The Hand- and the Reaction speed are important parts of how you can punch faster in boxing. It’s not hard to get faster as a boxer, it’s just hard to learn and internalize it properly.
You will punch faster in boxing if you sharpen your senses and develop more focus for individual punches. To do this, you need to be loose, breathe properly, and most importantly, execute the stroke correctly – only then will you learn to execute fast combinations.
Now then, are you ready for the training to improve your hitting speed? Follow the instructions in the article and you will soon punch faster as a boxer.
6 tips on how to punch faster while boxing
#1 Train your senses for fast punches
Everything you start, starts with a first thought. Before you blame your genetics or undeveloped muscles for your slow hand speed, you should analyze yourself first.
The first question you need to ask yourself is, "What am I doing to improve my speed when hitting??". If you have never asked yourself this question, then the answer is a clear "nothing"!".
The most important thing is to focus on awareness. Your eyes need to be trained to quickly detect a target and send the signal to your hands to punch with command.
Forget about hand speed for now, we’re talking about reaction time first. The fighter who first recognizes the opportunity for a punch will be the first to strike and thus create a big advantage for themselves.
Now that you understand the first step to hitting fast, let’s work on sensory quickness. What is the best way to do this, you ask?? Simply by practicing hitting fast targets every day.
The speed bag, punching ball or a punching ball are great for this purpose. What exactly a punching ball is and how to build one yourself, we will write in an extra article.
These will train your eyes and concentration to track quick targets and when the opportunity presents itself to throw a punch. When you work on the boxing ball, don’t be afraid to throw quick punches.
Try to follow the ball with your eyes and hit one or two quick shots. Even when you are not hitting, you should keep an eye on the ball.
#2 The right attitude for fast punches
The right attitude is an important part of hitting faster. I often see boxers trying to destroy the punching bag when I tell them to punch faster. When I say faster, I don’t mean hitting harder.
Loading your strokes with more power is not the way to make them faster. Often this attitude will only make you swing longer.
Punching faster does not mean that you put more effort and power into your punches. Likewise, it doesn’t mean you tighten your fist more and try to hurt your opponent more.
The right attitude to hit faster is to focus on the speed and nothing else. don’t focus on the power, only on the pure speed!
Don’t imagine hitting your opponent, but rather imagine touching your opponent without him seeing the hit. You are not trying to hurt him, you want to surprise him!
Now try this exercise in shadow boxing or on the punching bag. You will notice that this setting alone will increase your speed when punching.
You are no longer thinking all the time about how to break your opponent’s jaw, but how to steal his mouthguard without him noticing it.
#3 Be loose for a quick punch
This is something that took me a long time to understand. This basic principle applies to any sport you play. The only way to increase your speed is to be relaxed!
The most relaxed muscle has the opportunity to unleash its maximum speed. In all sports you will notice that the most relaxed athlete triumphs over his opponents.
One of my relatives is a sprinter in athletics and he confirms that the most relaxed sprinters achieve the best results. But keep in mind that there is a big difference between a relaxed movement and a lazy movement!
Being relaxed in your movements means that you let everything flow and give your movement the opportunity to develop without much effort and stress to unfold.
Lazy movements, on the other hand, means that you are moving without control and purpose. So how can you be "relaxed" for a quick punch?
First, you should Do not keep your fist tense all the time. Keep your fist relaxed and tense it only when executing the punch. Keep your shoulders loose and do not tense your biceps before the punch. A relaxed body will punch faster can!
#4 Execute the fast boxing punch
Clean your mind when you fire a punch. Do not think about how you can destroy your opponent. This attitude keeps tension in your hands and tenses your whole body.
It also slows down your punches and wastes unnecessary energy. When you make a stroke, don’t forget to exhale and likewise inhale when you bring your hands back to set the next stroke.
What I also often observe with new Boxing is when they want to hit a shot, they pull their hands back a little bit to give the shot more power.
This slows down the speed of a punch enormously, because it backfires before it moves forward. It’s no secret that most are stronger than their opponents punch faster want. Don’t think about the power behind the shot, think about touching your opponent quickly.
#5 Breathe fast for quick punches
This is another thing that most athletes understand about speed. The fast breathing is equal to the fast movements.
Explosive breathing enables explosive movements. If you haven’t heard of it until now, try this: Breathe slowly but try to punch fast..that just doesn’t work.
Bet you can’t do this. Notice how your body movements are aligned with breathing? When professional boxers hit 5 punches in a row, they exhale 5 times fast.
If you’ve seen professional boxers shadow boxing in a video, you’ve probably noticed how they don’t throw full punches.
They throw short punches or half punches, so they can practice fast breathing during the punches. If you want to punch fast, you must also breathe fast!
#6 Beat fast combinations in boxing
Let your arms flow when you punch and you will punch faster. Focus your thoughts on a combination of punches rather than individual punches and you will see the combinations come shooting out of your arms quickly.
Don’t approach your opponent with step-by-step instructions on how to set your strokes. Surprise your opponent with combinations and just let it flow.
With time and training, your mind will sort itself out and the combinations will be set automatically when countering.
Training video for fast strokes:
- Manny Pacquiao – Check out this guy shadow boxing. Focus on speed the way he does it! Fast shadow boxing video
- Joan Guzman -Fast hands and feet. And more importantly, quick senses! Fast punches video
If you want to punch faster, follow the steps above. Don’t be lazy and make up your own stuff, just follow the instructions.
Once you have reached a certain speed, you can use punch combinations to do so. Be ready, be relaxed, breathe faster and hit faster!
This is why you should punch faster when boxing
As I have noticed with some people, they hit slow because of a wrong attitude and training. Even the people who are reasonably fast don’t make a real effort to optimize their stroke speed.
I don’t think I have to tell you how important it is to have a certain speed. Look at great fighters like Muhammad Ali, Roy Jones Or Mike Tyson to.
There’s also Floyd Mayweather (Jr.). Not only that they won most of the fights at their best times also no one could come close to them.
There are very few things that can be equated with hand speed. Regardless of how strong you are, if the other guy is faster than you and his punches reach the target before yours, he will easily defeat you.