punching & kicking speed

TKD SC

Hi all,

Just checking if anyone has ideas for increasing punching / kicking speed?

At the moment, in relation to this, I've been trying the following:

Heavier gloves and/or holding light hand weights with the gloves while doing pad work. Then without the hand weights.

Simple as mentally just trying to punch faster.

Have had hip / hamstring injury so not done much re legs, but plan to do padwork with ankle weights on.

Any other ideas?? Also, any ideas re doing weights to help with this as generally get to gym also twice per week so could include something then too.

Thanks guys,

Simon

Khannie

Ankle weights are a disaster. I used to use them while walking to work to burn calories until I did a bit of research on them. Avoid them for definite.

Hank_Scorpio

I think speed is directly related to endurace. Anyone can move fast, just how long can you go fast for.

What I try to do is the same as I would with the hands. Try to punch the bag as hard and fast as possible. Ok, this isn't possible while alternating legs, well it's just slow. So, I usually try one leg at a time.

I don't concentrate on the technique of the kick, I try to get it right each time, but it's impossible at repetitive speeds. So I would stand with the left leg out front and throw round house kicks for 30 - 60 seconds. Then side kicks, then crescent kicks, axe kicks et al kicks, off the front leg.

Increasing the time as the endurance gets better. Try to do this 3 -5 times a night.

Same with the hands, just keep punching hard and fast for 30 - 60 seconds, eventually increasing the time and in the amount of times you do it.

I would usually get people to start at 3 - 5 times a night. Then move up to 6 - 9 times a night etc.

Usually I would start with doing it slowly and increasing the speed, just to get the correct technique and try to keep that technique as I get faster.

Another way that I found to be great at increasing speed is the good old train:

Get the class to line up all facing each other. Give them pads and the other side the mits and footpads.

Move each person along after 2 punches and back around until they meet the person they originally faced. Then 3 punches on each bag until they reach the person they started with. The move onto 4, 5, 6, 7.

It's for speed, not power. Alternatively you can get them to make a circle and move around.

This gets them moving around and using the hands.

You can do the same for the kicking.

Colm_OReilly

Avoid the weights while punching. This is overspecificity in conditioning for a sport which causes interference with your motor recruitment when you're moving unweighted.

If you're looking for explosiveness, try the olympic lifts or derivatives of in your weights routine, eg. power cleans.

TKD SC

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

I think speed is directly related to endurace. Anyone can move fast, just how long can you go fast for.

So I would stand with the left leg out front and throw round house kicks for 30 - 60 seconds. Then side kicks, then crescent kicks, axe kicks et al kicks, off the front leg.

Increasing the time as the endurance gets better. Try to do this 3 -5 times a night.

Same with the hands, just keep punching hard and fast for 30 - 60 seconds, eventually increasing the time and in the amount of times you do it.

.

Hi Hank,

Thanks for that. Yeh, we do the "train" type things also, although havent done in a while now though.
I'll do the other ex's you mention.

Not sure about the endurance part and how long you can go fast for. I'm really trying to just get faster in the first place! My endurance is ok, but even from the start, I am not as fast as I should be. The coach is working on it with me, but am trying to do bits myself outside of training as much as I can to help the process.

Thanks for the reply,

Simon

TKD SC

Khannie wrote: »

Ankle weights are a disaster. I used to use them while walking to work to burn calories until I did a bit of research on them. Avoid them for definite.

Hi Khannie,

What's the research? Very brief will do!
After saying that, I did actually use them for a couple weeks myself a few years ago (just remembering this now!), and while I def felt faster say after taking them off me for kicking or moving around, I think they did start hurting my knee so I stopped using them, cos it wasnt worth getting pain in my knee from.

Tks,

Simon

TKD SC

Colm_OReilly wrote: »

Avoid the weights while punching. This is overspecificity in conditioning for a sport which causes interference with your motor recruitment when you're moving unweighted.

If you're looking for explosiveness, try the olympic lifts or derivatives of in your weights routine, eg. power cleans.

Hey,

Will try some olympic lifts tomorrow in gym.

I dont really understand the avoiding weights while punching. They are v light hand weights that I can hold in the glove, only 1kg each I think. Just like wearing heavier glove really for couple rounds then back to normal lighter glove for couple rounds. Seems to make sense, but I'm not up to 'speed' (ha ha) with my motor recruitment knowledge!...

Dylan Scally

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

I think speed is directly related to endurace. Anyone can move fast, just how long can you go fast for.

What I try to do is the same as I would with the hands. Try to punch the bag as hard and fast as possible. Ok, this isn't possible while alternating legs, well it's just slow. So, I usually try one leg at a time.

I don't concentrate on the technique of the kick, I try to get it right each time, but it's impossible at repetitive speeds. So I would stand with the left leg out front and throw round house kicks for 30 - 60 seconds. Then side kicks, then crescent kicks, axe kicks et al kicks, off the front leg.

Increasing the time as the endurance gets better. Try to do this 3 -5 times a night.

Same with the hands, just keep punching hard and fast for 30 - 60 seconds, eventually increasing the time and in the amount of times you do it.

I would usually get people to start at 3 - 5 times a night. Then move up to 6 - 9 times a night etc.

Usually I would start with doing it slowly and increasing the speed, just to get the correct technique and try to keep that technique as I get faster.

Another way that I found to be great at increasing speed is the good old train:

Get the class to line up all facing each other. Give them pads and the other side the mits and footpads.

Move each person along after 2 punches and back around until they meet the person they originally faced. Then 3 punches on each bag until they reach the person they started with. The move onto 4, 5, 6, 7.

It's for speed, not power. Alternatively you can get them to make a circle and move around.

This gets them moving around and using the hands.

You can do the same for the kicking.

I would'nt take too much advice from a dude that hurts his ankle everytime he kicks a bag/pad/baby in pram.

Hank_Scorpio

Was there any need for that? Obviously there is something wrong with my ankle.

interestinguser

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

Was there any need for that? Obviously there is something wrong with my ankle.

I'd take a guess that that is Heavyweight under a different name. I'd ignore if I were you.

cowzerp

Nah everyone knows mr scally, heavyweight is a different dude..but i was reading the article about the ankle and thought it sounded a bit soft myself!
as there is loads of kicking that wont affect your ankle! ankle weights pull on the legs and can damage joints so i'd avoid them to be honest!!

Dragan

If you want to punch or kick fast then drill, drill, drill and perfect the tecnique.

The act of throwing a blow, going for an arm bar, a correctly timed reposite are all Central Nervous System based.

You train it enough and eventually the patterns become more and more and more efficent. This is the way the human body works and it is no different when related to martial arts.

Practice.

The practice some more.

Hank_Scorpio

cowzerp wrote: »

Nah everyone knows mr scally, heavyweight is a different dude..but i was reading the article about the ankle and thought it sounded a bit soft myself!
as there is loads of kicking that wont affect your ankle! ankle weights pull on the legs and can damage joints so i'd avoid them to be honest!!

Excuse me for being rude - but how the **** is it a bit soft. My ankle is fooked. I'm looking to keep training. My competing and sparring days are over. I still want to train. I love training. I play football at the weekends too and some times when I land on my ankle a certain way it goes from under me.

How the **** is that soft? All I want is a bit of training and bit of pad work. Sorry for going off topic.

ryoishin

OP is it that you want faster hands or to be able to react quicker, maybe if you did some drills to help you register the opponents kick or punch youd fing that it helped, at the very least it wont hurt.


Hank, When I started Thai Boxing i kept hurting my ankle. Too much rotation of the leg and bad habits from karate days, i was mentally thinking shin but physically going for my foot and ended up using the joint bit instead. Hope this helps.

cowzerp

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

Excuse me for being rude - but how the **** is it a bit soft. My ankle is fooked. I'm looking to keep training. My competing and sparring days are over. I still want to train. I love training. I play football at the weekends too and some times when I land on my ankle a certain way it goes from under me.

How the **** is that soft? All I want is a bit of training and bit of pad work. Sorry for going off topic.

Your ankle is fooked and you play football every week? are you a bit dim?

i was not having a go, i was just stating how you could kick without affecting the ankle, also why dont you consider boxing if your ankle is fooked!

anyway it sounded soft, thats all i said. peace! take the advice and give up football till your ankle is better!

Hank_Scorpio

cowzerp wrote: »

Your ankle is fooked and you play football every week? are you a bit dim?

i was not having a go, i was just stating how you could kick without affecting the ankle, also why dont you consider boxing if your ankle is fooked!

anyway it sounded soft, thats all i said. peace! take the advice and give up football till your ankle is better!

Well, I am not dim. I am very educated and understand sporting injuries considerably well. I play football because I want to. I punch and kick bag because I want to. I spar because I want to. I train because I want to.

It's not soft to have a dodgy ankle. I've learned to live with it.

Black Swan

For faster kicks, technique is important. Find someone who is skilled and fast to observe your technique. Have often found students putting an extra hop or doing a useless move before a kick that both slows them down and telegraphs their kick to an opponent.

Don't prepare to kick. Just kick!

Forget the leg weights, rather stretch before and after practice. Better yet, get into a habit of stretching while at home. Rather than sit in a chair, right now I am on the carpet in a stretching position with my laptop before me on a low coffee table. I've been doing it for years and don't think about it (except now in this post).

Learn to kick in combinations, like two round house kicks in fast sequence, using the leverage of the first kick to trigger the second.

Stop thinking about kicking. If you think before you kick, you've slowed yourself down. You must train and train and train, sparring against different skilled opponents, frequently, and over a long period of time to where, when someone leaves themselves open, you kick without thinking about it. Kicks become automatic, without thought (this is Bushido, or the way of the warrior).

Dylan Scally

Hank_Scorpio wrote: »

I play football because I want to. I punch and kick bag because I want to. I spar because I want to. I train because I want to.


sounds like you want to do a lot of things, now get out there and do it kiddo, and i agree with cowzer when he said you sounded a bit soft.

Unpossible

OP have you tried to relax/not tense up when striking? Are you using your whole body for the strike?

Colm_OReilly

Thread closed. Sorry Simon.

Ad hominem arguments are not tolerated on this board. Take the post on it's merit, not that of the person.