a few vids of me working on the bag
any tips or constructive critism would be appreciated, thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XClahiehHY

no tips?
or advice?

Love it. I'm in Karate, and I'm trying to build more striking combos. Mind giving me pointers?

Hello and welcome.

Had a quick look. Good energy but a couple of things:

i) Your hands drop too much after punching.

ii) You more or less stayed in the same spot while working on the bag. I would try and get use to moving round the bag, working on punching and moving. Rolling stone gathers no bruises. It's like drving in a one way lane. You get use to going in one direction. However, what happens when you go on to a two way lane, and you have traffic coming right at you? In other words, when you are sparring someone is going to be hitting you back. You have to work on body movement as well as punching.

Standing still and duking it out with someone to wait and see who the last man standing is is never a good strategy. Even if you come out better, you may still have taken a lot of needless punishment. You fight how you train, so try and move around the bag more. Even if you are doing it for a workout, getting your whole body moving will make the workout that bit more demanding.

thanks for the tips....yea ive been working on keeping my hands up alot because i used to drop them way more

There's some good energy there though, keep going! If I may ask, what are you training? Boxing? What are you training for? Fitness? Competition?

No sweat if you don't want to answer, just curious!

Well honestly i dont have much of a style just different things i pick up from different people, next fall i hope to offical start learning kick boxing, or TKD.
and right now im training for a few local martial arts tournaments, and competitions

Hey stryker, thanks for putting up the vid. Mostly, you look pretty sharp. Good speed and good flow with the strikes. I would echo PW's comment about moving around the bag more, and I would add to that try to switch sides every now and then. You kept your left side forward the whole time. Get used to being able to jab off both sides. Maybe work some elbows in, too. This link has some stuff I did, for comparison:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LDnH3r4eVc

Keep up the good work!

thanks matt, i have to add that to the list, move around more, keep my hands up, and switch sides. i looked at your videos and you looked awsome. whats' your style?

I am primarily an Ed Parker American kenpo (EPAK for short) stylist. I have also done some formal work in Jeet Kune Do, and Brazilian Jujitsu, with some informal Wing Chun, Aikido, and Tae Kwon Do.

nice! id love to get the chance to spar with you sometimes, but i have no formal work in any art. just a little informal work in boxing, TKD, aikido, wresting, hung gar kung fu, and karate.
i plan to start learning kick boxing or TKD formally next fall. in the mean time my schools hosting an open martial arts toury tomorrow i plan to attend

Good luck with the tourney. If you ever get up to the Baltimore area, let me know.

Here is a more recent sparring vid. My buddy RazorFoot has some awesome footwork, and most of what I know about footwork, I learned from him :

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/ee9ddcb21516e664

hmmm he seems to be running away alot. whats up with that?

He is primarily a defensive fighter, and I am primarily offensive. His counters are really fast and accurate, though. He can make you miss by a millimeter, and then deck you, LOL. His timing is really superb - start to move or drop your hands for a second, and you get hit.

Nice clip of you guys!

@ Stryker: Trust me the more you spar/compete the more you will want to tighten your defence! No one likes getting hit lol! Matt and Razorfoot both kept moving. This is an important skill to have in (striking) combat sports.

If you stand still you are going to be an easy target to hit. If you keep moving in one direction, it's going to be easy to figure out where you're going to be, so again, you'll be easy to hit. That's why moving round the bag is important as it gets you in to the habit of moving.

Here's a small tip on how to make your cross actually land...

When in doubt, jab.
If you jab with your left, move slightly towards your left.
If you move to your left jab again.
If you're standing 45 degrees to his right throw the cross through his defense.

I love slipping in those crosses, they're sneaky!

Another tip is; if you're going to attack, move forward and move left or right so you're standing square against him from an angle, not square against each other, if you do, chances that he'll be able to block or escape attacks are a big higher.

Nobody can figure out where the punches come from when they're being punched, so always attack from an angle, never straight on.

-Donnie out

Yeah, totally agree with Taison about striking from angles. I am still working on that skill. I definitely get hit more when I attack straight on compared to using angles. Takedowns and clinch stuff often work better from angles too, now as I think about it.

I got that from JKD by the way!

-Donnie out

I say your guard is to low, keep those hands up. And move around a bit, never stand still, bob and weave.

with no formal training, I have seen far, far worse

As others have said, movement is a big part of sparring/fighting, and its worth thinking about that now, rather than 'unlearning' bad habits later.

I would also suggest a little more visualisation in the structure of your striking.

By this I mean that at the moment, you just keep firing punches off in an almost non-stop super-long combination, with little feel for the timing or movement of the bag. All your punches are also thrown to a 'comfort zone' that equates to chest height on an average size oponent.

It feels great to lay in to a bag like this, but unless you are Manny Pacquiao, it is not going to work against an oponent

Try and see a person, not a bag, move and pick shots that maximise impact based on the relationship between you and the bag at that moment, bob, weave, get your chin behind your shoulder, expecting the bag to punch back, and switch ranges and targets from head to body as dictated by how you read the motion of the bag. Use this to create a rythm of crisp focused combinations of no more than 6 consecutive punches (unlikely to be able to throw more than this uninterupted against even the poorest of oponents).

This will help prepare you for more structured training in the future

Here's my opinion of the workout;


Firstly, you're not using your back for power. Punching is always about torguing the body. This means you're not twisting those hips, that upper body and most of all your feets are planted like a tree in the ground.

Mostly arm punches...


Secondly, you keep dropping your hands every now and then. I see what you were doing there... To fake a punch, you need to telegraph it! Bend those knees, lean forward with the lead hand, extend the arm but bend the elbows so your hand goes down.

A good fake is one that let's you economically set you up for another strike i.e. fake a lead to a cross.

Thirdly, keep hands up?

Fourthly, You're not stepping in with the punches. You're just not generating enough power by standing still. When you jab, you need to step in. When you punch, you step in. Period.

Fifth and last, if you're going to punch to the lower upper body, you need to drop level to punch. Only punch at eye level. If you're going to punch the chest, you're going to need to bend your knees so you drop a level down, then push with the rear leg and deliver the punch.


My advice;
Get the instruction from a qualified instructor before proceeding. You may just injure your hands if you keep doing this.

Who said boxing's easy?

-Donnie out

thanks for all the feed back and advice guys

ill post a more accurate video of how i fight soon,

not bad mate,i'd just say work on getting maximum range with your jab and twist a bit more with the back hand also think of literally breaking it as you hit it rather than pushing/punching behind the bag.

also you as has been said you were dropping your hands as the punches came back (while you were still in range)

it was a little bit frenzied; get in range get your combo off get out of range then steady the bag,

not bad though i think some partner work would help you a lot

oh and try to drop your body down to hit the body rather than punching downwards especially while the bags swinging so erratically your likely to hurt your hands or wrists otherwise

Keep hands up when you get deep into a combination. a hook will be a nasty surprise if you keep dropping your hands. Maybe plant your feet for more power as well. Try adding in avoidance with your combinations. AKA imagine slipping a punch, then counter it with a body hook.

Everytime you cross punch you stick your head forward. If your opponent notices they will just sway your cross and nail you with a hook. Also watch your double punching (when you have both arms extended at the same time. don't do another punch until your first punch has come back to your head

Not bad. Try to attack the cnterline. The imaginary line that travels vertically through the center of your opponent. This is always the best option when available. Also try to even your weight. You looked heavy on the front leg.

Looks like your energy is good.
A few points to ponder;
1)You are a counterpunchers dream opponent with the way you leave your head unprotected.
2)Not many hooks to the head. Might want to work some in there.
3)The constant swinging of the bag tells me that you are push-punching instead of snapping your punches.
A proper snapping punch will cause the heavybag to shake rather than swing wildly.
Push-punching will tire you quickly in a real match, and if you miss with a push-punch, you'll be off balance and wide open for a counter.
Practice throwing more punches from shoulder level, then comong back to guard quickly. Also practice snapping your punches. It'll feel weird at first because you'll have to use less power until you get the hang of it, but when you do, you'll be able to punch harder and throw faster combos without getting as winded.

Number 3) is a good point. Never thought of it that way. Thank you.

My boxing trainer refers to it as giving the heavybag a seizure.
It should shake while staying in one place. The more violent the shaking, the better. That's how you know you are snapping your punches properly.