its your first time and of course there are a couple of first time mistakes that most people commit. the most imperative thing you need to address is not looking down every time you see a punch coming. your trainers kept saying hands up, they should have been saying head up, because having your hands up and your head down aint gonna do nothin but get you messed up. head up.

had a problem awhile back where i was getting gun shy and looking away when i was under a lot of pressure. it was a developmental thing, i turn and pull away from punches a lot, and what happened was when i sparred with the same guy every week for 2 months he figured out my timing and range and started catching me more. the more i got caught the more i pulled away and it got to the point where my pulling away was nothing more than turning and crap rolling. enter situational sparring (kind of)...i backed into a corner for 5 rounds straight one day so that i couldnt turn away. i got hit clean with a lot of right hands (probably 20-25), but the habit was broken because the corner pad wouldnt let me turn or pull back more than a certain amount. believe it or not the more i got hit the less i got scared because it kept hurting less and less. now my head movement is back to where it was before the incident, even when i do get hit.