Many people think that you can't truly practice dirty boxing and infighting with your heavy bag exercises. The thinking is that you really need a sparring partner in order to hone this part of your game. To an extent this is going to be true, but the same can be said for any aspect of boxing. It's always learnt better, and more completely, once you master the basics and then try it out against somebody that's trying to stop it… or stop you.

Still, you can use some special boxing training drills on the heavy bag in order to help practice this portion of your game. It's something that shouldn't be ignored, because infighting is the nitty-gritty part of any fight where physical domination and mental strength really gets exerted from one man onto another. With the right skills that you can start learning from these heavy bag exercises you'll be the one coming out on top.

Heavy Bag Exercises and Drills for Infighting

Some boxers do their best work from the outside, and that’s fine. But if you want to be able to dictate the fight in all situations, or even if you're just looking to learn how to handle yourself on the street, then the infighting and dirty boxing training drills are what you'll need.

First of all, I recommend making at least one round out of every heavy bag training session dedicated to boxing training drills for infighting. That means if you're working 5 rounds, be sure to leave one for just this task. It will help you round out your game and will give you more tools to have at your disposal.

There are many different aspects of dirty boxing and infighting that heavy bag exercises can help you with. Here's an overview of a few of them and how you can work them into your boxing training drills.

Getting Inside

If you want to be good at infighting, then you need to know how to get inside. One good way to do this is to throw punches on your way in, and then grab hold of your opponent for a second in order to establish your position and stop return fire.

In terms of heavy bag exercises, start out a far distance from the bag, and then quickly get inside behind something like a lead right hand, or a quick 1-2 combination. After throwing your shots continue your forward momentum all the way to the bag, eventually wrapping one of your arms around it.

With the other hand you can practice throwing a few shots to the body and head, alternating between raising your glove to practice blocking incoming fire. Assuming either a referee break or a break on your own, re-set yourself close to the bag now. You can even keep your forehead resting against the bag, leaving you as close as possible and really mimicking a true infighting experience.

Shortening Up Your Shots

To master infighting, you need boxing training drills that will help you to shorten up your shots. It's simple… you're closer to your opponent, so you have less room to extend your punches completely. Therefore you must learn how to throw shorter, quicker shots that still hit with some oomph.

In order to do this with heavy bag exercises, position yourself at about half the distance to the bag as you normally would. Make yourself as small as possible. In other words, keep yourself at an almost perpendicular angle to the bag, so that only your lead arm and shoulder are in front and your back foot is only slightly to the side. This will help to still give you room for your power shots, while presenting yourself as a smaller target to your opponent.

Now, push the heavy bag so it's swaying towards and away from you, and start throwing your combinations, standing your ground and landing with impact. Alter your throwing motion so that you can still throw with power despite throwing with less space, and time your shots so that you connect at the perfect time as the bag moves towards you.

Slipping and Blocking Punches

If you have a free standing heavy bag, then position it a few feet from a wall, and if not, try to put something a few feet from the hanging bag in one direction. This will serve as the ropes in the ring, and you want to get your back against it for this aspect of these heavy bag exercises.

Once again push the bag so it swings towards and away from you. With your back against the "ropes" practice bobbing, weaving, keeping your hands up and launching return fire. Duck down, lean back, rotate your upper body to either side and so forth, giving you practice at dodging shots at close range.

Escaping

You'll also need boxing training drills for learning how to escape infighting when you don't want to be there. One simple way to do this is to hold on, and then push off, giving you space to back up and re-set yourself at a farther distance.

Another way to do this that you can practice with these heavy bag exercises is to throw a solid shot, like a straight right to the head, and then to follow it up with a series of a few jabs, backing up and circling to your side as you throw. This will start to create space, also leaving you at a better angle as you score shots and keep your opponent from firing.

Putting it All Together

It's one thing to practice all of these boxing training drills on their own, and it's another thing to put them all together fluidly so that you have a complete package of infighting skills and dirty boxing tricks.

As recommended above, dedicate at least one of your rounds of heavy bag exercises to infighting every time you box. You'll quickly improve your techniques and abilities with these boxing training drills for infighting and dirty boxing.