Ryan Garcia Speed, How to Punch Like Ryan Garcia

Whether you like the kid or not, one thing you can’t deny is the Ryan Garcia is one of the hottest boxing prospects of today. Outside of his extreme skill, what makes this kid special is that he is a great self-promoter. He’s managed to acquire a following that is larger than 90% of the world champions out there, and this is without ever having to win a title. He’s achieved superstardom outside of the sport while still striving for it within the spirit. One of the things that got him noticed on social media was his insane hand speed. His hand speed and coordination are undeniable and for a guy that fights at 135 pounds, he has a great amount of power that comes as a result of his incredible hand speed. 

Because of the many videos, he puts out, a lot of people have begun to wonder: “how can I punch like Ryan Garcia.” Well, my friend, it takes a lot of practice for a long period of time, but it can be done.  

In this post, we’re going to break down how to punch like Ryan Garcia, and more importantly, how to punch as fast as YOU possibly can. 

I also discuss some of these tips in my video on hand speed that you can see here: 

Get Hand Speed Like Ryan Garcia 

In order to punch like Ryan, you will have to rewire your body and your mind. You will have to break your old patterns of throwing mediocre punches before you begin to build your body up to throw faster ones. Let’s dive into tip #1. 

Put Everything Into the Punch 

The first thing you want to do is to put everything you have into every punch. Ryan Garcia was quoted himself saying this when asked about his hand speed. He said he puts everything he has into a punch when he knows he’s going to land it. He said he puts all of his “energy” into the punch. If you pay attention to how he trains, he does the same thing, because of this, he doesn’t gas out when he does it in a fight. 

Most of us can punch much faster than we do in practice or in fighting, and that’s without having to train for it, we can actually do it immediately. The reason we’re not throwing to our full potential though is that you’re subconsciously holding yourself back because you’re trying to stretch your gas tank because throwing every punch fast wears you out. So instead of training more intensely and trying to get into better shape to be fast all the time, you end up tricking yourself into thinking you’re in shape by throwing mediocre punches. 

What you have to do is after each punch, evaluate yourself and ask yourself if that was the best punch you ould have thrown. Then throw the next one faster and harder. Then, you want to do that about 20-30 more times until you reach your peak potential. 

Always Throw to Your Full Potential 

Once you learn to throw to your full potential, you want to stay there. Keep throwing to the best of your ability and don’t allow the weakness that tells you to slow down enter your body or mind. If you get gassed keep going, it just means you’re not in good enough shape. That’s what separates the great fighters from the good ones, is the ability to be at their best all the time. 

Eventually, once you learn to throw every punch at its peak speed limit, your body and mind will adapt and allow you to punch faster and faster over time. 

Change Your Strength Training 

This may be controversial to some of you, but if you want to punch like Ryan Garcia, you cannot lift weights, not in the traditional sense anyway. Ryan himself has said that he doesn’t lift and has only been seen doing high rep dumbbells for his shoulders. Traditional weightlifting will tighten you up and reduce the relaxation necessary to throw a fast punch. You have to maintain a lean physique that is loose and limber. Tightening with exercises like bicep curls and isolated movements will only hurt your performance. Especially if you stick to lowe rep heavy lifting, it will kill your muscle endurance and you won’t be able to maintain that speed over the course of a long fight. 

What you want to do is instead focus on high rep calisthenic workout that trains both strength, fast-twitch muscles, and muscle endurance. 

Do Everything With Speed 

You also want to have speed on your mind at all times. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in training, do it with speed. Whether you’re doing your pushups or doing your sprints, make sure to do them at your maximum speed potential, while still maintaining form. Speed is as much in the mind and the firing of neurons as it is in the body. 

“The Flash” Hand Speed Drill 

Throwing fast punches isn’t always in the single shots, its also in the combination speed. That’s another thing that makes Ryan Garcia special, is he can fire off 2-5 punches in less than a second. The way to practice this is on the heavy bag with something I call “The Flash” heavy bag drill, I talk about it in more detail in this video: 

What you want to do is basically try and make your combination of punches, sound like one punch. So if you throw a one-two, try to get it as close as possible to sounding like one punch. You then want to continue to drill that combination and try to keep increasing the speed of it. Do it for a round, then switch the type of combination you’re throwing. What you don’t want to do is sacrifice power though so make sure that your shots are still landing with a hard thud on the bag, The goal of throwing faster is to also increase the impact, not decrease it. Having fast pillow fists won’t help you in a fight. If you really want to punch like Ryan, you gotta be able to hit and hurt people. 

Shadowbox With Gloves On 

Ryan Garcia himself says he shadowboxes with weights every day and while it’s worked for him and it can work for many, I never recommend it because I see it teaching fighters bad habits. It also prevents you from being able to really throw your punch all the way out because you have to control the motion in order to prevent injury. 

What I recommend instead is shadowboxing with gloves on. They provide the perfect amount of resistance without hindering your form or teaching you bad habits on the output and input of punches. What you want to do is take 16oz or 18oz gloves and shadowbox for 3-5 rounds. During that time make sure to follow rule number one, which is to throw each punch to its full potential. One that’s updo 1-3 rounds without the gloves and you will see a huge difference. Now that feeling of speed won’t last that day, but if you continue to do this over time, that will become your average daily hand speed.

Another alternative is resistance bands, but I find they assist you to punch on the way back. Something else you can do that’s great is to box underwater, which can definitely aid you in getting faster hands, but it’s not as accessible.

Relax Your Punches

The last and most important key to the puzzle is to kill the stiffness in your body and relax your punches. One thing all fast fighters, including Ryan Garcia, have in common is that they are completely relaxed when they throw the punch. When you relax the hands and your body you’re not inhibiting the flow of the punch. You’ve got to be in complete flow when throwing fast and let the tension escape you. 

The best way to do this is to practice with completely open and loose palms. Throw a couple of punches and just let your palms flail instead of holding fists. Be aware of how it feels to throw in this relaced fashion. Really feel it in your body and notice the queues for it. Then once you know how to do it, all you have to do is close your fist, without reinventing the tension back. Only close your fist, don’t do anything else different, and fire off those punches relaced, and as fast as you possibly can. You will find that your speed will improve in an instant once you learn to relax your punches. 

Work Over Genetics 

A lot of people will see handpseed like Ryan’s and say that it’s all genes. What they do is discount the years of hard work that this kid has put into throwing his punches fast and to his best ability. The only thing that “genetic” about him is that he has the mindset to do whatever he’s doing to the best of his ability and not taking shortcuts. Genes play a role, but according to science they only give you about 1.5% advantage. Your goal should be to be the best you, and

Whether you like the kid or not, one thing you can’t deny is that Ryan Garcia is one of the hottest boxing prospects of today. Outside of his extreme skill, what makes this kid special is that he is a great self-promoter. He’s managed to acquire a following that is larger than 90% of the world champions out there, and this is without ever having to win a title. He’s achieved superstardom outside of the sport while still striving for it within the spirit. One of the things that got him noticed on social media was his insane hand speed. His hand speed and coordination are undeniable and for a guy that fights at 135 pounds, he has a great amount of power that comes as a result of his incredible hand speed. 

Because of the many videos, he puts out, a lot of people have begun to wonder: “how can I punch like Ryan Garcia.” Well, my friend, it takes a lot of practice for a long period of time, but it can be done.  

In this post, we’re going to break down how to punch like Ryan Garcia, and more importantly, how to punch as fast as YOU possibly can. 

I also discuss some of these tips in my video on hand speed that you can see here: 

Get Hand Speed Like Ryan Garcia 

In order to punch like Ryan, you will have to rewire your body and your mind. You will have to break your old patterns of throwing mediocre punches before you begin to build your body up to throw faster ones. Let’s dive into tip #1. 

Put Everything Into the Punch 

The first thing you want to do is to put everything you have into every punch. Ryan Garcia was quoted himself saying this when asked about his hand speed. He said he puts everything he has into a punch when he knows he’s going to land it. He said he puts all of his “energy” into the punch. If you pay attention to how he trains, he does the same thing, because of this, he doesn’t gas out when he does it in a fight. 

Most of us can punch much faster than we do in practice or in fighting, and that’s without having to train for it, we can actually do it immediately. The reason we’re not throwing to our full potential though is that you’re subconsciously holding yourself back because you’re trying to stretch your gas tank because throwing every punch fast wears you out. So instead of training more intensely and trying to get into better shape to be fast all the time, you end up tricking yourself into thinking you’re in shape by throwing mediocre punches. 

What you have to do is after each punch, evaluate yourself and ask yourself if that was the best punch you could have thrown. Then throw the next one faster and harder. Then, you want to do that about 20-30 more times until you reach your peak potential. 

Always Throw to Your Full Potential 

Once you learn to throw to your full potential, you want to stay there. Keep throwing to the best of your ability and don’t allow the weakness that tells you to slow down and enter your body or mind. If you get gassed, keep going, it just means you’re not in good enough shape. That’s what separates the great fighters from the good ones, is the ability to be at their best all the time. 

Eventually, once you learn to throw every punch at its peak speed limit, your body and mind will adapt and allow you to throw faster and faster over time. 

Change Your Strength Training 

This may be controversial to some of you, but if you want to punch like Ryan Garcia, you cannot lift weights, not in the traditional sense anyway. Ryan himself has said that he doesn’t lift and has only been seen doing high rep dumbbells for his shoulders. Traditional weightlifting will tighten you up and reduce the relaxation necessary to throw a fast punch. You have to maintain a lean physique that is loose and limber. Tightening with exercises like bicep curls and isolated movements will only hurt your performance. Especially if you stick to low rep heavy lifting, it will kill your muscle endurance and you won’t be able to maintain that speed over the course of a long fight. 

What you want to do is instead focus on high rep calisthenic workout that trains both strength, fast-twitch muscles, and muscle endurance. 

Do Everything With Speed 

You also want to have speed on your mind at all times. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing in training, do it with speed. Whether you’re doing your pushups or doing your sprints, make sure to do them at your maximum speed potential, while still maintaining form. Speed is as much in the mind and the firing of neurons as it is in the body. 

“The Flash” Hand Speed Drill 

Throwing fast punches isn’t always in the single shots, it’s also in the combination speed. That’s another thing that makes Ryan Garcia special, is he can fire off 2-5 punches in less than a second. The way to practice this is on the heavy bag with something I call “The Flash” heavy bag drill, I talk about it in more detail in this video: 

What you want to do is basically try and make your combination of punches, sound like one punch. So if you throw a one-two, try to get it as close as possible to sounding like one punch. You then want to continue to drill that combination and try to keep increasing the speed of it. Do it for a round, then switch the type of combination you’re throwing. What you don’t want to do is sacrifice power though so make sure that your shots are still landing with a hard thud on the bag, The goal of throwing faster is to also increase the impact, not decrease it. Having fast pillow fists won’t help you in a fight. If you really want to punch like Ryan, you gotta be able to hit and hurt people. 

Shadowbox With Gloves On 

Ryan Garcia himself says he shadow boxes with weights every day and while it’s worked for him and it can work for many, I never recommend it because I see it teaching fighters bad habits. It also prevents you from being able to really throw your punch all the way out because you have to control the motion in order to prevent injury. 

What I recommend instead is shadow boxing with gloves on. They provide the perfect amount of resistance without hindering your form or teaching you bad habits on the output and input of punches. What you want to do is take 16oz or 18oz gloves and shadowbox for 3-5 rounds. During that time make sure to follow rule number one, which is to throw each punch to its full potential. One that’s up to 1-3 rounds without the gloves and you will see a huge difference. Now that feeling of speed won’t last that day, but if you continue to do this over time, that will become your average daily hand speed.

Another alternative is resistance bands, but I find they assist you to punch on the way back. Something else you can do that’s great is to box underwater, which can definitely aid you in getting faster hands, but it’s not as accessible.

Relax Your Punches

The last and most important key to the puzzle is to kill the stiffness in your body and relax your punches. One thing all fast fighters, including Ryan Garcia, have in common is that they are completely relaxed when they throw the punch. When you relax the hands and your body you’re not inhibiting the flow of the punch. You’ve got to be in complete flow when throwing fast and let the tension escape you. 

The best way to do this is to practice with completely open and loose palms. Throw a couple of punches and just let your palms flail instead of holding fists. Be aware of how it feels to throw in this relaxed fashion. Really feel it in your body and notice the queues for it. Then once you know how to do it, all you have to do is close your fist, without reinventing the tension back. Only close your fist, don’t do anything else different, and fire off those punches relaxed, and as fast as you possibly can. You will find that your speed will improve in an instant once you learn to relax your punches. 

Work Over Genetics 

A lot of people will see hand speed like Ryan’s and say that it’s all genes. What they do is discount the years of hard work that this kid has put into throwing his punches fast and to his best ability. The only thing that is “genetic” about him is that he has the mindset to do whatever he’s doing to the best of his ability and not taking shortcuts. Genes play a role, but according to science they only give you about 1.5% advantage. Your goal should be to be the best you, and the only way to do that is to make sure you are always the best you that you can be and always striving to do everything to your full potential. 

only way to do that is to make sure you are always the best you that you can be and always striving to do everything to your full potential.