In recent years there is one piece of boxing equipment that has taken the internet by storm. Due to boxers such as four-weight world champion Canelo Alvarez and most notably top lightweight contender Ryan Garcia posting videos of them using these interesting bags on their social media platforms.
Since these viral videos, cobra reflex bags have become an incredibly popular piece of boxing training equipment. However, they are far more than just a viral sensation, these bags are incredibly beneficial and help fighters to sharpen their skills and improve their overall boxing ability.
What Are Cobra Bags?
Cobra bags, also known as reflex bags are a type of freestanding punch bag that features a speedball-like bag on a pole with a spring that allows it to flex forwards and backwards. They are designed to help fighters to improve their counterpunching, defensive movement, punch accuracy and hand speed.
While becoming increasingly popular, it is not necessarily a piece of equipment that you will find in all boxing gyms. As a training method, it is designed for the more advanced boxers who are looking to sharpen advanced tools as opposed to learning the basics of boxing.
They are typically configured for the ball to be at head/chin height and to recoil back towards you to emulate a counterpunch coming back at you.
The unpredictable and fast movement of the ball after every punch ensures that fighters are always kept on their toes. When using a cobra bag fighters must stay alert at all times and use both speed and accuracy to deliver punches and counter punches while simultaneously using defensive movements to avoid being hit with the ball.
Why Are Cobra Boxing Bags So Popular?
As we stated previously, the popularity of these cobra bags has skyrocketed over recent years thanks to the social media coverage given to them by professionals such as Canelo Alvarez and Ryan Garcia. However, the popularity of the cobra bag is by no means unjustified. A cobra reflex bag is a hugely effective piece of boxing equipment that helps fighters to hone in on and advance certain areas of their boxing.
Many top-draw professional fighters incorporate cobra bags into their training due to the immense amount of benefits that they can provide. In addition to this, they also help fighters to advance their overall boxing ability.
What Are The Benefits Of Cobra Bags?
The benefits of cobra bags come from their ability to allow fighters to advance and sharpen a vast amount of vital skills needed to become the best possible boxer. The skills that cobra bags help a fighter to advance are:
Improves Hand-Eye Coordination - One of the best skills that can be developed through the consistent use of a cobra bag is hand-eye coordination. Hand-eye coordination is vital in boxers as you have to be able to focus on your opponent while simultaneously thinking about your next shot and the shots that are coming towards you.
Cobra reflex bags mimic punches being thrown back at you through their consistent recoil, which means that you are consistently having to keep your eyes focused on the bag while also throwing accurate shots at the bag as you would have to at an opponent during a fight.
Constantly training on a cobra bag will allow you to gain experience focusing on defending what your opponent is throwing while also calculating what you need to throw next. This is a skill that will pay dividends when it comes to fighting night.
Improves Timing & Reaction Time - Another hugely important boxing skill that a cobra bag can help to improve and sharpen is timing and reactions. These skills are vital in the ring as without good timing and reaction times you will be picked apart in the ring by just about any decent fighter.
As the cobra bag has such unpredictable and fast movements you are constantly having to think on your feet and react in split seconds. Training this regularly will help drastically in sharpening your reactions and therefore be able to react far quicker to an attack from your opponent.
In addition to this, better reaction times allow you to be able to time your punches and your movement far more efficiently which will help you drastically during a fight or hard sparring session. The more efficient you are with your timing, the less energy you will expend and the more damage you will inflict when throwing shots.
Improves Defensive Movement - Another hugely important advanced boxing skill is that a cobra bag can help fighters perfect their defensive movement. This skill is vital in boxing to ensure that you are moving away from your opponent's punches and therefore avoiding damage. Remember boxing is all about hitting and not getting hit.
The erratic and unpredictable movement of the cobra bag is perfect for replicating the potential movement of a fighter. This means that training with this bag will help you to hone in on your defensive movement and your movement in between throwing shots. This will allow you to feel far more comfortable and confident within the ring.
Impressive defensive movement is also extremely effective for throwing your opponent off their game plan and making them constantly have to think about your movement. This will therefore allow you to have far more success with your shots as they make more mistakes when trying to predict your movement.
Improves Footwork - You will struggle to find any boxer who will downplay the importance of having good footwork. Footwork allows you to move freely around the ring with more confidence and allows you to set up your shots while avoiding your opponents. Balance is huge in boxing and without good footwork you will not have good balance. A balanced fighter can throw far harder punches and take far more punches than a fighter with poor balance. This is because they have a far stronger base and confidence in their movement.
The movement of the cobra bag between punches forces you on your toes and to move around the bag. This perfectly emulates a fight scenario and makes a fighter have to think about how and where they are moving in order to land the shots that they need to.
Even the very best fighters on the planet are constantly perfecting the skill of footwork. It is a skill that is so valuable that it is impossible to neglect. Cobra bags offer a very effective form of training to ensure that your footwork and movement are as sharp as they can be and consistent use will help you to continuously develop.
Should You Get A Cobra Bag?
Cobra bags are an amazing piece of boxing equipment. However, they are very advanced and need a base level of boxing skills to perfect. Therefore, if you are very much a beginner boxer then a cobra bag may not be the punchbag for you.
On the other hand, if you have been boxing for years and already have a very impressive base of skills then there truly is no better piece of equipment to develop your whole boxing game.
