Thread: Gagging on the mouthpiece

Hey everyone I just wanted to get your advice on a problem I've had in my last two amatuer fights, and I sometimes have during sparring-GAGGING ON MY MOUTHPIECE.

Now I have a single mouthpiece, not a double, but still I"ve gotten really winded in there before and then gagged on it and started dry heaving a bit. That is the worst feeling in the world, its very hard to keep fighting when that happens.

I think its mostly nerves and just getting tired in there, but it could be that my mouthpiece was too old and dried out and too long.

Recently I boiled a new one and shaved it to about 2/3 of what my old one was.

I'm fighting my 3rd smoker on Saturday and I do not want to gag on that fucking mouthpiece again!

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Hulk

Hey everyone I just wanted to get your advice on a problem I've had in my last two amatuer fights, and I sometimes have during sparring-GAGGING ON MY MOUTHPIECE.

Now I have a single mouthpiece, not a double, but still I"ve gotten really winded in there before and then gagged on it and started dry heaving a bit. That is the worst feeling in the world, its very hard to keep fighting when that happens.

I think its mostly nerves and just getting tired in there, but it could be that my mouthpiece was too old and dried out and too long.

Recently I boiled a new one and shaved it to about 2/3 of what my old one was.

I'm fighting my 3rd smoker on Saturday and I do not want to gag on that fucking mouthpiece again!

Thanks.

I think the key there is getting winded, anything in your mouth at that point will make you gag.

have you tried doing your gym session whilst wearing it?

After that I seriously recommend hill sprint work to bust a lung and see if you can try and relax as tension will also tire you out. Recognise it's a natural response, take a deep breath, shake out your arms and legs.

Andre would love you to do some visualisation techniques to help prepare you. You know if you think about a stressful situation your body begins to act like it is real. You can use that to imagine how your fight would go perfectly, how relaxed you feel, how focused, no matter what your opponent does you're in control.

Some people find that sort of thing easier than others. Other people get stressed out if they don't have their lucky socks on. Fact is you are in control of your training, you can control your emotions.

Hope some of that was useful.

I think Missy got it right. I think that you just need to get used to wearing your mouthpiece and become more relaxed in the ring. It might also help to google some techniques on how to control/suppress the gag reflex.

Thanks.

I've been sparring hard and lots of rounds to prepare this time. More than usual.

And I been relaxing during sparring and NOT gagging on the mouthpiece, also I've been telling myself that I will not gag on it and that I will be relaxed in my fight.

Its just hard to stay relaxed when these guys rush you and throw all kinds of punches.

You could trim the mouthpiece down a bit or just focus on breathing through your nose because breathing through your mouth will exacerbate the gag reflex. I had that problem a lot when I was boxing and when I was playing football...hell I threw up every day when I was practicing for football, no fun at all, but at least it didn't ruin the games, I could spew and then go right back an play, in boxing I would think they would have to clean the ring, I often wondered about that

Originally Posted by Lyle

You could trim the mouthpiece down a bit or just focus on breathing through your nose because breathing through your mouth will exacerbate the gag reflex. I had that problem a lot when I was boxing and when I was playing football...hell I threw up every day when I was practicing for football, no fun at all, but at least it didn't ruin the games, I could spew and then go right back an play, in boxing I would think they would have to clean the ring, I often wondered about that

I've often wondered about the breathing through the mouth/nose because when you're exercising hard you breathe more through the mouth and not the nose.