Quote Originally Posted by Vodka
Try not to leave th kidney's open. The harder it is for him the reach, the greater the chance you can catch him if he tries to hit you there. (Is it the same sparring partner who keeps hitting you there, or is it different ones?)
I've been hit there twice, two different guys. I'm not sure how deliberate they were, I turned side on with the second guy this week when he was hooking to the body (there were no head shots in that session) so that one could have been avoided. I definitely learned a lot about protecting the body that day. The first time I was hit there was quite early on in my sparring (couple of months ago) so I was very inexperienced and probably exposed my back, but I've sparred a lot against that particular guy and I'm sure there was no malice intended.
Anyway, the main reason I was posting was that it took a couple of weeks to fully recover the first time it happened and so was affecting my training, I think my body's starting to get a little tougher now since it's been a day and a half since the last one and I'm already feeling almost better. Anyway cheers for the reply, I'll try not to get hit there anymore.