How to maximize your training with the bag
A punching/kicking bag is one of the most common equipment you will probably find in every gym or at the comfort of your home around the world, one of the best training aids that are most underutilized by many simply not knowing what to do and how to use the bag to benefit the most from it.
As straightforward as it may seem, I have seen many used the bag as part of training, they would proceed to smash the bag and go all sorts of crazy on it. I have to admit I was one of them during my first few years of training. The perception of having a good workout, going all power and speed, smashing combos for 10 rounds of 3 minutes makes you feel strong and good. Don’t get me wrong, this is incredibly great for cardio, explosive power and endurance work out, but it benefits little to none in acquiring and refining better techniques required for sparring and fights.
After years of training and meeting professionals from everywhere, what changed my method of training while using the bag was when I got some sessions down training Muay Thai in Thailand. As usual, I did my rounds of pad work for around 30 minutes, and then proceeded with a few rounds of sparring and clinching, followed by three to four rounds on the bag. After training, I would stretch and sit around the gym, to watch the Thais used the bags to see what they did.
Many of them were looking loose, relaxed and calm, yet able to strike viciously when they attacked. Some would just work on their basic strikes to generate more flow more power, while others would work on a particular technique for 30 minutes trying to perfect it, making sure the flow of the movement is beautiful yet lethal.
This lethally beautiful movement is exactly the same as what my movement training over the past six years has taught me about. A good mover is able to chain a series of movement into a state of flow efficiently and effectively. Like I always tell my students and fighters, it is like playing and listening to a song, good flowy music from the start till the end. Imagine someone hitting the pause/play button to the song you are listening every few seconds, it would be very disruptive and unpleasant it becomes noise. This applies to striking, grappling and basically any form of training.
Those experiences helped me relooked into my method of training on how to stay relax and compose not only during training on the bag but in shadowboxing, pad work, sparring (which I talked about on my previous articles), and grappling.
As on my article on ‘The art of Shadowboxing’, I talked about me gathering experiences and information from different coaches and fighters that I have interacted with, and put into practice creating my style. By visualizing, flowing and feeling the techniques and movements on my own to make it look beautiful and natural. And the only me-time you can get is when you are shadowboxing and doing bag work.
Next time when you are on the bag, learn to visualize fighting with someone and treat the bag as a person, try to envision how you would execute your attacks, defences, counters and fakes in a timely, beautiful and lethal fashion rather than just smashing the bag aimlessly rounds after rounds.