How to Hit the Heavy Bag? [Like a Pro]

The punching bag is a great tool to have in your training arsenal if you want to stay fit and develop strength in your muscle region or you want to work on your jabs, hooks, and uppercuts.

No matter what your aim is with the heavy bag, whether for fun or you have a big fight ahead of you, or probably you want to master your footwork, it’s essential to know how to adhere to the proper technique of hitting the bag correctly.

In this guide, you will learn the most important things to pay attention to so that the next time you hit the bag, you’ll look like a seasoned veteran.

So, here we go…

How to Hit a Punching Bag the Right Way?

Set A Goal

First things first, you need to set a goal and have a timer by your side so you can determine for how long you’re going to train. A good rule of thumb to follow is the three-minute rounds with a one-minute rest, and you do that for five straight rounds.

This way, you have 5 minutes of recovery time and 15 minutes of working out which total a 20 minutes intense workout. However, you can intentionally increase or decrease the timing to whatever you’ll like it to be.

Focus On The Bag

Also, make sure you don’t make the same mistake that is common with beginners, and that is, not focusing on the bag or in some cases focusing too rigidly on it. The thing is when you are learning to hit the bag, its best not to see the entire bag as you will see your opponent.

This way you can follow your blows with your eyes.

Don’t Push The Bag

Punch the bag with your knuckles and do not push the bag. When you’re doing so, make sure you throw the punches as fast and make sure it bounces back off the bag so that your wrist does not absorb the full impact.

You will get a good result when you focus your punches at the center of the bag and while you’re doing this imagine your arm going through the bag but when you push the bag your arm gets tired quicker.

The Balance Act

To stay balance, you need to throw your punch at the bag and not the other way round. You need to stand on your two feet because when you keep your balance, it puts you in a better position to punch way better and helps your footwork around the heavy bag.

Throwing yourself at the bag or using the bag to hold up or in worse scenarios, pushing it with your shoulder is a bad habit. This will allow a skilled fighter to move you off balance. When you push the bag with either your hands, shoulder or head, it makes you fall forward, and you are likely to get hit by an uppercut in a real fight.

While doing this also make sure your shoulder comes up high enough to protect your chin and make sure the elbow does not flare out to the side but stay in close when you jab the bag in a straight punch.

Footwork

Gaining control of the bag also requires good footwork. Stepping backward, forward, moving side to side or going in a circular motion are all essential techniques of hitting the bag, especially when the bag is in motion.

Although these steppings require you to conditioning your body, it is nevertheless an easy task.

To hit the bag correctly, you need to have your knee slightly bent to give a firm base position and this pose helps your feet, calves, and quads to remain active for a more extended period.

Footwork does not necessarily mean to keep your feet on the ground as you train, it’s more of being able to duke and move about and its not about jumping either. The common mistake you see many people make is to jump around when training with the heavy bag and this will make you waste lots of energy and give you less grounded stance which will lead to less punching power and less body movement.

Keep Your Guard Up

You also need to keep on punching the bag even when you are fatigued. If you have been in close contact with a boxer during training time, you will notice that they are always on the move to hit the bag until their rest time which is about 2-3 seconds, and they start all over again after the rest.

If you are in a real fight, you won’t have time to rest, and as soon as you stopped throwing your punches, your opponent will take advantage and start hitting you back. So you need to keep your guard up by hitting the bag, but it is not necessary to hit with full power all the time.

Breath Control

Also, breath control is very important when hitting the bag. The heavy bag training is quite similar to that of running because a lot depends on your ability to hold and release your breath at the right time.

Most experience MMA fighter or boxers will tell you that you breathe out when you throw a punch and that is an essential part of the training.

In conclusion

Hitting a heavy bag is not as difficult as many people lead you to believe, all you need to succeed with your heavy bag workout is the way you hit the bag, your breath control and your footwork around the bag. Doing these will definitely turn you into a pro in no time.