Quote Originally Posted by HerbM View Post
You have probably heard me go on (and on) about relaxation, so it is possible that if you are "trying" to pull it back quick you are putting tension in your (opposing) muscles.

This could actually be both slowing down the return and (maybe even more important) slowing down the punch.

You really, REALLY need to have your biceps etc turned OFF during the punch, and the Triceps etc turned OFF during return -- sometimes that is actually easier to do by various other methods like "flicking" it out there.

The really tricky part is timing the "switch" -- I firmly believe the time signal for the switch should be the (beginning of) IMPACT on the target. If you practice this, then by the time you get the biceps firing (milliseconds) the target has absorbed the full power of the punch, and the target rather than your muscles do the STOPPING part of the retraction.

Parodoxically it may not be about how fast you "move" but how cleanly (and fast) you make the switch.

Also note, that if you "miss" then your ELBOW JOINT has to do this instead -- and that is not something you want to happen at high volume (I don't like to practice FAST shadow boxing this way simply because either my joint does the work or my biceps must fire without hitting anything -- i.e., no signal like in a real punch delivered to an opponent or a bag.)
(You will also hit harder & faster as well as tire less quickly.)

Also make very sure you aren't "reaching" or "leaning" to deliver it either.

Use this if it helps you -- I might however be full of baloney. Of course, I am known for hitting really hard with very little effort. <grin>

--
HerbM
Good post, i have to disagree with the heavy bag part though, hitting a heavybag is never like hitting an opponent, you cant always be sure when your going to hit an opponent but you can be with a heavybag, half of the time you are shadow boxing while sparring a good fighter because you will miss a lot, i think its better to learn to throw shots shadow boxing with good commitment and balance to enable variation in movement and a quick return to guard through movements, then when you know you can commit properly to a shot, miss and still not be giving anything away, your ready to apply the technique to a bag which is very sensitive in my opinion it can either be good for you or draw lots of bad habits out and ruin the effectiveness of your training sessions.

Like herb says is important when your trying to locate the trigger muscles for a shot the whole idea is to relax every other muscle but the triggers to stop the antagonists resisting against the movements, once youre getting your head around this and applying it correctly to your boxing, its then a good idea to start stretching, if your not flexing muscles that are stopping you then thats good your gonna be quick, but a slight resistance through lack of flexibility in the muscles is a given and will certainly slow you down, so then you need to get rid of that resistance too and that is when stretching comes into its own and will rapidly improve speed and technique.

Andre also makes a very good point in trying to avoid having the thoughts going through your mind slowing you down as your trying to overthink the movements and correct the flaws as you move, your jab will start at your chin so muscle memory dictates that a double jab will have the first jab return to the chin quickly to fire off the second jab resulting in a sort of sneaky tactic to get this movement wired into muscle memory to memorize the new jab, however the second jab may still return shy of the chin, if so then take note of where your elbow returns to after firing the jab, and where it needs to return to in order to enable the hand to return by the chin, the problem may lie there.

I have a feeling its a mixture of the latter and what Greysoold mentioned about your shoulders, the jab is an arm punch so the source of the problem is most likely to be the arm but not always, it could also be due to reaching/on the front foot too much aswell as problems in the arm.