Big gloves or little gloves to work the heavy bag?

[Ahoym8e]

What size gloves do you use to work the bag?

Some folks say use a heavy glove it'll make your punches stronger. Others say use little or no gloves, so that it will not alter the dynamics of the punch. Some say that wearing a heavy glove forces you to throw more of an arm punch than a whole body punch. That seems counterintuitive, and I don't see it too much in my mechanics, but I respect the person who offered the advice, so am not dismissing it out of hand.

I used to work the heavy bag with 12 oz gloves, and have now switched to 16 oz gloves, to get my punching motion stronger. What I don't like is the 2 inches of padding on the glove makes the snap very different form a bare knuckle punch. This is not so much an issue with hooks or low, uppercut-like body blows, but on the jab or the cross it messes up the distance for me.

So, I pound the bag with the heavy gloves for the first 70 % of the workout, then switch to the 12 oz'ers for a little bit, and then finish up without gloves but still lightly striking the bag.

It's amazing how fast the punches are without a glove on, and with a little bit of adjustment I get the distance right and throw some really sweet, fast snapping punches. I have a "Body Opponent Bag" that I work with, and towards the end of my workout it's almost like the chin bounces off of the snap of my punch like a beach ball (deforming the face, not moving the whole standup bag).

I'm curious to hear opinions on this one...

[Uber_Tap]

I very seldom use gloves, in fact I haven't for the last six months now. If anything I wear wrist wraps just because I want to make sure I don't roll my wrist if I hit the bag funky. My logic for not wearing gloves is that I want my knuckles to be tuff enough to with stand a street altercation if need be, and while at first I had to take it a little easy so I didn't bruise or tear skin on my knuckles, I can go full out now with no problem. From time to time I will still get a small tear or something, but it's not like having huge chunks of skin missing like I did when I started. I also have no bruising or pain now when I hit full power.

When I did use gloves I liked the 16oz gloves just because of the reason you stated earlier, when I took them off it felt like I was punching a lot harder and a lot faster. Originally I only used the small vinyl bag gloves, but a friend suggested the 16oz gloves to build speed and power. I didn't notice a problem with my technique but I did see a big difference in the speed and power.

I'm by no means an expert, but thats what I do

[HuSanYan]

I use 10 oz gloves for bag work & the 16oz for sparring.
I havent asked about this and until reading this, didn't really give this any thought, I will ask my coach about this.

[EmptyneSs]

i use 14 ounce ones. i think they are perfect. i use em for bagwork and sparring. there not too big and not too small. there like a good overall glove.

[Matthew]

I normally always work with 16oz gloves, and i always wear wraps. Sometimes i shadow box or run with small weights as well.
I've never bought into the whole 'If you train with gloves, it'll hurt you in a street fight" theory for a few reasons.

- I train for boxing, not for street fighting.
- If i was in a street fight, i have a greater concern than the skin on my knuckles.
Again, that is just me.

[koto_ryu]

When I was boxing, I'd work out with 16oz and fight with either 8oz or 10z depending on what was allowed. That six ounces makes a huge difference after a few hundred punches.

Originally Posted by Matthew

I normally always work with 16oz gloves, and i always wear wraps. Sometimes i shadow box or run with small weights as well.
I've never bought into the whole 'If you train with gloves, it'll hurt you in a street fight" theory for a few reasons.

- I train for boxing, not for street fighting.
- If i was in a street fight, i have a greater concern than the skin on my knuckles.
Again, that is just me.

Thing is, once you're rocking the bag with your punches and end up punching someone in the head without thinking about it, you're gonna smash your hand. I learned that the hard way, I got into a streetfight when I was 17 and hit the kid right on the side of his eye socket with my punch. I cracked his bone, but I broke two knuckles just by hitting him that hard. That's why you'll hear about boxers getting into streetfights and busting their hands, because they punch so hard it's putting a lot of force behind it which the fragile bones in your hand can't withstand.

[EmptyneSs]

Originally Posted by koto_ryu

Thing is, once you're rocking the bag with your punches and end up punching someone in the head without thinking about it, you're gonna smash your hand. I learned that the hard way, I got into a streetfight when I was 17 and hit the kid right on the side of his eye socket with my punch. I cracked his bone, but I broke two knuckles just by hitting him that hard. That's why you'll hear about boxers getting into streetfights and busting their hands, because they punch so hard it's putting a lot of force behind it which the fragile bones in your hand can't withstand.

thats not really true, at least not for everyone. im pretty controlled, i dont need to try to take someones head off with a single strike if i dont want to. i can throw light fast ones that will still do dmg and leave my hands just fine. also if u punch properly it will reduce the risk of dmg. if u look at the fists of muay thai and western boxers, experienced ones have their 1st two knuckles enlarged and hardened from years of hitting the bag. those things are strong and are gonna cause more dmg on the opponent then on themselves.

[koto_ryu]

Why throw a ton of light fast ones to defeat an opponent though when one or two good ones is all you need? And yes, with proper conditioning they can get much tougher which I did mention. You just need to wear handwraps and do knuckle pushups and as your training progresses put one less pass of a wrap over the knuckles until you're eventually hitting the bag with bare knuckles. Rather than striking someone several times to stop their attack, I'd rather just slip and land one good straight right to their nose to break it. Many of the so-called tough guys on the street tend not to take a lot of blood gushing out of their nose too well :P

[Tom Yum]

Originally Posted by koto_ryu

Why throw a ton of light fast ones to defeat an opponent though when one or two good ones is all you need? And yes, with proper conditioning they can get much tougher which I did mention. You just need to wear handwraps and do knuckle pushups and as your training progresses put one less pass of a wrap over the knuckles until you're eventually hitting the bag with bare knuckles. Rather than striking someone several times to stop their attack, I'd rather just slip and land one good straight right to their nose to break it. Many of the so-called tough guys on the street tend not to take a lot of blood gushing out of their nose too well :P

Its a difference of preferences I guess. Remember punches in bunches?

[koto_ryu]

That's a good philosophy, don't get me wrong, but I'm more into economy of motion myself. I'd rather throw two punches that hit hard enough to make my opponent say "What the **** was THAT??" rather than about six or seven ones that will wear him down a bit but not much else.

[Tom Yum]

If you have good body mechanics and good hand speed, power comes naturally. That's the same in all power sports. Also it takes time to develop awesome power- which is why amateurs live by the mantra punches 'n bunches.

Do you play golf? Great example. Tiger Woods isn't a massive guy buy any means, but he can drive the ball alot farther than Shaqueal O'Neil (and his akward swing...lol).

Likewise Tiger isn't going to be fighting for a rebound.

Technique.

[EmptyneSs]

koto u mentioned breaking ur hand one time for hitting someone so hard, then u ask why u would want to throw lighter strikes instead of harder ones..........


also, what i consider light will still do enough dmg to stop someone with 1 or 2 hits.

[koto_ryu]

That was before I knew the value of open-palmed strikes and hammerfists. You may lose a few inches of range and possibly a small bit of power from using an open palm, but still it beats having a busted hand. There's always ways of still striking with power.

[HtTKar]

Open-palm strikes (rabbit-punches) actually allow you to hit harder as you dont lose power through weak wrists joints.

You dont really have to hit someone very hard in the head area to put them down anyway. Plus you faster lighter punches allow you to set up an opponent. It only takes 3-4lbs of pressure to break a jaw if the mouth is open. And not very much pressure to break a nose either.