What are your preferred methods of training speed?

[JowGaWolf]

I swing a tennis ball from the ceiling and I use 2 exercises. One striking the tennis ball and the other hitting in between the gaps.
If I hit the ball too hard then it will bee too easy. So I have to learn to hit not with power but with speed.

Everything is a process. You can see it here. First I learn to hit soft but relaxed. The goal is not to hit slow but to hit with a gentle flow. If I hit the ball too hard then it swings too high which gives me more time to strike for each swing. The only way I reduce the time between swings is to make the ball swing very little. The other goal is knuckle placement. I want to make sure I hit the ball with my knuckle and not the back of the hand. This exercise also teaches me how to drive the poer into a certain direction.. Too much power the ball goes forward too mch. So what you are seeing in this video is me using down ward strikes. I'm hitting the ball at an angle.

You have to be fast and accurate to hit the ball, but you have to be faster to hit the gaps.. My back hand keeps the ball swinging.. You can see that I sometimes hit the ball too hard which gives me more time to swing.

In this video my clearing hand and my power strike hits the gaps while my back hand hits the ball.. I had another video that I though I had posted, but it shows me not only hitting through gaps but moving through gaps of swing objects.. I'll see if I can find that video for you.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Hitting the gaps of a swinging tennis ball is like punching the opening in someone's defense.. You see an opening then you go for it.

 

[Alan0354]

I swing a tennis ball from the ceiling and I use 2 exercises. One striking the tennis ball and the other hitting in between the gaps.
If I hit the ball too hard then it will bee too easy. So I have to learn to hit not with power but with speed.

Everything is a process. You can see it here. First I learn to hit soft but relaxed. The goal is not to hit slow but to hit with a gentle flow. If I hit the ball too hard then it swings too high which gives me more time to strike for each swing. The only way I reduce the time between swings is to make the ball swing very little. The other goal is knuckle placement. I want to make sure I hit the ball with my knuckle and not the back of the hand. This exercise also teaches me how to drive the poer into a certain direction.. Too much power the ball goes forward too mch. So what you are seeing in this video is me using down ward strikes. I'm hitting the ball at an angle.

You have to be fast and accurate to hit the ball, but you have to be faster to hit the gaps.. My back hand keeps the ball swinging.. You can see that I sometimes hit the ball too hard which gives me more time to swing.

In this video my clearing hand and my power strike hits the gaps while my back hand hits the ball.. I had another video that I though I had posted, but it shows me not only hitting through gaps but moving through gaps of swing objects.. I'll see if I can find that video for you.

I did not practice with a ball like you, but I did follow your advice of do it slow, check my form, how my feet, waist and shoulder move by taking the time to move slowly when hitting the heavy bag. It's very helpful, helping me to remember how I got started, work out slowly and increase the speed and power as I got better.

I still start light and gentle on my first two minutes on heavy bag just to go through and check the motion. Same thing as cane fight, always do a slow session and check the movement.

I have you to thank for this. Never realize my forms got so sloppy through the years, this is a good way to get the form back.


This and the casting learning from Lamont Glass ( aka Blindside) here are the two important I learn joining the forum. Still working on the low stands moving around. Still need time to see the benefit. But it is helping my balance, knee pain and all that. Give me another two months and see. I am glad I join this forum.

 

[bill miller]

Hitting the gaps of a swinging tennis ball is like punching the opening in someone's defense.. You see an opening then you go for it.

That looks almost like a speed bag drill, except much difficult. I can see the precision required to do this on a small, moving object.

 

[Alan0354]

That looks almost like a speed bag drill, except much difficult. I can see the precision required to do this on a small, moving object.

Much better than speedbag. I practice speed bag for a while, I don't find it helpful. I was not bad in it, I had to use the smallest size(fastest) already, it's only about rhythm, nothing about speed or anything. You learn to time it right.

I took down the speed bad, deflate it, put two of the 2lbs weight balls in it and tape it to something looks like GowgaWolf's ball and hit with cane or punch. It doesn't bounce that well and no pattern of bouncing, just random movement so I can learn to focus in hitting and learn not to get thrown off balance if I miss.

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

There's also two different skills between doing each technique fast and doing consecutive techniques fast.

Many years ago someone claimed that he could throw 6 punches within 1 second. That's 1/6 second per punch. I believe that should be the maximum speed for human being.

In one challenge fight, that guy got knock down within 8 seconds. His punching speed did not save him from losing that fight.

 

[Oily Dragon]

Hitting the gaps of a swinging tennis ball is like punching the opening in someone's defense.. You see an opening then you go for it.

Yes.

It's like rolling a golf ball underneath the soles of your feet.

Helps prevent planar fasciitis, improve foot strength, and lower blood pressure.

 

[Damien]

Smooth technique, potentially different technique, practicing being fast with your movements (it's been proven that thinking punch fast makes you faster and more powerful than thinking punch hard) etc. all help, but one of the biggest factors is your mental speed. How quickly can you detect an opportunity, process what to do and then act; essentially your reaction speed.

The swinging tennis ball is a classic drill which is great, but because you can see it swinging back and forth there's some degree of anticipation possible.

Another way to try this is to set up something above a punching bag, around your eye line which you can respond to when its status changes. This could be a randomly flashing light for example. I've used my phone strapped to a bag and just waited for the screen to switch off before. The downside of that is that you spend a lot of time standing around! Something which switches on and off with no interaction would be better. I'm sure a cheap LED light would do the trick.

One of the great advantages of this is that you can film yourself (a lot of phones have a slow mo video mode these days) and you can see what your reaction time is. Keep training trying to respond to a stimulus quickly and that time between stimulus and action will reduce. You should be able to see this in your videos; the time between the light changing and you initiating the punch (or kick etc.) should reduce.

I made a video a while back specifically about jab speed and used this technique to demonstrate the differences in speed of different techniques.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Smooth technique, potentially different technique, practicing being fast with your movements (it's been proven that thinking punch fast makes you faster and more powerful than thinking punch hard) etc. all help, but one of the biggest factors is your mental speed. How quickly can you detect an opportunity, process what to do and then act; essentially your reaction speed.

The swinging tennis ball is a classic drill which is great, but because you can see it swinging back and forth there's some degree of anticipation possible.

Another way to try this is to set up something above a punching bag, around your eye line which you can respond to when its status changes. This could be a randomly flashing light for example. I've used my phone strapped to a bag and just waited for the screen to switch off before. The downside of that is that you spend a lot of time standing around! Something which switches on and off with no interaction would be better. I'm sure a cheap LED light would do the trick.

One of the great advantages of this is that you can film yourself (a lot of phones have a slow mo video mode these days) and you can see what your reaction time is. Keep training trying to respond to a stimulus quickly and that time between stimulus and action will reduce. You should be able to see this in your videos; the time between the light changing and you initiating the punch (or kick etc.) should reduce.

I made a video a while back specifically about jab speed and used this technique to demonstrate the differences in speed of different techniques.

Reaction Time is a good point and a difficult thing to train solo because it's stimulus specific. You may react to eyes to know what punches are coming while I react to the shifting of body weight, like that "Ready to punch shift" or maybe it's elbow movement from people who have chicken wing punches.

 

[Wing Woo Gar]

I swing a tennis ball from the ceiling and I use 2 exercises. One striking the tennis ball and the other hitting in between the gaps.
If I hit the ball too hard then it will bee too easy. So I have to learn to hit not with power but with speed.

Everything is a process. You can see it here. First I learn to hit soft but relaxed. The goal is not to hit slow but to hit with a gentle flow. If I hit the ball too hard then it swings too high which gives me more time to strike for each swing. The only way I reduce the time between swings is to make the ball swing very little. The other goal is knuckle placement. I want to make sure I hit the ball with my knuckle and not the back of the hand. This exercise also teaches me how to drive the poer into a certain direction.. Too much power the ball goes forward too mch. So what you are seeing in this video is me using down ward strikes. I'm hitting the ball at an angle.

You have to be fast and accurate to hit the ball, but you have to be faster to hit the gaps.. My back hand keeps the ball swinging.. You can see that I sometimes hit the ball too hard which gives me more time to swing.

In this video my clearing hand and my power strike hits the gaps while my back hand hits the ball.. I had another video that I though I had posted, but it shows me not only hitting through gaps but moving through gaps of swing objects.. I'll see if I can find that video for you.

A long time ago I hung 8 small sandbags in my garage at different heights. I would get them swinging all in different directions and try to make contact with as many as possible as they come in.

 

[JowGaWolf]

As crazy as it may sound, one method is simply to do the techniques faster. People tend to get on a rhythm in their training. As you increase your muscle memory and muscle definition for those techniques, your old rhythm is what holds you back. Sometimes it's just a matter of doing the technique with an emphasis on being faster.

Once you get to the point where it starts to get sloppy or you lose timing, then slow it back down and figure out that particular kink until you can get it back to speed.

This is my kung fu forms training. We try to do the form without falling apart (getting sloppy). Speed becomes counter productive when it causes sloppiness. It like racing an indy car down the street. It'll go fast but it doesn't help when you're crashing into everything..

There is also a thing as too fast. For example, a parry that's too fast will miss the punch.

 

[wab25]

One thing that has helped me is to do the technique really slow. Like, take 30 seconds to throw a jab.

When I first started doing this, I would get a little annoyed because I would notice that when I started to throw the jab with my left, my right hand would tighten first. I gave it up and went back to regular speed training... and then got annoyed because I really did tighten my right hand first when throwing a left jab, even at speed. I just never noticed it before, because I was concentrating on fast and hard.

What have found, is that if I slow down my technique, super slow... I have time to analyze the movements I am making, the muscles I am using and path everything is taking. It should be easy, because you should be doing the technique slow enough to be bored of the technique by the time you are done with the first rep. But, that gives you plenty of time to notice lots of details that you don't like.

So, I will take a few minutes, and do the technique I want to work on super slow. I will pick one unnecessary motion, movement, muscle contraction.... that I think I can remove. Then work on the technique slowly, without that piece, and slowly build up the speed. The main focus here is breaking the bad habit of doing the unnecessary piece. This can make you much faster, because you are doing less. By removing the extras... your technique will be faster... even if you are already moving at your physical limit in speed.

I have found that there are lots of ways that I "pull my hand back to punch," and most of those ways don't involve the punching hand... or the hand at all. I have also been able to find many of my tells... and eliminate some of them... this also effectively makes you faster.

 

[letsplaygames]

IMO... A more accurate question "How do I increase my thought process, my reaction time, or my response time? in relation to how I'm training. (for competition or for self defense... or a little of both)

 

[Kung Fu Wang]

One thing that has helped me is to do the technique really slow. Like, take 30 seconds to throw a jab.

How do you breath in that 30 seconds?

All Taiji people move slow. Could they become lighting speed in fight?