When I hit the bag, most of the movement is down. This is what happens when you turn the punch over.
Note on Heavy Bag Swing...
If you follow through with your punches trying to put everything on it you will probably over extend your yourself leaving you off balance, have a slow recovery, and limit your follow up while producing a heavy swing on the bag.
When your arms are more relaxed, you POP the bag and finish the punch right after it lands and bring it right back to your guard.
I think the best thing for me as a beginner was to get the mechanics down by focusing on the basics while working on the heavy bag. Work your first round light with combinations, on the next round pick one punch and land that one hard-then cycle through landing each one hard and the others not so hard, on the next round throw em all hard. This gives me feeling for relaxation in the muscles, lets me focus on mechanics, and gives me plenty of reps. Another round structure I like is a two or three minute round with a one minute rest and when the round bell goes off fire off a set number of punches or combinations that last 15-30 seconds then rest the rest of the round. Again you get to work on speed, relaxation and reps and then bring the thunder at the end.
Enjoy!
Ray
www.absolutejkd.com
great advice all around
I used to love watching guys in high school hit the bag and brag about how powerful they are because they got it "swinging really good"