4 Types of Muay Thai Bags & Their Unique Benefits For Training

Every kickboxing or muay thai training session requires good muay thai bags.

Many practitioners want to become champions even when they see the training gym for the first time.

It is good if your desire is big.

But the creation of the champion is a difficult process – you must buy training equipments and you need to invest if you want a good result.

A good competitor needs to know how to hit hard, precisely and perfectly timed, so, when you want to obtain these goals, one boxing heavy bag is simply not enough.

But if you google about the boxing heavy bags or muay thai bags, there are many types of training bags.

You need to know their purpose and how and when to use it if you want to maximize their effectiveness.

This detailed tutorial will explain everything to the smallest details.

Every muay thai bag has a purpose. Different training bags are used for different types of training sessions.

For example, you cannot use a boxing heavy bag for speed training because you need something that is light and that will make your arms quicker than a mongoose when attacking his prey.

On the other hand, you cannot train knees and uppercuts on a regular bag.

Or you need angle heavy bags in other situations, especially if you train downward roundhouse kick or a clinch strike.

And there are so many different types of punches, knees, kicks, and elbows.

Let’s go step by step!

The main purpose of muay thai heavy bags is landing powerful strikes.

You can train your competitor to strike as hard as he can.

• It is very suitable for clinch fighting, strong punches or a single punch.
• If you want to land strong hooks or uppercuts, the heavy bag is the best option.
• When it comes to the overhand punch, you will get 2 excellent benefits – distance and power.

• Knees from the close distance can be trained too.
• The heavy bag is prefect for improving the power of your strikes and kicks, such as you can do the kickboxing drills to increase the power of your diagonal kicks and high roundhouse kicks.
• You can also train your spinning back elbow or other elbow strikes from the clinch.
• And don’t limit yourself, you can create an ultimate Muay Thai workout with a boxing heavy bag only. Yes, read our post: Muay Thai Training (Part 3): Boxing Heavy Bag Workout

The heavy bag is mostly made of plasticized canvas covered with vinyl or synthetic skin.

These are large, duffel muay thai bags, usually chained, its weight is mostly around 150 pounds.

It is filled with factory material and mostly with an inside chamber if its purpose is to absorb your heavy knees, kicks or punches.

You can order filled heavier bag or you can also order an unfilled one then load it with some extremely tough material like corn or sand, if you want to create the iron fist or the iron shin.

Heavy bags are usually sold with boxing bag stands and it can also be attached to the wall by using the heavy bag wall mounts.

This is a perfect bag for kickboxing, muay or every martial arts which has kicking techniques. 

This type of boxing heavy bags has 2 parts: One part is a heavy bag (banana-shaped or human-shaped) stands on the floor on the second part, a pedestal.

The main purpose of these bags is movement and speed.

• It is an excellent choice if your fighter needs to circle around the opponent and throw a combination of strikes.
• If you want a fighter who attacks different areas of the body via different strikes, who connect it like a lightning and who is light on his feet, you found a perfect solution.

This type of a bag is also suitable for reaction training.

• You can create a good opening via jab or left hook.
• If you want to obtain jab-left hook-left low kick-body punch, for example, a free standing heavy bag is a great choice.

Free standing punching bags are also suitable for single strike training.

• If you want to aim for diaphragm or a stunning left low kick straight to the opponent’s nerve, this bag will also help you.

Your high kicks and spinning head kicks will be more dangerous and faster with this bag, too.

Tear drop heavy bag and angle heavy bag is mostly used for head strikes.

If an opponent drops his hands to protect the stomach or focuses on your low kicks, it’s time to teach him a lesson, let’s use them.

These bags can help with knees to the chin or front kick to the chin. It is also useful for quick punches.

The shape of the angle heavy bag makes the strike more complicated. For example, if you need to train the overhand when an opponent covers himself up, this is a great way.

And angle heavy bag will definitively help you to train the kick exercises against an opponents who hold the guard to the body.

Slip ball and wrecking ball are widely used for ducking techniques.

A good Muay Thai fighter has to learn how to slip after delivering a punch or kick unless he is in the clinch.

And a good head movements can create an opportunity for counterpunch and make the opponent think twice before throwing a barrage of punches to your head.

While slip ball helps with quick strikes, like jabs or crosses and diagonal kicks, wrecking ball is good if you want to deliver some power into your strike.

You can also train precision of your kicks and elbows with slip ball (single strike).

Of course, an uppercut bag is designed for uppercut training which is very suitable if your opponent holds a guard which covers hooks.

Good and fast uppercut delivered to the chin brings at least a knockdown, or even a knockout if the timing is right.

Besides, you should be creative in Muay Thai training sessions and try knees and elbows on the uppercut bag.

It is an excellent choice when you are trying to improve the speed of your clinch game.

This part of the equipment is divided into boxing speed bags and boxing double end bags.

While speed bags can be used for various training sessions like punching or elbowing, double end bags are also suitable for movement, fast kicks, knees, and counterpunches.

• The most known shapes of speed bags are pear and bladder.
• The most known shapes of double end bags are ball and peanut.

Below is some boxing speed bags and boxing double end bags on Amazon:

A Muay Thai fighter can also learn to hold his hands up and improve hand-eye coordination with a speed bag.

Speed bags can also help in the drills when the weight needs to be shifted from foot when you deliver quick strikes. This can improve counterpunching and strike effectiveness.

Speed bags are often filled with air and set to hang from the ceiling. Remember:

• Bigger speed bags can also be used for strength and endurance training sessions.
• The smaller ones are better for hand speed, timing, and coordination.

These bags connected by the cable to the floor and ceiling, allowing that after the fighter delivers a strike, the bag makes a quick movement to him that needs to be avoided.

It’s very useful!!!

• Because, in a real Muay Thai match, if the strike is stronger, the fighter has to react and move quickly to a different side and at different angles.
• Another purpose of speed bags, they can be effective if you want to improve clinching. This can help your fighter to learn how to set up a counterpunch after a strong hook, uppercut, cross or jab.

Speed muay thai bags are usually sold with platforms, which are mostly made of wooden boards and rubber on its ends.

We can introduce several good speed bag platforms on Amazon:

You can read our article to find the best speed bags and speed bag platforms here:

• Best Speed Bag & Platform [2020] – All Things To Know + Review Top Products

I hope you find the guide useful. Everybody can train hard, but you need to know what are you working on.

• What are your goals?
• Do you want to improve speed, timing, technique, punching power or accuracy?
• Do you want to be a clinch fighter or a puncher?
• Do you want hard kicks?

This is the reason why the various types of punching muay thai bags exist.

Work on yourself, combine training bags properly and become a champion!