Fear of punches

[HerbM]

Another fairly new (and older) guy (like me) and I were working on simple throw and catch -- practicing catching for defense the other day. No real attempt to hit each other so this is totally safe and shouldn't invoke any fear.

So I notice that every time I throw he is blinking (hard with fully shut eyes) and I was reminded of this thread.

I stop for second, told him about it and let him realize it -- many people won't even realize they are shutting their eyes because I brains are designed to fill in the gaps when we blink so normally this is NOT consciously seen.

Then I slowed down as suggested above, and kept slowing down until he stopped blinking with the punch. He caught a few more, and slowly I sped up again -- still not going very fast but getting up to where we were working when the problem started.

He continued to keep his eyes open and react more effectively.

Part of the key is to catch stuff early and for that you need good partners who care about you almost like they care about themselves.

Boxing is a real brotherhood if you have the right training partners -- we basically loan each other our bodies for target practice in exchange for the same favor so that we both can improve.

And if we don't take care of our partners then they will get hurt, quit, or at best our skills will outstrip theirs -- and ANY of these cases we will need to find new partners who will do us this favor.

It's easier and more fun to help those who are helping us.

--
HerbM

[Andre]

Only read through a couple,trust Scraps advice its sounds strange but his stuff really works.

What about throwing shots at yourself in a mirror to train your eyes and brain reaction into not flinching on a visual trigger?

[N Maiberg]

Thanks to everyone for their advice, I'm using the meditation technique from scraps and it's working, the advice HerbM gave me really worked as well. Still not quite there, but definitely getting there. I've started fighting in a different style as well that I never thought about doing before, just came natural and it seems to be working so far. But even my trainer is saying he's starting to see a change in how I fight. I'm not flinching anymore, but just squeezing my eyes a little now, so only a little more to go before returning to normal

Thanks everyone, it really helped, all of it.

[danieladamsmith]

I'm not sure if someone mentioned this or not but you can just do a simple exercise.
Stand with your head in fighting stance towards your partner and have them tap/strike you in the forehead with their glove intermittently on the forehead. Tuck your chin in and have your forehead angled slightly towards your partner so they don't hit you in the eyes and watch every punch. Concentrate on keeping your eyes open and then do it for a round every time you train. It shouldn't be a stiff tap. Just a tap and then you can increase the power. I think the best way to get used to getting hit is....getting hit.

[HerbM]

I'm not sure if someone mentioned this or not but you can just do a simple exercise.
Stand with your head in fighting stance towards your partner and have them tap/strike you in the forehead with their glove intermittently on the forehead. Tuck your chin in and have your forehead angled slightly towards your partner so they don't hit you in the eyes and watch every punch. Concentrate on keeping your eyes open and then do it for a round every time you train. It shouldn't be a stiff tap. Just a tap and then you can increase the power. I think the best way to get used to getting hit is....getting hit.

I did NOT mention it quite like this, but it is a great example of what I was describing about starting slow and working up to more contact.

Always keeping it at a level where it is manageable, i.e., where you are successful the vast majority of the repetitions.

Good addition.

[Jacumba Hooker]

As per all of the above posts you need more time to condition your reactions.

Sparring for novices (and experienced boxers adding to their repetoir) should not always be about 'competition immitation'. The old addage of 'you can't learn to swim on dry land' is as true in the ring as it is for the pool, but you don't jump in the North Sea first off when learning to swim (or the Pacific or Tasman in my case).

Conditions in sparring - such as 'lead hand shots only' help develop your reactions and defences to those punches as you only need to concentrate on attacks upon your person from one or two angles/directions. Then you can add (for example) right hand to the body only (assuming orthadox boxers). Once comfortable with this you then build up the punches, the defences to those punches and the counters also.

It takes years of dedicated practice to learn to do anything to a high standard and boxing is no different.