How to Increase Hand Speed in Boxing

Boxing enthusiasts will often marvel at how fast their favourite fighters can deliver a jab. Whether they know why some boxers are faster than others is not known. Whether it is the most important skill in boxing or not, it is always the power punches that tend to grab the headlines.

From Deontay Wilder’s windmill style to hard-hitting George Foreman, people love a powerful punch. The truth is that boxing hand speed, over powerful punches, is the secret to boxing wins.

In fact, it matters so much that you should be interested in how to increase hand speed in boxing if you are serious about winning. Fast hands in boxing mean that it is not about how hard you can hit, but rather how many blows you can deliver.

As you know, fighters are constantly on the move and on their guard, which means that when there is an opening they need to be quick and maintain balance to land a blow. If that sounds like something you want to be able to do, you will need fast hands in boxing. One of the best ways to learn about boxing hand speed drills is with a private boxing coach from Superprof.

In the meantime, in this article, you will find out how to improve boxing hand speed.

The Origins of Boxing Hand Speed

Not many people have given much thought to how the movement originated. How do our brains signal our muscles to move?

Firstly, your brain needs to perceive your intention to walk, process it and send the corresponding signals to your legs, hips and core. Once all the physical factors have been coordinated by your brain, will you be ready to take that step? Of course, this all happens at high speed.

Like any other movement, your brain must first acknowledge it and then send the signal to make it happen. It is the same in boxing, hand speed begins in the head and ends with the punch you want to deliver.

For example, if you want to deliver the hardest punch possible, your brain will need to gear your muscles up first. On the other hand, if speed is your aim, your brain will send signals to your biceps and shoulders. So if you want to know how to increase hand speed in boxing, let go of thoughts of punching hard so that your brain does not get confused by mixed signals.

Boxing hand speed depends on unclenched muscles, a loose core, lowered shoulders and loose fists. In your boxing hand speed drills, you will learn how to do this as well as how to follow up with a few focused breaths and quick jabs.

Once you start doing this you will feel a difference in the way that your body moves as well as your boxing hand speed.

In short, the more training and boxing hand drills that you do, the more you will develop the neural pathways needed to execute faster and better sequences. Over time, your muscle memory will also develop training your brain to set up your body for fast hands in boxing. And once you have those fast hands in boxing, you can start working on footwork drills.

Working the Bags

For developing fast hands in boxing, you’ll need the two bags that you already know about, a heavy bag and a speed bag. But do you know about the reflex bag and the double-end bag?

ou might have played with a toy that is similar to the reflex bag when you were a child. The plastic figure has a weighted bottom that when punched will immediately pop back up.

The double-end bag is a ball that has two elastic bands protruding from each of its sides. One elastic is mounted overhead while the other is anchored to the floor. This bag functions in a similar way to the reflex bag, but only with less motion.

The purpose of these bags is to mimic the reactions of your future opponents in that they will never strike back at you from the same place.

When the reflex bag shoots back up, you will notice that it doesn’t follow the same trajectory as its downward travel. Also, in the same way, that snooker balls travel according to their point of impact, a reflex bag will do the same, depending on where it is hit.

To develop fast hands in boxing, a speed bag, double bag and reflex bag will be integral to reacting to your hits in unexpected ways.

Try to familiarise yourself with their actions by starting slow.

Hit the bag and watch its reaction to you. This observation will tell you a lot about how you hit it. As you advance, you should be able to predict how the bag will respond to your punch and position yourself according. Remember that winning fights means that you will need to anticipate what your target is going to do. If you want to know how to increase hand speed in boxing as well as all the other skills you need to develop, private boxing lessons are the answer.

Boxing Hand Speed Drills with a Heavy Bag 

Compared to the graceful and quick actions of the other three bags working with a heavy bag can feel rather clunky. That’s ok, a heavy bag is more an endurance builder and not for boxing hand speed drills.

Try setting a timer for three minutes (the same length as a boxing round) and then with a coach or partner, punch the bag for 15 seconds as fast as you can. Take a 15-second break and try again. Keep going until your buzzer sounds.

Punching Thin Air

Before you think shadow boxing is goofy, think again. This practice, often seen in movies, is not as cheesy as you may think. In fact, the benefits of shadow boxing are numerous to your progress as a fighter.

Punching into thin air with no target or opponent to hit will help you learn how to develop important muscle memory. With only your own movements to focus on, you are free to punch as fast as you like and wherever you like. If you want to know how to improve boxing hand speed, this is an important practice to integrate into your boxing training.

Lightning-Fast Reactions

As a fighter, you need lightning-fast reactions. These are stabilised by sound footwork, but if you want to know how to improve boxing hand speed, you will need to concentrate on your boxing hand speed drills to accomplish this too.

As you continue your training, you will learn proper techniques and build the muscle memory that you need for endurance in boxing. As a result, you will find that your physical reactions to the unexpected become improved.

Think back to those great boxing films where a fighter is striking a speed ball or working with a heavy bag. Those are certainly standard representations of all that boxing can entail but remember that there is much more to it all than that. There is a high degree of predictability when it comes to boxing training, whereas an opponent in a ring is far from that.

As you dedicate yourself to your boxing training, always remember that honing your reaction times in everything you do will be crucial to your time in the ring.

Everything in boxing is about the speed of your reaction times. This is hard to achieve on your own. Even if you are learning boxing at home, it is always good to work with a partner or coach. A coach will teach you how to respond to random interruptions that could come from any direction by providing you with unexpected stimuli.

Your coach will help to surprise you with unexpected stimuli.  In some ways, this kind of training is not dissimilar to police training where trainees need to make split-second decisions on whether to shoot or not.

Finally, like anything in life, training to become a good fighter will take dedication and endurance. If you are serious about learning how to improve boxing hand speed, as well as all the other necessary skills you will need, find a good boxing coach near you.

If you go to Superprof, you could use the website’s location tool to try and find someone who is near to you. In many cases, coaches will offer their first lesson for free which is a good way to find out if they will suit both your personality and boxing objectives.