Things You'll Need:
- Hand wraps or bag gloves
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Step 1
To begin, make sure you are protecting your hands appropriately. You'll need to either have them wrapped or be wearing a small pair of bag gloves so your knuckles don't get bruised or cut.
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Step 2
Begin slowly. The first day you use a speed bag for boxing training won't be the day you master it. It is a process--one that requires a lot of hard work and effort.
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Step 3
Start by using a large speed bag. Speed bags come in all sorts of sizes and in a few slightly different shapes. The larger the bag, the easier it will be for you to hit, because it provides a larger target for your hands and eyes and because it will move more slowly.
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Step 4
Make sure the speed bag is adjusted to the right height. Most can move up and down fairly easily, and you want to make sure that you can stand under it comfortably and that you won't be in any danger of hitting the frame of the speed bag with your hands. The bag itself should be slightly above eye level.
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Step 5
Hit the bag. The best way to begin hitting the speed bag is to hit it once and then let it bounce three times. Bouncing entails having the bag hit the back of the board, come forward and hit the front, and then hitting the back once more. As it comes back forward after the third bounce against the stand, hit the bag again. If at any point in this process you hit the bag wrong and it starts to bounce wildly or improperly, or if you miss the bag, grab it and set it still, then begin again.
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Step 6
Alternate your hands as you hit the speed bag and follow the bag's rhythm very closely with your eyes. Experiment with hitting the bag at different angles and with different forces to see how you can affect the speed and trajectory of the bag with how you hit it. Remember, you want to hit the bag straight, so it bounces back to you straight, and you want to hit the bag at a pace that you can keep up with. If you hit the bag too hard, it will bounce too quickly for you to respond again.
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Step 7
Advance your skills. As you progress and begin to adapt to the speed bag, you'll eventually just be waiting for one bounce--the initial bounce and rebound off of the back of the stand--before striking it again.
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Step 8
Continue training with the speed bag until you can hit it for prolonged periods without missing a beat. You can set goals for yourself such as hitting the bag 20 times without missing and then work on beating that. You can also change up how you hit the speed bag. For example, you can alternate hands with each strike, or you can use one hand to hit the bag several times in a row and then switch off.
