Speeding up those combos

[The Student]

hey guys,

I was wondering if any of you guys had any techniques or advice on speeding up my combinations. I can throw single shots pretty quick. But i'm not satisfied with my speed when it comes to throwing combos.

I'm under the assumption the best way to speed this up is just simply keep on shadowboxing the combos and doing some basic bagwork... but if there's other stuff I could try in addition to shadowboxing and regular bag work, please let me know... Thanks!

[WayneFlint]

A small tip, moving the knees will move the rest of your body, often the movement actually starts here and the limbs/muscles just react to/support their movement by working as they should if good technique is maintained, once you understand this you understand where the movements start, then you can speed them up while maintaining good technique.

[Scrap]

Theres a stretch I put up, the figure 8 oneGreat for speed. It stretches the Tensas Facias Lata an interesting gem of a muscle works the Abductors, full of fast twitch 1 and 2. Withouy it youre going nowhere look after it

[Scrap]

this is the one

[Scrap]

He is going way to fast 5 one way 5 the other both legs.

[The Student]

A small tip, moving the knees will move the rest of your body, often the movement actually starts here and the limbs/muscles just react to/support their movement by working as they should if good technique is maintained, once you understand this you understand where the movements start, then you can speed them up while maintaining good technique.

hmm, so in a way, in order to speed up my combo's I should be thinking about the foundation (ie the legs and knees) instead of hands, because in order to throw a successful combo, good technique and balance should be maintained.

[The Student]

Theres a stretch I put up, the figure 8 oneGreat for speed. It stretches the Tensas Facias Lata an interesting gem of a muscle works the Abductors, full of fast twitch 1 and 2. Withouy it youre going nowhere look after it

Scrap, I just tried that stretch. I feel a bit awkward doing it, but I guess I just need to get the feel of doing it.

I'll spend some time doing it at home tomorrow, before leaving for training, thanks.

[Scrap]

It will feel funny at 1st, Ive an idea its your main problem reading between the lines. make them the 8s small at 1st otherwise your hips wont take it, always have the toes pointing down, to get maximum effect.

[The Student]

It will feel funny at 1st, Ive an idea its your main problem reading between the lines. make them the 8s small at 1st otherwise your hips wont take it, always have the toes pointing down, to get maximum effect.

hey scrap, I realized, when I tried it yesterday, I was doing it wrong.. Spent a few minutes doing it just now... and your right, it does a number on your hips, I cant go half as fast as your guy, nor can I make the 8s as big. So I'm starting nice and slow with tiny 8s.

I find that its harder to do with my left leg that it is with my right. Great little stretch though Scrap.. i feel like I'm stretching a part of my body, that I've never stretched before.

[HerbM]

+1 on good form and balance, and all the other suggestions


In addition:

RELAX the opposing muscles. E.g., If you biceps is tense or firing too early then you will be fighting your straight punches which does several things:

• Slows the punch
• Reduces the punch power
• Tires you quicker by using both more energy and more oxygen

Even if you are relaxed, stopping your punches before they hit or even as they hit takes out power. Let the punch GO into the bag or your opponent. When the obstacle STOPS the punch START the retract....

A simple immediate trick for speed: Focus on RETRACT speed not punch speed -- the punch will increase and keep up.

Long term: Practice punch combinations 1000s of times starting at slow speed to perfect both the mechanics and the TRANSITIONS between individual strikes. Concentrate slow work on SMOOTH UNBROKEN transitions staying at exactly the same speed (no faster and no slower) from first punch to last.

THen as you speed up keep the smoothness.

As they say in the "gun world": Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

[The Student]

+1 on good form and balance, and all the other suggestions


In addition:

RELAX the opposing muscles. E.g., If you biceps is tense or firing too early then you will be fighting your straight punches which does several things:

• Slows the punch
• Reduces the punch power
• Tires you quicker by using both more energy and more oxygen

Even if you are relaxed, stopping your punches before they hit or even as they hit takes out power. Let the punch GO into the bag or your opponent. When the obstacle STOPS the punch START the retract....

A simple immediate trick for speed: Focus on RETRACT speed not punch speed -- the punch will increase and keep up.

Long term: Practice punch combinations 1000s of times starting at slow speed to perfect both the mechanics and the TRANSITIONS between individual strikes. Concentrate slow work on SMOOTH UNBROKEN transitions staying at exactly the same speed (no faster and no slower) from first punch to last.

THen as you speed up keep the smoothness.

As they say in the "gun world": Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

Thanks Herb,

I read the advice about focusing on retract speed in some other thread a little while ago, posted by you, and it truely does help. I've passed that advice on to other guys in the gym as well and they all felt the immediate difference. Thats a great tip for anyone trying to improve speed.

My issue isnt throwing a quick shot out, its more about putting them together quickly so as you and others have mentioned the good balance and form will be vital to achieving this.

Also your long term advice is great, I will keep practicing combos over and over again, no matter how redundant it may feel. But you're right, for me to really get good at the combos I need to keep repeating them over and over again, slow first and steadily pick up the pace as I can without losing technique and balance.

Thanks

[HerbM]

...
My issue isnt throwing a quick shot out, its more about putting them together quickly so as you and others have mentioned the good balance and form will be vital to achieving this.

Also your long term advice is great, I will keep practicing combos over and over again, no matter how redundant it may feel. But you're right, for me to really get good at the combos I need to keep repeating them over and over again, slow first and steadily pick up the pace as I can without losing technique and balance.

Thanks

I am impressed that you understand this so thoroughly -- most people don't initially get it. They hear it but it doesn't resonate in their bones.

When practicing the combos stop thinking of them as individual punches -- e.g., a jab and a cross. Instead make it into a JabCross -- no to hurry it, but to join it into a single unit, smoothly with the absolutely minimum of wasted or excess motion.


Slow is doubly important when practicing by shadowboxing, because you punches don't have the same motion when you hit NOTHING if you do it at speed. This is especialy true fo the non-straight punches (e.g., hook, uppercut)

You elbows may stop the straight punch when they straighten, but on curving punches YOU have to exert energy to stop the arc or they overtravel to improbably places that won't be the same as when a punch contacts a bag or an opponent.

When you shadowbox hard there are two possibilities: either your ELBOWS (etc) take a lot of abuse or you must tighten the opposing muscles to artificially stop the punch.

I am not a fan of (lots) of full power shadowboxing. Some is ok if you let the punch just carry through naturally because small reps won't tear up you joints and you must be able to deal with the times when the opponents makes you miss entirely.

Do the hard work on the bag. Do the PRECISE work slowly on both the bag and shadowboxing.

[The Student]

I am impressed that you understand this so thoroughly -- most people don't initially get it. They hear it but it doesn't resonate in their bones.

When practicing the combos stop thinking of them as individual punches -- e.g., a jab and a cross. Instead make it into a JabCross -- no to hurry it, but to join it into a single unit, smoothly with the absolutely minimum of wasted or excess motion.


Slow is doubly important when practicing by shadowboxing, because you punches don't have the same motion when you hit NOTHING if you do it at speed. This is especialy true fo the non-straight punches (e.g., hook, uppercut)

You elbows may stop the straight punch when they straighten, but on curving punches YOU have to exert energy to stop the arc or they overtravel to improbably places that won't be the same as when a punch contacts a bag or an opponent.

When you shadowbox hard there are two possibilities: either your ELBOWS (etc) take a lot of abuse or you must tighten the opposing muscles to artificially stop the punch.

I am not a fan of (lots) of full power shadowboxing. Some is ok if you let the punch just carry through naturally because small reps won't tear up you joints and you must be able to deal with the times when the opponents makes you miss entirely.

Do the hard work on the bag. Do the PRECISE work slowly on both the bag and shadowboxing.

Well, it just seems to follow basic logic. I remember when I was trying to learn basket ball. I wanted to be able to dribble the ball well, so I would stand there with my legs wide and bounce the ball through it once, right hand to left over and over again. Once I got a hang of it and could do it fast... I did left to right, through the leg, over and over again. Soon I was able to stand in one place and continuously bounce the bal through my leg doing the figure 8. Once I could do that fast, Then I started to walk, while bouncing the ball through the leg with each step, then eventually I could run with the ball being bounced through each leg with each step. Overtime I could do damn near anything with that ball, with little to no chance of anyone taking it away from me.

I feel that learning a sport like boxing with all it's complexities, it only would make sense to break it down into smaller more manageable chunks... and what your saying about changing my mind state from jab cross hook, to a jabcrosshook makes perfect sense to me. Basically you're taking the small manageable chunks and linking them into one fluid action.

Also you're right about the non-straight punches, I've noticed that (now that you mention it). Maybe thats what sort of slows me down as well.

I just need to operate in slow motion while practicing combos while attempting to achieve flawless form, and speed it up as I can without losing that form... and repeat over and over again no matter how redundant it feels.

Thanks Herb

(you should look into training [if it interests you], you have a strong ability to explain things and seem to have a good grasp on learning theories)

[HerbM]

...
My issue isnt throwing a quick shot out, its more about putting them together quickly so as you and others have mentioned the good balance and form will be vital to achieving this.

Also your long term advice is great, I will keep practicing combos over and over again, no matter how redundant it may feel. But you're right, for me to really get good at the combos I need to keep repeating them over and over again, slow first and steadily pick up the pace as I can without losing technique and balance.

Thanks

I am impressed that you understand this so thoroughly -- most people don't initially get how important it is to practice the basics SLOWLY and PERFECTLY and then "chunk it up" to a little more complicated (e.g. combinations etc) moves, always perfecting the transitions. They hear it but it doesn't resonate in their bones.

When practicing the combos stop thinking of them as individual punches -- e.g., a jab and a cross. Instead make it into a JabCross -- no to hurry it, but to join it into a single unit, smoothly with the absolutely minimum of wasted or excess motion.


Slow is doubly important when practicing by shadowboxing, because you punches don't have the same motion when you hit NOTHING if you do it at speed. This is especialy true fo the non-straight punches (e.g., hook, uppercut)

You elbows may stop the straight punch when they straighten, but on curving punches YOU have to exert energy to stop the arc or they overtravel to improbably places that won't be the same as when a punch contacts a bag or an opponent.

When you shadowbox hard there are two possibilities: either your ELBOWS (etc) take a lot of abuse or you must tighten the opposing muscles to artificially stop the punch.

I am not a fan of (lots) of full power shadowboxing. Some is ok if you let the punch just carry through naturally because small reps won't tear up you joints and you must be able to deal with the times when the opponents makes you miss entirely.

Do the hard work on the bag. Do the PRECISE work slowly on both the bag and shadowboxing.

[The Student]

I just had de ja vu, reading that post Herb