Fear of Taking a Hit-Advice

DeadlyByDesign

Hi all

I recently started MMA (last month to be exact) after looking for ages fir a gym that does it in Limerick. For a while now my coach has been telling me that I need to be more aggressive. My ground game is coming along but my stand up/striking….well just plain sucks! My coach is saying that I need to get more of a killer instinct. I’ll be honest with you guys (ah god bless the anonymity of the internet!) The fear of taking a punch is still there a bit and I am unsure as to how to beat it.

Is it a case of acceptance? What I mean is that I should accept that I am going to get hit and work from there? Any advice is appreciated as I love this sport and want all the advice I can get.

Dragan

If this is the first time you have done any kind of striking then you need to realise that the "fear" of getting hit is a perfectly normal human response that you will need to work on over coming.

How do you feel when you are in the striking range, do you find yourself focusing more on his hand or yours? that is to say, are you very concious of what he is trying to throw and avoiding it?

Also, is the root cause of your fear of being hit down to possible injury, or scarring or the fact that it might hurt a little bit?

To be honest, it is something you will get used to, you need to realise that the chances of injury in a training environment are very slim, so keep putting the work in , maybe spend a bit LONGER on the standup if you can, eventually you will get rattled and realise that it's no big deal at all!

Also, how long have you been doing stand up work?

And remember, get comfortable being hit, but work on your footwork, headwork and angles so you don't have to feel comfortable with it often!

DeadlyByDesign

Dragan wrote: »

If this is the first time you have done any kind of striking then you need to realise that the "fear" of getting hit is a perfectly normal human response that you will need to work on over coming.

How do you feel when you are in the striking range, do you find yourself focusing more on his hand or yours? that is to say, are you very concious of what he is trying to throw and avoiding it?

Also, is the root cause of your fear of being hit down to possible injury, or scarring or the fact that it might hurt a little bit?

To be honest, it is something you will get used to, you need to realise that the chances of injury in a training environment are very slim, so keep putting the work in , maybe spend a bit LONGER on the standup if you can, eventually you will get rattled and realise that it's no big deal at all!

Also, how long have you been doing stand up work?

And remember, get comfortable being hit, but work on your footwork, headwork and angles so you don't have to feel comfortable with it often!

Thanks for the reply Dragan. I response to some of your questions I guess I am concentrating more on his hands and conscious of the blows he lands on me. When I am striking it always feels like I am hitting nothing but a guard. I guess I am conscious also that it is gonna hurt. Hate souinding like a wuss here but I reckon it's best to be honest and get the advice needed.

Sorry to sound blunt but you need to first and foremost accept it as an inevitability or you won't have as much success due to it being a mental block.

Now saying that, I don't mean for you to adopt the Rocky Balboa/Chris Leben/Nogueira/Wanderlei Silva school of "take a beating to give a beating". But you do need to accept that from time to time, you will get tagged.

Now, you can use the fear to your advantage and develop a style similar to Floyd Mayweather/Machida/Rampage etc where you focus a helluva lot on defence (I would strongly advocate this as I think good defence and average offence is way better than good offence and average defence unless you have a granite chin and even then it'll be broken at some stage. Focus on learning to block, weave and avoid getting hit. The part about hitting him back will come with this so don't worry. Countering is highly effective if your defence is tight.

But the fear must be overcome somewhat as you don't want it to make you gun shy either.

Good luck and keep training.

siochain

If your only at it a month your coach should be matching you with guys for sparring at your own level (which in fact can be a lot worse at times than sparring experienced guy's as they have no sense of control) or if sparring guy's more experience guys they should be briefed to help bring you along and not to go full on. Only way to get used to it really is to get hit no real easy way about it. Are you wearing a head guard?

Drunkmonkey79

IMO only after taking a few shots will you realise its not going to kill you, you may leave training with a bit of a headache but you'll be fine.
I read an article once which suggested splashing water in your face and over coming your natural responce to wince or pull away. Now i know its not the same as taking a punch but if you can learn to keep your eyes open and keep your wits about you, you may find your not getting hit as much.

Dragan

DeadlyByDesign wrote: »

Thanks for the reply Dragan. I response to some of your questions I guess I am concentrating more on his hands and conscious of the blows he lands on me. When I am striking it always feels like I am hitting nothing but a guard. I guess I am conscious also that it is gonna hurt. Hate souinding like a wuss here but I reckon it's best to be honest and get the advice needed.

You are only doing it a month mate, it will take a LONG time to come to grips with all the things that making the striking arts so sweet.

For example, you don't just throw a punch and have it land. You get your timing and his down, start mixing in shots to see how your opponent reacts, then you try and set up your shots, throwing 1 or 2 punches to land one that you want.

It's a complicated thing and you only really get an idea for how deep it can be when you start sinking!

What i will say to you is, think of your guard as being like a gate, when it's closed your opponent has limited ability to get shots through, but you have limited ability to throw them.

Have you noticed when watching MMA that 70% of the time a shot lands it's because the person who was hit was throwing a shot? That's because his opponent found his timing and threw the right shot at the right time to get through the tangle and connect. It can take a long time to come to grip with it as a concept, let alone to actually carry it off.

You also need to try and find what shots you are leaving yourself open to, what you opponent is throwing and when and act accordingly, mix up your own offense to confuse them etc!

Karmafaerie

Where are you training if you don't mind me asking?
I've trained in a few places around Limerick.

As for the fear of being hit.

TBH it really does come down to two things.
Either the unknown, or the unwilling.

Seeing as you're new, I'm guessing it's more of a fear of the unknown than anything.
That's okay.
You'd be an idiot not to be afraid of being punched or kicked in the head!:p

If you're only at it a month, you're trainer should have you started with semi sparring.
Not going flat out, and just tagging each other.
If this is the case, you'll get used to the idea of a punch coming at your face, without the full impact.

It's a great system, as once you're used to the idea of it, that's half the battle.

The first time you get your bell rung.
Now that's fun.
If you can get back in after that, you'll never have a problem.;)


Some however just never get used to it.
They're constantly holding back cause of it, and to be honest they should find a different sport.

davmol

When sparring you should be wearing around 14oz gloves and usually with a head guard.Generally no one spars at 100% of power so taking shots shouldnt hurt that much.I spar for technique and power doesnt come into play,if i was coming into work with black eyes and a busted nose my boss wouldnt be too happy.

Jason Mc

Striking gets much more fun when you are landing more shots than you are taking.

The hard part is getting to that point in the beginning. It just takes time.

Just put the proper preotective gear on and spar with someone with a bit of control.

Footwork, keeping your hands up and head movement are the main keys to not getting hit.

hitman119

who are you training with?

If your doing any contact sports your going to get hit, its inevitable my friend...

the best tips i can give are these,

1, Don't not allow you apponet to hit you effectively.

2, Move around don't stand still its harder to hit a moving target

3, And last but not least the oldest and the best advice, chin down, hands up.

Tyler MacDurden

Presuming that your coach is the approachable type, why not just say it to him? He might come up with a few drills to get you conditioned to taking shots.

One that works well is where one guy just defends while the other throws punches/kicks, swapping over every 30 secs or whatever. As some of the guys have said, it's safer to do with an experienced person as they have better control.

A harder version is to have the defender backed up against a wall where he can't evade shots. You'll soon discover gaps in your guard as well as getting used to the sensation of impact.

Anyhow, don't stress over it, it'll come to you the more you train. And when you do get tagged you'll realise you're not made of glass, even if you're picking yourself off the floor you'll feel just a little bit indestructible.

arybvtcw0eolkf

From your description it sounds like your coach is less than understanding, however I'd rather not stand in judgement over him here.

But it leads me to think that his coaching methods might not suit a total beginner.

Are you sparring with 4oz MMA gloves btw?.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

Tyler MacDurden wrote: »

One that works well is where one guy just defends while the other throws punches/kicks, swapping over every 30 secs or whatever.

A harder version is to have the defender backed up against a wall where he can't evade shots.

I find both of these great, helps you build up a solid defense and gives you a lot more confidence, especially if you're up against a very aggressive opponent.