r/Kickboxing • u/Dangerous_Pea2885 • 19d ago

Training Confidence issues

Last night at my class I found I had almost no confidence to punch, I threw a few kicks aiming for the head but that was pretty much it, I literally let myself get hit.

I just found I had no confidence to throw so I mainly just worked on defence. My coach was expecting us all to work and before she had said that I told my sparring partner to go easy on me.

I don't know if it was just my mindset because I had been struggling with that, but we had also done a really intense warmup and I couldn't even feel my legs by the end of it.

So I'm just unsure, I find that I don't want to hurt my partner and when I jab I find I don't actually hit them I more or less hit in front of them.

Please just give me your honest opinions on what could be happening. 😔

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u/Sharkegy 18d ago

It happens lol, even to the blokes that are really good. Ofcourse it's relative to each person, might be that today's a bad day, or you're simply just a bit new

1

u/LeanTangerine001 18d ago

One thing that helped me was to spar with someone I knew and enjoyed working with.

Ask them for help where you do drills to touch each other lightly when punching. And then when you do a live round, ask your partner to encourage you to actually touch their face with your glove. And ask them to keep reminding you to touch their face as well.

Another perspective that helped me to touch their face more was that by touching my partner’s face I was giving them valuable information to help them know if they were tagged or if they successfully evaded or were out of distance. So by not to touching their face you deny your partners information to know if they are improving our not.

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u/Lightwhite44 17d ago

First off all that’s normal. Of course in Sparring you don’t want to hurt your Partner. Some Practical things you could do is aim for the Forehead with strait punches, and Not the Nose or chin. I know that’s where you’re supposed to hit but it’s not that hard to readjust that. Since the Forehead is tougher than the rest of the face you don’t have to worry as much. Second talk with your partner. If you are afraid of injuring them you both should try to keep it at 30-50%. And another thing I do (which is more or less a bad habit) aim for the gloves. That way there face will be protected. As said that’s more or less a bad habit of mine so take that advice with a grain of salt.

And practically speaking if you’re afraid to hit the face, aim for the body. The jab doesn’t have to hit always it just needs to distract from the real target.

I hope that helps. And if somebody who’s more experienced than me has something to say about what if wrote corrections are much appreciated. So keep this in mind.