Increasing Speed and Power

Speed and power come with practice and more practice. But, a good thing to practice are sprints on the heavy bag. This works best with a partner to hold the bag while you're hitting it, but you can probably make do by yourself. Based on 3 minute rounds, 1 minute rest in between sets, do 4 sets of this and then work up as required to increase endurance and intensity: 1. Heavy Bag Sprints - Head shots/speed - The whole point of this is to let your punches fly as fast as you can and not worry so much about technique. Easiest way to do it is to square off in front of the heavy bag, lean forward slightly, pick your target. Have your partner hold the bag and then for the next 30 seconds, hit the target as many times as you can. After the 30 sec, your partner hits the bag while you hold - repeat until the end of the round. 2. Heavy Bag Sprints - Body shots/power - Whole point of this is to increase the power in your punches. Again, square off more or less in front of the bag. Partner holds the bag and you deliver left and right hooks to the body. Really swivel your hips and throw everything you have into the punch. Try and really move the bag despite it being held by your partner. Again, 30 seconds of power shots, hold the bag while your partner throws, followed by another 30 sec, etc... until end of the round. 3. Heavy Bag Sprints - Body shots/speed - Same as 1 above but deliver the shots to the body. 4. Heavy Bag Sprints - Head shots/power - Same as 2 above but you are delivering left/right hooks to the head - as hard as you possibly can. Only rest 1 minute between rounds. This will increase endurance, speed and power over time, but like anything, it will take a little while. When doing anything, focus hard on what you are trying to accomplish and the rest will take care of itself.