How to throw your punches with speed that cause damage?

Stop pushing with your punches and start throwing them with speed and snap.

You need to develop the striking WHIP.

In this post I will give 4 specific drills to help you develop this killer whip effect in your strikes.

The Breakdown

Principles for Developing Unbelievable Punch Speed

Make sure you check out this post on principles for developing punch speed. It'll help you when you begin these drills.

Understanding Different Speeds During Drilling

There are 3 different speeds you will drill with during shadow boxing, pad work, bag work and sparring: slow, flow and fast.

• Slow: you throw very slow at snail pace and often leaving your strikes out there to check body mechanics. Every strike is thrown slow to make your body used to the movement.
• Flow: you throw with various speed but no snap, whip or power. You just flow through the movement to train your muscle memory.
• Fast: you throw all punches with various speed, snap, whip and power as if you are sparring or fighting.

The slow and flow is used for technique and body mechanics drilling.

The speed, snap and whip is developed in the fast drilling.

Drill #1: Towel Snap

As mentioned in the principles of speed post, to generate the whip effect you have to think of snapping a towel and being able to cause a stinging effect with the tip end of the towel.

Do this with an actual towel to understand how to snap your hand to get the whipping effect.

Take a towel and snap the end of it on a punching bag. Deliver it with speed and snap - you will hear very specific sound to confirm the whip.

Do a few of these until you can generate the towel whip consistently. Then drop the towel and start throwing your punches that way.

Remember, this drill is not to show you the mechanics of the punch, but they are the mechanics to show you the whip.

Drill #2: Double End Tennis Ball

Second drill is to use a double end reflex ball. This is a simple tennis ball, tied to the top and bottom with an elastic band.

See this post if you want to make one yourself: Train Timing, Precision, Speed - How to Build You Own Double-End Reflex Ball.

This is a great tool to use for timing and accuracy but also for developing your punch speed, snap and whip.

Punching double end reflex ball forces you to hit with speed. You can't push it, you can't half-ass it. You have to snap your punches if you want to successfully move the ball, especially on the follow up strikes.

When you land just right on the reflex ball, you will hear a satisfying thud sound. This is what you are looking for.

Start with single strikes at first: jabs, crosses, hooks and even uppercuts. Then you can put multiple punches when you begin to develop the speed, snap and whip.

Developing the speed and snap is extremely important in this drill. Otherwise your punches won't have the whip effect required to make the thud sound on the tennis ball.

Drill #3: Paper

This drill is a bit esoteric. I have not seen anybody use it. I got this from an old Bruce Lee book where he mentioned if you hang a piece of paper and punch it, it'll help to develop the snap of your strikes.

Take a piece of paper and hang it from the ceiling or pull-up bar. Start punching the paper with speed, snapping your punches. You should hear a loud sound when a punch lands just right.

Drill with a jabs and crosses.

Drill #4: Punching Bag

Last drill in the series is to put everything on the punching bag.

A lot of bad habits are developed on the punching bag because most are not using the speed, snap and whip to deliver their strikes. They push the bag instead.

But if you started to drill the first 3 drills, you then apply the same snap and speed mechanics on the punching bag.

You also need to punch through the bag, not at the bag. Very important to drive through. But you have to do it with speed and snap of your strikes. Don't leave your punches stuck on the bag. Retract the punch bag as soon as you make a connection.

Implement These Drills Into Your Training

The speed, the snap and the whip has to be trained to the point of automatic execution. You have to be fast with your strikes and these 4 drills will help you get there. Now take these 4 drills and begin to implement the principles and mechancis with "Fundamental Four" strikes covered in the course.