Learn how to do anything: How to Improve Punching Speed

Boxing takes a lot of physical and mental stamina, and in the ring, every second matters. There's nothing like a quick, streamlined punch to keep you ahead of the game. Combine your strength, speed, and skills, and you too can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!

EditSteps

EditStrengthening Your Muscles

Strengthen your lower body by jumping, cycling, or squatting. Grab a jump rope to use, or do jumping jacks. Try cycling with either a stationary bike or a bicycle. Add weights to your squats for an extra challenge. Your lower body is essentially a foundation for power, so develop and strengthen your quads and hamstrings.^[1]
Punch through water or sandbags to increase your strength. While in a pool, make the water your target and punch straight ahead. The water adds resistance against your punch, similar to the way a resistance band works. Punch repetitively, consistently, and gently, to nail the punching motion. This technique will help build "muscle memory" for the punching motion while strengthening your muscles.
- You can use a sandbag as a substitution.
Enhance your rotational movements by doing core exercises like sit ups and push ups. Strengthen your upper body with core exercises in order to better deliver your punch and improve speed. Also try moving your muscles in this rotational movement by swinging a baseball bat or a golf club like you would a punch. ^[2]

EditIncreasing Your Speed

Stretch to relax your body and maximize punch speed. Any tension in your body will slow down your punch speed. Take deep breaths, loosen your shoulders, and stretch to relieve muscle tension. The more relaxed your muscles are, the greater potential you have to move at maximum speed.
- Only tighten your fist at the moment of impact.
- Keep your biceps and shoulders loose until right before the punch.^[3]
Breathe deeply to clear your mind before you make your punch. Take deep breaths. Fill your lungs fully and release your breath entirely to release any tension in your mind or body. Taking deep breaths eliminates mental distractions. This will help you stay clear and focused on your punch.
- Do this meditative exercise for a few minutes before you fight or work out.
- Don’t think about winning or losing, be present in the moment, and think of speed. ^[4]
Breathe quickly to increase the speed of your punch. Experiment with your punching speed by slowing down and speeding up your breath. You will quickly find that if you breathe slowly, you can’t punch as quickly. This is because quick movements stem from quick breaths. Aim to have quick and repetitive breaths, inhaling before you punch and exhaling after you throw your punch. ^[5]
Try punching exercises like “shadowboxing” to build up punching speed. While focusing on your breath, practice punching as much as you can. Your speed will improve the more you practice. Use the “shadowboxing” technique, where you move around yourself throwing punches at the air.
- The fastest punch is delivered with the greatest amount of force within the smallest amount of time.
- Master the punching movement in the shortest amount of time to deliver the fastest punch possible. ^[6]

EditExercising with Training Tools

Use weighted gloves with punching exercises to increase your speed. Weighted gloves add weight to the back of your hands, making them ideal for punching exercises. The weight is kept in place for moves like upper-cuts, hooks, and jabs.
- Weighted gloves help keep your hand in a fixed position, good to help practice punching quickly.
- The extra weight helps you get used to making the punching motion with more weight so when you take the gloves off, it is easier to perform the move quickly.^[7]
Try wrist weights to increase your strength. Wrist weights are a type of hand weight attached to the wrist with Velcro straps to give an even distribution of weight. Put the wrist weights on your wrists and do your workout as usual, focusing on punching exercises. After you take them off, it will take much less force for you to punch, making the act of punching feel like less work.
- Improving strength in turn helps increase punching speed.
- Wrist weights are similar to weighted gloves, but the weight in these is distributed on the wrist rather than the back of the hand.^[8]
Hit a speed bag to practice punching quickly. Speed bags help improve hand-eye coordination and proper timing. The goal is to decrease the size of your circles, as smaller circles result in faster punches.
- Keep your hands close to the speed bag, and hit the bag in small circular movements. Your hand should make a small circle in the air.
- Hit the speed bag in a right-right, left-left rhythm--twice with your right hand then twice with your left. Repeat this, increasing speed as you get more comfortable. ^[9]
Practice hitting a double-end bag to increase hand-eye coordination. Double-end bags improve your punching technique as well as speed. The goal is to hit the bag fast and accurately, until it becomes second nature. This improves your mental reflexes.
- Start off by hitting the bag with one or two punch combinations until you get a good sense of timing. Once this feels comfortable, throw a jab or other combination of punch. ^[10]
Use resistance bands to build your muscle strength. Resistance bands are elastic ropes used to strengthen muscles by working with resistance. You can use resistance bands in many different exercises. Strengthening the arm muscles helps create a more fluid range of motion while punching, which increases speed over time.
- Place one foot on the middle of the elastic part of the band, grasp the hand strap, and curl your arm in an upwards motion, like you would for a bicep curl. This motion will help strengthen your biceps muscles. ^[11]