Boxing Bag Drills

Basic boxing training requires workouts on punching bags, including the heavy bag, speed bag and double-end bag. There are many drills you can do to increase strength, agility and endurance on these bags. Bag drills are standard for professional boxers, but they can also be help muscle tone and weight loss for amateurs. When doing drills, make sure your hands are wrapped correctly and that you wear thick boxing gloves when hitting the heavy bag and double-end bag.

  1. Standard Heavy Bag Drills

    • Do a standard heavy bag drill to warm up. Hit the bag continually for straight 3 minutes (a simulated boxing round round). A good warm-up is four 3-minute rounds with the bag, mixing jabs, crosses, hooks and uppercuts, honing your form. Take 1 minute breaks in between. When jabbing, push off with your back foot (the opposite foot) and punch directly straight ahead. Get your whole body going forward in sync. This will maximize the power of the punch. To cross, shift your body to the strong side and punch and push off with the opposite foot. Do the same weight shift for body punches and uppercuts.

    Punch-Out Drills on the Heavy Bag

    • Do punch-out drills to develop the ability to throw many hard punches in quick, successive bursts. This skill, to throw punches quickly without letting up, is essential for a boxer. Do four sets of 30-second punch-out drills, which include alternating jab-cross, jab-cross, jab-cross, as quick and hard as you can, nonstop, for 30 seconds. Take 30- to 45-second breaks in between the sets.

    Power Punching Drills

    • Punch a heavy bag with power punches (hook, cross, uppercut) with an emphasis on maximum power, for sets of 60 to 90 seconds. This will strengthen the knockout punches. Do four sets of these, with 30 to 60 seconds in between.

    Hitting the Speed Bag

    • Do speed bag drills to develop rhythm and coordination. Wrap your hands, but don't wear gloves for speed bag drills. You can hit the speed bag with the side of your hands or with your knuckles. Use a circular, consistent and loose motion. Keep your hands close to the speed bag when doing the drills. If you pull back too far, it will mess with your timing. Start slowly with one arm. The bag should hit the ceiling once back, once forward, and once back, for a total of three hits, before you hit again as the bag comes towards you. Keep the waltz rhythm, 1-2-3 1-2-3, in your head, slow enough for you to repeat. Keep the bag going with one hand, then the other, then alternate. Once you're comfortable with the rhythm, increase speed, eventually hitting the bag on every return.

    Double-End Bag Drills

    • Do double-end bag drills to most closely practice punching and dodging as a competitor would in the ring against a live opponent. The double-end bag hangs suspended, taught between a rope that attaches to both the ceiling and floor. Practice jabbing at first to get a rhythm for the bag's return, like the speed bag, counting 1-2-3, 1-2-3, before upping the speed to where you can hit the speed bag on every return. Practice alternating jabs and crosses. Next, practice punching and dodging the bag as it comes back to you. Do this in various combinations of punching and dodging for a good double-end bag workout.