try finding a mortician that will lend you some corpses and post them on a stake, this is great and allows a level of realisim not found in canvas bags.
That was hilarious about the corpses. I laughed my
ass off on that one.
Has anyone ever seen that Slam man punching stand.
It used to be on the late night infomercials awhile
back. It looked pretty cool but overpriced. Now they
have that new one on the spring stand with a
basketball on the top.
I've doing work for a few hours, so I thought you were serious at first about the body. Took a few seconds...but that was pretty funny.
Hmm, I think I'll probably look into buying a bag (the only ones I've been able to find are the ones that hang, and that was one of the reasons which put me off). But thanks for your suggestions. I'm definitely gonna drop by the graveyard tommorow and get me a punching bag!
Check out www.karate-mart they have every different
kind of bag there for good prices. The Century Bob
one is pretty cool, I want to find out if I can buy
it just as the upper attachment since I already have
two of the tanks. They even have one for kids called
Bully bob or something, I think I might get that one
for my son.
meat locker...if you work at a grocery store you can make money while you tenderize the meat
Roger Clemens trains his arm by punching it through a barrel full of rice. It's relatively cheap, you can get some wicked punching power from it, and you can get plenty of meals out of it. :-)
S_hardcore_S: do you mean just punch it at full strength (like you would normally punch it) and then start pushing, or do you mean just placing the first against the wall and pushing?
Mephisto: does he use actual barrels or bags?
Find a boxing coach. That's the best way to increase punching power.
Once you learn how to punch hard properly, make yourself a stronger athlete with squats, deadlifts, dips, pull ups, military presses, power cleans, etc.
Think Ivan Drago
Here's something a little out of the ball park, but really worth thinking about.
What are you punching for? NHB with no gloves or little grappling gloves? Or boxing/kickboxing with wraps and proper gloves? You hold your hand differently for them.
If you are wrapping your hands and gloving up, then take the advice of this thread and see a good boxing coach. Because no one punches better when the hands are wrapped. But if you are gonna punch without wraps and gloves, then think about the way you grip your hand, the alignment of your wrist, elbow, shoulder.
Boxers are, IMO and the opinion of most people I guess (except for wing chun, but their canon punching is in a class of its own--just ask them) boxers are the best punchers around. But my observations are that they don't know how to grip simply because they are always wrapping their hands. That's why they are always breaking their hands. Especially when they hit someone without their beloved wraps. Tyson always busts his hands when he whacks someone outside of the ring. Every retired boxer I know have busted up hands. But if they spent some time working on their grip and their joints without wraps and gloves, I am pretty sure it would be better for their hands.
Just an idea. We spend a lot of time at the school working on barehand punching and arm joint conditioning so that when we learn to punch hard (courtesy of boxing/k'boxing coaches), we have the structural support to deal with it. And if it means anything they always make the comment about how our conditioning drills and grip stuff helps them too.
For good info on punching go to Stickgrapplers
website (just type stickgrappler on your search
engine and it will find it) then go to the
boxing/kickboxing section and read there,
especially the info by Frank Benn. The cheapest
substitute for a floor mounted punching bag that I
have ever made that was worth having was a piece
of plastic pipe fastened to the inside of a wooden
ammunition box and then wrapped with closed cell
foam. Then I filled the box with rocks to help hold it
down. It rocks and sways a bit and you will
occasionally knock it over but it beats nothing and
that was about how much it cost me.
Grandpab
" Tyson always busts his hands when he whacks someone outside of the ring. Every retired boxer I know have busted up hands. But if they spent some time working on their grip and their joints without wraps and gloves, I am pretty sure it would be better for their hands"
Wrong. Boxers usually do plenty of work to keep their hands strong, but when a guy like Tyson throws a punch there is very little that will keep his hand from breaking on impact. Good boxers hit harder than most people could ever dream of.
When boxing was bareknuckle, there was very little head punching because a human skull is pretty damn hard. Once gloves were added, head hunting became the norm. And, no matter what, you will occasionally break your hand/fingers/knuckles sparring no matter how much grip training you do.
If you don't wrap you will get arthritis later in life, at a bare minimum. If you do wrap you will probably get arthritis a few years later than you would have otherwise, and you will break fewer knuckles along the way.
Also, s_hardcore_s's suggestion will make you a pusher rather than a puncher. As a coach I would stop a student of mine from doing this immediately and send them over to the double end bag to work on hand speed and reaction time.
The heavy bag is an OK tool at best, most guys love hitting it because you can unload on it...but I think it is one of the worst ways to increase your punching power, especially if you train alone.
Plyometric drills, Olympic lifts, lots of shadowboxing/ speed bag/double end/slip bag work will increase your KO percentage 1000 fold over simply pounding away at the heavy bag.
IcebergSlim is mostly correct, IMO. If you punch an
object as hard as a bowling ball over and over, you
will eventually land in an anatomically unfavorable
position (breaking the hand). Gloves merely alter
the odds, not prevent them. Another factor is that
your wrist is often struck slightly by the opponent
when you punch as he attempts to block. Striking
the wrist weakens the grip, thereby reducing the
solidity of the fist.
Improving technique and explosiveness will help
your punching power more than mindless "macho"
sessions on the heavy bag. (It's a good tool, I love
mine) However, the heavy bag will allow you to see
the results of your punching training! It's NOT the
tool for developing your punch, since you'll end up
being a "pusher". You need to work on lighter
bags that force you to develop all of the body
mechanics for MOBILE power production. You'll
find that your heavy bag striking improves
tremendously!
The weight movements mentioned will also help
you develop the general body attributes which can
be incorporated into your punching technique. A
stronger, faster athlete can learn to use those
qualities to enhance any activity he performs.
Lee
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