BALAZS BOXING NEWSLETTER

Heavy Bag Drills: Perfecting the Jab

This month we're going to focus on mastering the jab on the heavy bag. Boxer's rely on this punch to maintain control, inflict damage and keep their opponent busy. It is a crucial punch to learn and perform accurately. Review our instructional section on the basics of a jab.

To perfect this punch and improve your form, you must begin to practice your jabs from a solid boxing stance. Once set, begin throwing your jab; standing in place. Throughout the entire punch maintain balance and control; don't wind up or lift your elbow.

Your jab should 'snap' as it accelerates, hits your target (heavy bag or target mitts) and recovers. You should feel as though you almost pull the punch. As quick as you snap the jab to the target, quickly bring it back to the on guard position.

Now that you've worked on proper range and 'snapping' your jab from a static position, add some footwork and rhythm to your jabs. Step into your jab going forward and back and side-to-side. Shoot the jab as your left foot (or right foot if you are a southpaw) lands. Concentrate on making sure you punch and get out. Increase your hand speed by throwing double and triple jabs (2 or 3 jabs consecutively). Focus on speed and accuracy; leave power for a later session.

At all times when working your jab, remember to keep your opposite (free) hand up high in the guard position. Protect yourself at all times.

Aim your jabs head high in the middle to top third of the bag. The bag should swing slightly away from you without spinning. If the bag begins to spin too much this means you are pushing your punches. Remember to snap, snap, snap!

Try a few rounds on the Heavy Bag, just throwing the left jabs. Keep moving in all directions.

Adherence to certain basic exercise principles is important for developing an effective program. The principles of exercise apply to everyone at all levels of physical training, from the Olympic-caliber athlete to the weekend jogger.

These basic principles of exercise should be followed:

• Regularity: To achieve a training effect, a person must exercise often. One should strive to exercise each of the first four fitness components at least three times a week. Infrequent exercise can do more harm than good. Regularity is also important in resting, sleeping, and following a good diet.
• Progression: The intensity (how hard) and/or duration (how long) of exercise must gradually increase to improve the level of fitness.
• Balance: To be effective, a program should include activities that address all the fitness components, since overemphasizing any one of them may hurt the others.
• Variety: Providing a variety of activities reduces boredom and increases motivation and progress.
• Specificity: Training must be geared toward specific goals. For example, soldiers become better runners if their training emphasizes running. Although swimming is great exercise, it does not improve a 2-mile-run time as much as a running program does.
• Recovery: A hard day of training for a given component of fitness should be followed by an easier training day or rest day for that component and/or muscle group(s) to help permit recovery. Another way to allow recovery is to alternate the muscle groups exercised every other day, especially when training for strength and/or muscle endurance.
• Overload: The workload of each exercise session must exceed the normal demands placed on the body in order to bring about a training effect.