T Nation

Hitting the Heavy Bag Slows You Down?

Combat
#21

I could imagine it’s a very oldschool approach.

as rasturai already said:
“[…] with all the pad work and sparring that is a lot more important then the bag a couple weeks out”
one could imagine that a unit of heavy bag could, in theory, bring the mindset of some peaking fighters down a bit, who’s reflexes and movements are getting fine tuned.

Wheras you know, a bag workout does slow one down mentally sometimes a bit in a certain way:
I actually remember one time doing the heavy bag and then immediately sparring with someone who unexpectedly invited me. It was mentally harder to get in after I beat up someone who’s essentially helpless.
The first minutes I was definitely a bit slower because working alone always gives you the luxury of creating your own rythm and space whereas in fighting you’re sometimes competing for an inch.

Just my weak observation. But it’s really rigorously, anally oldschool.

#22

i could see backing off the heavy bag to minimize the chance of injury to the hands or something. but that’s a pretty slim chance anyway…

sometimes the Army says some dumb things.

#23

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
blackngrey609 wrote:

Hand to Hand in the ARMY is pretty basic stuff. Your weapon is your best friend brother. As for the hand to Hand they try not to fill your head with to many techniques. They teach you as few moves as possible that can be applied to as many diferent situation then drill and drill and drill until its second nature you know. If a soldier is down to fighting hand to hand there pretty much fucked any. We spend way more time on marksmanship.

LOL. Best post on the thread. So true. [/quote]

its hard to pick up sarcasm on the internet…

#24

Just because West Point, one boxing team in one branch of service (Army for those who do not know), believes the heavy bag slows you down doesn’t mean all teams in all the services do.

And special forces dudes are at a higher level martial capability then their opponents probably will be in the battle space. So the bad ass killer commando fighting skillz myth is based in fact, just exaggerated. Remember all things are relative when it related to martial skill.