Fear of sparring

[ROOKIE OF THE YEAR]

I really want to improve my martial art skills. Recently I joined muay thai. I already paid yearly (no refund). I classes were pretty fun until it came to sparring. I am really afraid of sparring, but I have no choice. I got kick on the ribs and chest and it hurt like hell, especially sparring with a samoan guy.

I really love learning to improve my fighting skills so I don't get picked on at school anymore. The people in my muay thai said this will help me alot, especially on confidence. But after a few days of sparring, I starting to get really discourage and scare.

Anybody whose in martial art classes can give me a few pointers. How do I avoid pain from ribs and chest? Because I had a hard time breathing for a minute everytime I got hit by those areas.

 

[Phoenix_of_the_ashes]

First of all I think its sort of an alarm signal if you have to pay yearly.

Anyway, your problem: I notice that alot of new guys do the guard pretty much wrong by winging out their arms.

Your underarms should be more or less parallel butmost importantly they should be orthogonal to the floor, that way they protect the side of your body very effectively. Tight guard position, think compact.

Also, always return your arms back into this position as quickly as possible after having punched. You may be neglecting this now because you just want to punch as fast as possible, but returning the hand is just as important.

 

[C00L]

KICK THEIR ****ING ASSES MAN

 

[trd323]

The gym should be advocating more technique than power. Meaning that sparring should be down to 40-50% power and more skill. My intructor trained and fought in thailand and they dont even go 100% when they spar. You get a lot of people want to boost their egos by going all out but dont spar witht hem.

 

[RaWBLooD]

when u face your fears, you realize they do not exist.

 

[Phoenix_of_the_ashes]

Originally posted by trd323
The gym should be advocating more technique than power. Meaning that sparring should be down to 40-50% power and more skill. My intructor trained and fought in thailand and they dont even go 100% when they spar. You get a lot of people want to boost their egos by going all out but dont spar witht hem.

This is all true, but personally I like sparring hard and if the other guys wants the same then all the better.

The reason they only spar lightly in Thailand is that they have a competition almost every weekend anyway, they dont want to risk injury and they have enough hard contact experience anyway,

 

[diablo]

No offense, but how do you expect to improve without some pain? Unless you're actually in serious physical danger - i.e. a broken limb or ruptured spleen - then just suck it up and keep going... it might be cliche, but what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. You want to be tough so you won't get beat up at school? Get better. There's no way you can expect to be able to dodge every punch or kick when you've never done this before - as you learn and become better the injuries you sustain will become less and less frequent.

To be honest, I'm not even sure what the point of this thread was - you've already paid for a year, so you have two options as I see it:

• Be a man and suck it up.
• Be a puss and quit, losing your money.

Not much middle ground.

 

[Phoenix_of_the_ashes]

Well ribs break easily and end your training for some time, I suggest not only learning from pain.

 

[BMW]

Originally posted by ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
I really want to improve my martial art skills. Recently I joined muay thai. I already paid yearly (no refund). I classes were pretty fun until it came to sparring. I am really afraid of sparring, but I have no choice. I got kick on the ribs and chest and it hurt like hell, especially sparring with a samoan guy.

I really love learning to improve my fighting skills so I don't get picked on at school anymore. The people in my muay thai said this will help me alot, especially on confidence. But after a few days of sparring, I starting to get really discourage and scare.

Anybody whose in martial art classes can give me a few pointers. How do I avoid pain from ribs and chest? Because I had a hard time breathing for a minute everytime I got hit by those areas.

talk to your Kru. Apparently this guy you sparred with went hard on you to feed his ego regardless of the fact you are a newbie. Tell him to pair you up with someone else next time. By the way, you will always face people like that no matter how long you been doing it. There WILL come a time when you are able to retaliate against these type of people and they will be the ones who will be scared of you. The trick is not to lose heart and keep at it.

 

[redgriffin]

what most of these guys are saying is great suff.
just remember this fact: if you get winded, you will get your breath back just as quickly if you give up or if you keep fighting.

 

[wildchild]

Hi rookie, Ive not been on this for ages but poped on today to see if there was any posts about muay thai infact. I remember emailing you ages ago about it. Well if ur getting kicked alot in the ribs work on your guard more, lean back to avoid the shot, block with your shin etc. Its also ok to say to the guy to go a little bit lighter on you if you feel your getting hurt. When I started muay thai I hated sparring as well, i still dont like sparring with certain people because they occasionally hit too hard, it makes you realise what its like getting hit though if you did get into a fight at school or whatever its not gonna be tippy tappy. Alot of guys who study no contact forms of self defence have excellent skills but when it comes to the street and they get punched they totally lose there composure because they dont know what its like to take a real hit. Also( your instructor should have told you this) when you get hit or you deliver an attack remember to breathe this will help prevent you getting winded.

 

[StoneCold]

I do shotokan karate

and my sensi is like a small iron block when we do conditioning his punches hurt like **** and he still continues even if you are so weak you cant move

also we get hit by metal poles and sticks on our stomach and beacuse im on the bulking phase i also have a little flab in that area so it feels like a really painful sting like a super powerful slap but it continues to 20 and this is when your in so much pain you black out......
i have problems with the breathing technique but im getting their

as for sparing yeah sumtimes i get kicked in my balls i get wacked on the face i get punched in the jaw, dead arms, dead legs you name it
sometimes you cant even get out of bed the next day.........

Im crazy and signing up for the second term im a fighter in terms of doing it but yeah you gota take the pain and begin to love it

 

[WesCottII]

Originally posted by ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
How do I avoid pain from ribs and chest? .

Don't get hit.