Fear of punches

[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.