Speed

[wanderingfighter]

Hi toyotajoe et al,
You asked:

How do most good boxers go about creating hand speed ?

Well, first off, your hand speed potential is determined by the ratio of fast twitch muscles fibers to slow twitch muscle fibers that you are genetically born with. So, if you got 'em, you're naturally blessed with hand speed. If not, that's the way the cookies crumbled for you.

With the above said, a fundamental way good boxers enhance their genetically-endowed hand speed is by having efficient form and biomechanics in all their punches and associated footwork, which is honed through good coaching and purpose-driven training.

On a more specific note, I highly recommend using alactic anaerobic energy system HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) protocols to fully develop all the speed and power you're genetically and athletically capable of generating. Instead of me writing a novel explaining and formatting this for you, I suggest doing a Google search on this subject where you'll find plenty of info that will assist you in this endeavor.

Ah, what the heck; just to whet your appetite to pursue more info, here's an alactic anaerobic HIIT protocol I highly, highly recommend for you and everyone else reading this to incorporate into your training for maximal speed and power development in your punches. What you do is blitz a heavy bag, focus mitts, etc. with all-out, full-speed, full-power punching barrages for 2 sets of 5-6 reps for 7-10 seconds each (no longer than that) with everything you can muster out of yourself (maintaining good biomechanical form in the process). Do this protocol twice-a-week and you'll eventually squeeze out every ounce of your potential.

Now, though it may or may not feel like it, this type of alactic anaerobic training heavily, and I mean heavily, taxes the CNS (Central Nervous System); so it is very important to take long rests in between reps and sets to allow for full recovery because you do not want to do this protocol under fatigue, which would defeat the purpose of why you're doing this protocol in the first place. It is so very important to do your reps in a "fresh" state (i.e. heart rate at 120 bpm or below). Anyway, the recommendation is to rest 2-5 minutes between reps and 8-15 minutes between sets. Now, these rest periods may seem long to you, and they relatively are when compared to traditional methods of training; but it is extremely, extremely important to heed them as recommended because we're not looking to develop muscular or cardiovascular/respiratory endurance here; we're strictly looking to maximize speed and power development here. With that said, rest period times should be increased to the high end limits listed on the last two or three reps of each set, especially on the second set. If you do not heed this, you will at some point suffer from CNS fatigue burnout, which will diminish rather than enhance skill performance and take some time to recover from. On last thing about the rest, you don't have to just stand or walk around during these periods. You can rest actively by doing some light activities such as shadow boxing, easy rope jumping, light cycling, or just lightly skipping/shuffling your feet around and shaking your arms & shoulders loose, which all serve to speed up recovery; just don't get carried away and overdo it. Remember, it's supposed to be rest.

On an FYI note, the above protocol is designed to increase how fast your alactic anaerobic energy system can produce and regenerate ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), which is the energy source that allows you to perform as fast and powerfully as you can.

Hope this helps you out...

Take Care,
Lito

Thank you for the bit of wisdom. I will start implementing this in the gym.

[remy]

Timing is something that is better to focus on rather than just hand-speed.

This video explains it pretty well:

[StrictlySP]

Hi Remy et al,
Good video!

When it comes to honing your timing for real-world (sport or street) give-and-take/back-and-forth match fighting of any kind (i.e. boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, grappling, MMA, street fighting, etc), sparring is absolutely the best thing you can do to improve it...bar none. On this note, there are various types of purposeful sparring you can do starting with isolation sparring with singular-objectives for each combatant (offensively and/or defensively), progressing to multiple-objectives sparring (again, for each combatant...both offensively and/or defensively), culminating in full-on, unrestricted, uninhibited, spontaneous sparring where both combatants let loose with their complete game (i.e. full arsenal of strategies, tactics, and techniques).

With the above said, maximizing your speed potential in an isolated manner, along with your capacity to apply it, is still a very useful thing to do to get the most out of yourself in that regard. The isolated improvements in speed, explosive speed (and the capacity to apply it), can and will be seamlessly integrated into the mix when you purposefully spar.

If you truly want to become good at fighting (of any kind), you must spar and not just for timing's sake, but for a whole host of other practical reasons.

Take Care,
Lito