Speed over power is one of the best boxing tips my trainers ever gave me. Everybody wants the spectacular knockout, but the guy who’s trying to just land big punches often comes up empty.
I myself used to spend lots of time banging on banging the bag, focusing on power punches. But I noticed that when sparring against good boxers I couldn’t land power punches routinely.
I remember one day while on the heavybag I heard a trainer that was watching me say, “he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” The trainer proceeded to lecture me and I was very smart to listen. He said I should be focusing on lots of fast punches and keeping my feet under me (i.e. maintain balance and pushing off the ground with each punch).
Following this critique I started watching boxers in the gym and my eyes opened! All the beginners were concentrating on focused power punches, the experienced boxers were usually putting together rapid punches while maintaining good balance. I went to YouTube and watched training videos of pro boxers I admire — they too trained just as my trainer had advised.
Two weeks after I made this adjustment to my training I went from a fairly one dimensional boxer to a guy that could land my full arsenal of punches and put together 4, 5 and 6 punch combos. Where as before I rarely landed power punches (I was too slow to the punch), from that point forward I landed them frequently.
I consider this one of the more important boxing tips my trainers ever gave me.
