In Systema (Russian Martial Arts) we frequently get many people who are gun shy of being punched, and some of the following methods work for all of them who stay around a few weeks.

You are however beyond their level so please don't think that I am equating you with those newcomers, but rather just explaining that these methods work -- together or separately.

(First, everything that you were offered above sounds good too so I am just adding more choices and exercises...)

Get with a friend (or friends) who you can trust -- this must be someone whose only goal is to help you reorganize your neurology to react correctly and usefully.

  1. Start light and very slow.
  2. Have your partner just touch your face or anywhere else that tends to cause a flinch. GENTLY. Accept the touch.
  3. Continue moving slowly and SLOWLY move appropriately and sometimes just purposely 'take the hit' (which is just a touch).
  4. As your partner SLOWLY increase the speed or power (and this might be over minutes or even over days) NO FASTER than you can continue to make good movements and react open eyed and effectively, you might want to have the touches/taps be directed somewhat away from the 'sensitive' areas and moved back only as quickly as you can continue to deal with them and improve your reaction.
    By this latter I mean you might be comfortable with a medium tap on the cheekbone but still not be quite ready for that if it comes at your eye or perhaps your nose.
  5. The goal here is to NEVER get "hurt" or be "macho" but rather to retrain your neurology.
  6. With many people we don't even start with the face or head but initially send solid touches, then taps, then solid punches to the big muscles of the upper chest where the padding makes even a bare fist fairly comfortable.
  7. At all times, remember and think the goal is to move correctly and so go as slow and light as necessary.
  8. Take some hits at levels that are PERFECTLY acceptable TO YOU. No one else, except perhaps a very careful partner will know what this is so don't go macho and if your partner sees the slightest flinch then he much slow down, reduce power, move the punch to a different area, whatever it takes.
Flinching is not a bad thing, if you have no other response, but it is less than useful if you can use good body movements, blocking, slipping, catching, etc to better protect yourself.

You want to convince your neurology (it's not a conscious thing or it wouldn't be a flinch) that you have those other more effective choices -- and it will (usually) only be convinced by a couple of things:

  1. Success in dealing with a punch
  2. Effectively surviving those that do get through
Concentrate the large majority of your practice on the former (success) rather than the latter (taking a hit except at very manageable speeds/levels), because ONE failure (i.e., 1 flinch) is likely going to take TEN SUCCESSES (or many more in severe cases) to re-wire.

This also comes up in pistol shooting -- and the principles are similar except of course your reduce the caliber and noise levels (not just smaller caliber but also using ear plugs with ear muffs to reduce the sound level) until the flinch disappears and until new good reactions take precedence.

--
HerbM