What are your preferred methods of training speed?

[Ivan]

How do you or how have you trained to improve your speed? I am going back home for the Christmas Holidays for 2-3 weeks and every time that I go abroad or on holiday I like to run my own personal "training camps" in which I solely focus on specific aspects of my improvement. In this "training camp" I want to work on my footwork and hand speed. I plan to use regular drills and shadow boxing for footwork and weighted shadow boxing and resistance bands to improve my striking speed. But I am curious as to how people here with more experience than me train for this?

I've never really trained for speed specifically, I've always focused solely on technique and muscle mass. But I feel that I am bordering my "next level" and that my striking speed could just push me there.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

How do you or how have you trained to improve your speed?

Before you can have speed, you need to loose up your

- shoulder joint,
- elbow joint, and
- wrist joint.

Try to jump up in the air, throw 3 punches before your feet land back down.

You can also find a training partner. Both you and your opponent have right sides forward. You try to use your "right leading hand" to punch on your opponent's "left back shoulder". Your opponent tries to use his leading right arm to block it. You then switch with your opponent.

After you have taken a shower, try to throw one kick and check to see if all the water on that leg is gone or not.

 

[Ivan]

Before you can have speed, you need to loose up your

- shoulder joint,
- elbow joint, and
- wrist joint.

Try to jump up in the air, throw 3 punches before your feet land back down.

You can also find a training partner. Both you and your opponent have right sides forward. You try to use your "right leading hand" to punch on your opponent's "left back shoulder". Your opponent tries to use his leading right arm to block it. You then switch with your opponent.

After you have taken a shower, try to throw one kick and check to see if all the water on that leg is gone or not.

Those are very interesting and creative methods that I definitely wish to try! How would you go about loosening those joints? And what are the standards for the 3 punches? Like square stance, from the shoulder or jump from boxing stance and punch with proper technique?

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

Those are very interesting and creative methods that I definitely wish to try! How would you go about loosening those joints? And what are the standards for the 3 punches? Like square stance, from the shoulder or jump from boxing stance and punch with proper technique?

Stay in horse stance.

1. Raise your right palm next to your right ear (palm face to your ear) and chop down to the left of your left knee (loose shoulder joint).
2. Move your right palm in front of your chest (loose elbow joint).
3. Move your right palm 45 degree up to the right side of your right ear with fingers straight (loose wrist joint).
4. Drop right palm (with fingers down) to the right side of your right knee (send energy all the way to your finger tips).
5 Repeat 1 - 4 with your left arm.

When you can move your arms so fast that you can only see a blur, you have developed some speed.

Try to throw 3 punches with the same arm (IMO, to throw punches with both arms are much easier). For example,

- Right jab.
- Left hand parry down.
- Right back fist.
- Left hand upward block.
- Right jab.

So if you add 2 left hand blocks, you are trying to make 5 moves (3 right arm, 2 left arm) while your body is in the air. If you spend 1 second in the air, you are doing 5 moves within 1 second.

 

[bill miller]

How do you or how have you trained to improve your speed?

Remember to breath, relax your shoulders, elbows, and hands. Remember to breath. Let your punch come from your core, like cracking a whip. And last but not least, Remember to breath!

 

[Bill Mattocks]

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

 

[Holmejr]

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Good one.
At one school I attended hung a sign
“Fast is jerky, smooth is fast”
Same concept.

 

[isshinryuronin]

There is actual speed as in how fast your move travels thru space. Then, there is effective speed as in how fast your move gets there. Here's just a few examples of how slow can be fast (to paraphrase Bill.)

1. Though your punch may be slow, if it travels thru less space, it will get to the target fast. So your starting hand position is important.
a. Keep both hands in a somewhat extended guard.
b. Not drawing your hand back before striking (a habit almost everyone has to some degree).
c. When evading an attack, stay as close a possible to the target to allow the fastest counter.

2. Timing your strike to when the opponent cannot immediately react (off balance, mentally or physically for example) gives you a head start and thus greater effective speed.

3. In countering, don't block and strike, block-strike on the same beat. Eliminate hesitation and see combinations as a single technique.

So even though you move slower than the opponent, you can be effectively faster. This may not be what Ivan was looking for, but I think these are the easiest kind of ways "to get there faster" which is what we really care about when talking about speed, right?

There are ways to increase actual/raw speed like not being too tight, special fast twitch exercises, catching flies with a pair of chopsticks , etc., but we are limited by our neuro-muscular physiology. The things I described are not bound by this, and I think gives us a greater margin of improvement and more bang for the buck invested.

I have seen guys gifted with blinding raw speed that I could never match no matter what kind of exercises I did or how hard I trained. The examples I talked about can be used by everyone with moderate practice. Of course, having both kinds of speed is awesome.

 

[Alan0354]

Stay in horse stance.

1. Raise your right palm next to your right ear (palm face to your ear) and chop down to the left of your left knee (loose shoulder joint).
2. Move your right palm in front of your chest (loose elbow joint).
3. Move your right palm 45 degree up to the right side of your right ear with fingers straight (loose wrist joint).
4. Drop right palm (with fingers down) to the right side of your right knee (send energy all the way to your finger tips).
5 Repeat 1 - 4 with your left arm.

How come that sound similar to my iron palm practice? Instead of hitting the knee, I hit the ball bearing bags.

If so, that does NOT increase speed at all. Did this for years. Definitely do NOT hit any harder, only thing I got out of years of practice is two carpal tunnel hands which I had to have surgery on my left hand. I am trying to avoid surgery on the right hand because you will be disabled for a few months.

 

[dvcochran]

How do you or how have you trained to improve your speed? I am going back home for the Christmas Holidays for 2-3 weeks and every time that I go abroad or on holiday I like to run my own personal "training camps" in which I solely focus on specific aspects of my improvement. In this "training camp" I want to work on my footwork and hand speed. I plan to use regular drills and shadow boxing for footwork and weighted shadow boxing and resistance bands to improve my striking speed. But I am curious as to how people here with more experience than me train for this?

I've never really trained for speed specifically, I've always focused solely on technique and muscle mass. But I feel that I am bordering my "next level" and that my striking speed could just push me there.

Fartleks - yea, sounds funny but look it up. I did these extensively during my Olympic run.
Sled push
Ladder drills, squares, ropes, etc...
High knees drills
Dot drills
Hill sprints
Interval drills
Glutes strengthening
Leg strengthening

 

[skribs]

As crazy as it may sound, one method is simply to do the techniques faster. People tend to get on a rhythm in their training. As you increase your muscle memory and muscle definition for those techniques, your old rhythm is what holds you back. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing the technique with an emphasis on being faster.

Once you get to the point where it starts to get sloppy or you lose timing, then slow it back down and figure out that particular kink until you can get it back to speed.

 

[Alan0354]

As crazy as it may sound, one method is simply to do the techniques faster. People tend to get on a rhythm in their training. As you increase your muscle memory and muscle definition for those techniques, your old rhythm is what holds you back. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing the technique with an emphasis on being faster.

Once you get to the point where it starts to get sloppy or you lose timing, then slow it back down and figure out that particular kink until you can get it back to speed.

I am not super fast, I found punching in air at a target, but make it snappy, slowly increase the force but still keep it snappy help my speed. Just practice EXACTLY how you strike, not making it fancy is the most effective for me.

I can see punching with weight get you stronger, I just don't see it can make you faster. Sometimes it's just that simple, do exactly the same way you strike, just make it more snappy in air.

 

[Ivan]

As crazy as it may sound, one method is simply to do the techniques faster. People tend to get on a rhythm in their training. As you increase your muscle memory and muscle definition for those techniques, your old rhythm is what holds you back. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing the technique with an emphasis on being faster.

Once you get to the point where it starts to get sloppy or you lose timing, then slow it back down and figure out that particular kink until you can get it back to speed.

That's how I've started off. I did 50 jabs today as fast possible. I wanted to do 100, but towards 50 they started getting sloppy so I took a break. I will do the right cross today as well, and see if I can build up to 500.

 

[Ivan]

How come that sound similar to my iron palm practice? Instead of hitting the knee, I hit the ball bearing bags.

If so, that does NOT increase speed at all. Did this for years. Definitely do NOT hit any harder, only thing I got out of years of practice is two carpal tunnel hands which I had to have surgery on my left hand. I am trying to avoid surgery on the right hand because you will be disabled for a few months.

The Carnivore Diet is a possible way to avoid surgery and heal inflammation-related injuries. I suggest you try it, I am a huge proponent of it. I wrote an article on my website, and there are recorded cases of people who required surgery for knees to heal their injuries almost completely after adhering to this diet.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

How come that sound similar to my iron palm practice? Instead of hitting the knee, I hit the ball bearing bags.

If so, that does NOT increase speed at all. Did this for years. Definitely do NOT hit any harder, only thing I got out of years of practice is two carpal tunnel hands which I had to have surgery on my left hand. I am trying to avoid surgery on the right hand because you will be disabled for a few months.

May I ask you:

- Who taught you the iron palm training?
- Did you use the iron palm medicine to wash your hand afterward?

This is the most common iron palm training medicine (used to wash hands). Sorry it's in Chinese (you may find someone to translate for you if you are interest in it)

That is the CMA 字门 Zimen system 通三关 (break through 3 joints) training. The purpose is to loose up the 3 joints. It has nothing to do with the power generation.

When you move your right palm to the left of your left knee, you are stretching your shoulder joint.

The man training is to be able to swing your arms around your body like "blur".

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

- For power training, your body push/pull your arm.
- For speed training, your body chase your arm.

When a mosquito flies over your head, and you use both palms to smash it, you will find out that your hand go first, your arm follow, and your body follow after your arm.

 

[isshinryuronin]

- For power training, your body push/pull your arm.
- For speed training, your body chase your arm.

When a mosquito flies over your head, and you use both palms to smash it, you will find out that your hand go first, your arm follow, and your body follow after your arm.

I was going to add this idea to my earlier post when I talked about pulling your hand back just prior to the punch, but wanted to keep to the mechanical methods. This thing is more mental IMO.

The method you give for gaining speed is valid. I have often taken a student's gi cuff and pulled his punch out, giving the feeling the fist has a mind of its own and leaps out on its own accord, not relying on the body for inertia or mass.

Very fast, but no mass behind it. But the greater speed still allows force enough to stun and set up the next move.

 

[skribs]

That's how I've started off. I did 50 jabs today as fast possible. I wanted to do 100, but towards 50 they started getting sloppy so I took a break. I will do the right cross today as well, and see if I can build up to 500.

There's also two different skills between doing each technique fast and doing consecutive techniques fast.

 

[Alan0354]

May I ask you:

- Who taught you the iron palm training?
- Did you use the iron palm medicine to wash your hand afterward?

This is the most common iron palm training medicine (used to wash hands). Sorry it's in Chinese (you may find someone to translate for you if you are interest in it)

View attachment 27805

That is the CMA 字门 Zimen system 通三关 (break through 3 joints) training. The purpose is to loose up the 3 joints. It has nothing to do with the power generation.

When you move your right palm to the left of your left knee, you are stretching your shoulder joint.

The man training is to be able to swing your arms around your body like "blur".

I did not use those stuff to rub. BUT that has nothing to do with speed or strength. At best, those rubs help the carpal tunnel, it cannot possibility help the strength and speed. I practiced at least 3 times a week, 10mins each time for quite a few years. That's A LOT OF PRACTICE. I can assure you I did not gain even a little bit of strength hitting. I don't see any gain is speed at all. Forget about punching power, I tried slapping the heavy bag like iron palm, I did not hit any harder.

You would think all these years of practicing, I should see even a slight improvement. ABSOLUTELY NO IMPROVEMENT. Iron palm is ALL A LIE. I said this after years of practicing. I won't even regret getting the injury if it worked.

I increased my speed a lot. I air punch at a target with snap. I don't have to have any strange stands, no fancy movement. I even sit on the toilet to punch. My punch got a lot faster. I can hear the sound of the wind getting louder just sitting on the toilet and do like 2 minutes for about a month.

Things has to make sense!!! It's not that mysterious!!!


Of cause, I know about using body to add striking force. You practice iron palm enough, YOU KNOW to use the body, the shoulder, the stomach muscle to squeeze down while you push your hands down relax like a whip. These are very very fundamental stuffs, don't tell me there are "secret" ways on all these. I particular dislike people trying to make things mystique as if there is "secret" to it. All can explained if you look up Chinkuchi. It explains it all.

 

[Alan0354]

The Carnivore Diet is a possible way to avoid surgery and heal inflammation-related injuries. I suggest you try it, I am a huge proponent of it. I wrote an article on my website, and there are recorded cases of people who required surgery for knees to heal their injuries almost completely after adhering to this diet.

Thanks

I'll read into this first.