Flying Crane
Sr. Grandmaster
I'm curious to know how people approach their training on the heavy bag. What kind of methods do you utilize on the bag? Anything you deliberately stay away from, and if so, why?
I personally don't feel it is necessary to work on a heavy bag more than about 2 times a week. That seems plenty to develop power and condition the hands and feet for striking, without overdoing it. If you are training for some serious full-contact competition, then I think you may want to do more than that, but for most people I suspect this is plenty.
Some things that I do:
First, I tend to focus on basics, on the bag. I take my individual strikes, and work them in their most basic forms. Things like reverse punch, lunge punch, knifehands, tiger claws, ridgehands, elbows, knees, kicks. Each strike by itself, just focusing on getting it right with proper form and developing power for the strike all by itself.
I also work some combinations, but these tend to be sequences taken from my forms, or from my kenpo self defense techniques. It's kind of interesting because the bag swings when struck, so I need to adjust in my follow-up strikes to what the bag is doing. It sort of takes you out of the "ideal" phase, and makes you realize that timing and tempo are important in landing your strikes. Actually landing the strike causes a reaction that you need to compensate for in the follow-ups.
One thing I do not do is spar with the bag. I am not a boxer, I don't train like a boxer, and I don't want to be a boxer. Seems to me that treating the bag like a sparring partner may work well for a boxer, but it is contrary to the techniques and approach utilized in traditional martial arts. I don't think it makes sense to train forms and techniques like I do, that have a very specific approach to self-defense, then throw that all away when I work on the bag. I think the same methodology in practicing forms and techs in the traditional arts should carry over on the heavy bag.
Anyway, I was just sort of thinking about this, thought I'd share some thoughts and see what others think. thanks.
I personally don't feel it is necessary to work on a heavy bag more than about 2 times a week. That seems plenty to develop power and condition the hands and feet for striking, without overdoing it. If you are training for some serious full-contact competition, then I think you may want to do more than that, but for most people I suspect this is plenty.
Some things that I do:
First, I tend to focus on basics, on the bag. I take my individual strikes, and work them in their most basic forms. Things like reverse punch, lunge punch, knifehands, tiger claws, ridgehands, elbows, knees, kicks. Each strike by itself, just focusing on getting it right with proper form and developing power for the strike all by itself.
I also work some combinations, but these tend to be sequences taken from my forms, or from my kenpo self defense techniques. It's kind of interesting because the bag swings when struck, so I need to adjust in my follow-up strikes to what the bag is doing. It sort of takes you out of the "ideal" phase, and makes you realize that timing and tempo are important in landing your strikes. Actually landing the strike causes a reaction that you need to compensate for in the follow-ups.
One thing I do not do is spar with the bag. I am not a boxer, I don't train like a boxer, and I don't want to be a boxer. Seems to me that treating the bag like a sparring partner may work well for a boxer, but it is contrary to the techniques and approach utilized in traditional martial arts. I don't think it makes sense to train forms and techniques like I do, that have a very specific approach to self-defense, then throw that all away when I work on the bag. I think the same methodology in practicing forms and techs in the traditional arts should carry over on the heavy bag.
Anyway, I was just sort of thinking about this, thought I'd share some thoughts and see what others think. thanks.