Hand Speed Measurements in Boxing

Hand speed is particularly important in boxing both for protection against incoming blows and delivering blows. Sixteen amateur boxers (10 male, 6 female) with varying levels of experience from a boxing gym performed 20 jabs and 20 cross punches in air. The movement was recorded with a small wrist mounted accelerometer under the glove. The maximum velocity of each punch was determined from the RMS acceleration profile. The mean values of the jab maximal velocity was higher than the cross maximal velocity for 9 participants. The cross showed some dependence on reach (Spearman's correlation coefficient r = 0.57) and the jab dependence on experience (Spearman's correlation coefficient r = 0.56). The accelerometer technique has some promise for routine assessment of fist speed.