If you could only pick one to train with at home (you know- say if you were a poor college student), what would it be and why?
Honestly, the two most important things are free- shadowboxing and running.
When you shadowbox, especially in a mirror, it’s the closet thing besides sparring to a real fight. You’ll develop your rhythm, your pace, your combos, and your hand speed while slipping and moving. If you have to do one thing, it’s this.
Running is the other one, and it’s free too. All the skills in the world don’t mean shit if you can’t keep it up.
Now, if you have the option of one other thing, go for the heavy bag. That will let you learn distance, range, and develop power.
What Irish Said
Speed bag to me would be the last thing I would buy. Least important overall and will really, really piss off anyone in earshot.
[quote]Cockney Blue wrote:
What Irish Said
Speed bag to me would be the last thing I would buy. Least important overall and will really, really piss off anyone in earshot.[/quote]
Hahha. Well a heavy bag won’t make you any friends either, especially when the house/apartment is shaking when you’re hitting it.
Good advice guys, lol @ pissing people off.
I know someone who’s selling some gently used boxing stuff for cheap, but I still want to budget.
Thanks for the responses. Keep em comin!
A speedbag is very low on the priority list, heavy bag all the way.
yup, i’m going with the other guys on the heavy bag. a cheap mirror would be nice for shadowboxing, too.
down the road if you scrape together the money, you might want to look at a double end bag instead of the speed bag, but i don’t think it’s neccessarily essential.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Cockney Blue wrote:
What Irish Said
Speed bag to me would be the last thing I would buy. Least important overall and will really, really piss off anyone in earshot.
Hahha. Well a heavy bag won’t make you any friends either, especially when the house/apartment is shaking when you’re hitting it. [/quote]
Very true. I was staying in a very nice hotel in Manila a few weeks back and the guys in the hotel gym kindly hung a heavy bag for me to train. (there was a proper hook set up in the roof for it)
I kicked it a couple of times and a load of plaster started dropping off the ceiling. Figured I had best stick to just boxing for the rest of my stay. The hotel staff were way too polite to mention anything but you could see them wincing.
Wavemaster XXL Freestanding HeavyBag. the base weighs 275-300lbs when filled meaning when you building up some serious strength through constant training you should be able to offset someone’s balance in that weight range or lower. you can always practice other striking martial arts on it like karate/muay thai and even wing chun by adding an attachment.
i actually have the bag. i picked it up on craigslist for $125 even though its listed $300 retail. also saw another one online last week that i’m getting for my brother for $150.
There are a multitude of reasons why you should choose a heavybag over anything else. you actually have to hit something to know much force you need to apply. you can’t get that from air or a speedbag. next best thing after getting a heavybag that won’t fly all over the place when you strike is a full sized mirror. will set you back another $100 but its worth it for technique correction and flawless shadow boxing skills.
Ehh my experience with a wave master is none too good. Theres really no resistance in hitting something at the top when all its weight is at the bottom. I’d just get a true bag stand and heavy bag if I were you.
Agreed, I don’t like the wavemaster style bags though in certain properties it might be the only option.
Another option…a double end bag which is great to develop speed and timing, but it really depends on what you need to work on.
yeah standard wavemasters are in truth crappy. i’ve used the xxl for some time. heard so-so reviews on the newer model but the one i have is pretty straight for getting it done at home. used 150lb heavybags and had them flying all over the place. it made tons of noise which isn’t good for me because i live in a apartment complex. but it really does depend on the amount of space you have and what you need to improve on with what bag you choose.
I’ve never ever placed any priority on the speed bag. Out of all the tools in the boxing club I train at, I think it’s the most useless. Talk about speed and crap all you want, but I rarely use the speed bag and I’ve got some of the fastest hands in my club.
Personally if you only had the money for one “bag”/“ball” tool, get a ceiling to floor ball or a slip ball, these are great for developing reaction time and getting your accuracy going, especially the ceiling to floor.
As for the heavy bag, personally, I as far as skill and technique goes, I don’t think the heavy bag is of much help at all. It’s a great, nay, PERFECT tool for conditioning and power, but it doesn’t hit back.
I would find a friend who wants to box and work the mitts. Shadow box, mitts, and sparring.
[quote]Aussie Davo wrote:
I’ve never ever placed any priority on the speed bag. Out of all the tools in the boxing club I train at, I think it’s the most useless. Talk about speed and crap all you want, but I rarely use the speed bag and I’ve got some of the fastest hands in my club.
Personally if you only had the money for one “bag”/“ball” tool, get a ceiling to floor ball or a slip ball, these are great for developing reaction time and getting your accuracy going, especially the ceiling to floor.
As for the heavy bag, personally, I as far as skill and technique goes, I don’t think the heavy bag is of much help at all. It’s a great, nay, PERFECT tool for conditioning and power, but it doesn’t hit back.[/quote]
Absolutely agree with the speed bag part… aside from the coolness factor I can’t figure out what it’s for besides rhythm.
However, I still think that the conditioning/power part that the heavy bag develops goes just fine with the speed/combos/footwork that shadowboxing develops. Double end bag definitely has a place, but I wouldn’t take that over the heavy bag.
[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
Aussie Davo wrote:
I’ve never ever placed any priority on the speed bag. Out of all the tools in the boxing club I train at, I think it’s the most useless. Talk about speed and crap all you want, but I rarely use the speed bag and I’ve got some of the fastest hands in my club.
Personally if you only had the money for one “bag”/“ball” tool, get a ceiling to floor ball or a slip ball, these are great for developing reaction time and getting your accuracy going, especially the ceiling to floor.
As for the heavy bag, personally, I as far as skill and technique goes, I don’t think the heavy bag is of much help at all. It’s a great, nay, PERFECT tool for conditioning and power, but it doesn’t hit back.
Absolutely agree with the speed bag part… aside from the coolness factor I can’t figure out what it’s for besides rhythm.
However, I still think that the conditioning/power part that the heavy bag develops goes just fine with the speed/combos/footwork that shadowboxing develops. Double end bag definitely has a place, but I wouldn’t take that over the heavy bag.[/quote]
Other than the cool factor I think it is good for getting the muscles to keep your hands up and it works your timing. Agreed that the floor to ceiling would be way ahead of the speed bag in things to buy. The other piece of equipment I love is the uppercut and hook thing that bolts onto a wall.
[quote]titopuente wrote:
I would find a friend who wants to box and work the mitts. Shadow box, mitts, and sparring.[/quote]
Focus mitts would get my vote as well, provided that you had someone who knew how to hold them correctly and you knew enough to use them effectively.
Then, it would kind of depend on what attributes you needed to work on most.
If conditioning and power were what needed the most work, I’d say go with the heavy bag.
If timing, accuracy and speed were the most important, I’d say go with the top and bottom/double end bag.
If coordination and shoulder endurance were what needed the most work, go with the speed bag.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
titopuente wrote:
I would find a friend who wants to box and work the mitts. Shadow box, mitts, and sparring.
Focus mitts would get my vote as well, provided that you had someone who knew how to hold them correctly and you knew enough to use them effectively.
Then, it would kind of depend on what attributes you needed to work on most.
If conditioning and power were what needed the most work, I’d say go with the heavy bag.
If timing, accuracy and speed were the most important, I’d say go with the top and bottom/double end bag.
If coordination and shoulder endurance were what needed the most work, go with the speed bag.[/quote]
The mitts are one of the best things out there, but I assumed he didn’t have anyone that knew how to hold them.
shadow boxing is where it’s at - you can’t go wrong w/ it
even just working on the footwork is something great to work on
heavy bag would be 2nd choice as well - maybe like a muay thai dummy hanging up so i can practice clinchin 