The Great Speed Bag Handbook by Dale Walters

[Tim]

"The Great Speed Bag Handbook" by Dale Walters describes itself as being "The Quick Reference Guide to Speed Bag Exercises". A more apt title might be "Speed Bag Exercises for Boxing", as it is clearly targeted towards boxing training. No elbows, no reverse punches, and certainly no kicks will be found in this book. It's a pretty thin book (approx 61 pages of content) that starts with the obligatory primer on speed bag related equipment, stance, and timing. It also includes detailed pictures and instructions on hand wrapping. The photos are high quality (color and detailed) so this section is pretty good. A section on stretching follows - and this part feels like "filler" more than anything else. Do you really need to do the "Single Knee Corkscrew" to get those glutes nice and warmed up for speed bag? 3 basic punches (Front Forward Strike, Jab, Cross) are detailed, and then 3 advanced punches (Front Circular Puncing, Jab-Cross, and Forward-Side). The book concludes with drills and punch routines (3 of each).

In summary, I'd recommend this for anyone who is looking to supplement their boxing training with speed bag exercises that won't get them in trouble with the coach at the gym.

Highs:

Lots of detailed color pictures
Easy to follow hand wrap instructions
Cheap ($8.95 at amazon.com)Lows:

Limited to punches - 3 basic, 3 advanced
Awfully short (approx. 61 pages), although the price reflects this
Not much variety beyond run of the mill boxing style speedbag traininghttp://www.speedbagforum.com/images/tgsbh.jpg

[Chris M]

I also bought that book and was pretty disappointed, but then again, Alan set the bar pretty high. If you've read his book first, anything else would be a let down.

To make matters worse, I also bought "The Great Heavy Bag Handbook" and most of the stuff is the same as in "The Great Speed Bag Handbook" such as the stretches, warming up, wraps, etc. I'll bet the two books only have 20 pages that are different.

[Tim]

To make matters worse, I also bought "The Great Heavy Bag Handbook" and most of the stuff is the same as in "The Great Speed Bag Handbook" such as the stretches, warming up, wraps, etc. I'll bet the two books only have 20 pages that are different.

Interesting, I was thinking of getting that one. Guess I'll skip it.