Motivation

Speed bags are widely used by boxers as part of their training routine and are never out of place in any gym or training center.

Boxers use the speed bag to improve skills such as:

Developing such skills requires boxers to follow an exact rhythm of punches when hitting the bag. Currently, boxers rely on the sound of the speed bag’s rebounds to tell how well they are keeping up with the rhythm. When the bag is hit strongly, it rebounds creating a loud noise and hits the board more often. The loudness of the rebound as well as the frequency of impacts gives the boxer an idea of how constant his punching force and speed are.

Relying on hearing requires a lot of experience and might prove challenging to new boxers. There are currently no aids that might help boxers with their speed bag training or give an indication of their performance. There is a clear need for such a system.

Our Goal

Provide dynamic feedback to boxers using a device that is compact, portable and with low power consumption.

Objectives

Design an automated data collection system that would provide dynamic feedback to boxers. Feedback can be in the form of instructions while boxing (speed up, slow down) and detailed analysis after a session is over. This is to be presented in a user-friendly manner.

Recent Updates:

22 Mar 10

Watch Symposium Video

21 Mar 10

Final testings and preprations for symposium

Picked up speed bag frame from Combination Sports

18 Mar 10

Finalized the PCB board and redesigned it to fit enclosure

Fixed firmware issues, added audio cues to software

17 Mar 10

Redesigned the Electrical prototype board to fit enclosure

Modified log files, software interface upgrades

14 Mar 10

Ordered electrical parts from digi-key

Final enclosure specifications

11 Mar 10

Resolved software and firmware interfacing issues

Created additional log files for debugging

Modified circuit prototype

6 Mar 10

All independent work completed