# Flinching Problems



## GreatSayiaman (Jun 15, 2018)

As the Title says, What are some great ways to work on not flinching when Punches start coming towards yourself. I have been working on catching kicks to try to remedy the problem.

What are some good simple drills to drop the bad flinch habit.


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## spidersam (Jun 15, 2018)

GreatSayiaman said:


> As the Title says, What are some great ways to work on not flinching when Punches start coming towards yourself. I have been working on catching kicks to try to remedy the problem.
> 
> What are some good simple drills to drop the bad flinch habit.



I bought a Boxaball. It's sort of a toy but helps reflexes and gets me used to getting nailed in the face


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## GreatSayiaman (Jun 15, 2018)

spidersam said:


> I bought a Boxaball. It's sort of a toy but helps reflexes and gets me used to getting nailed in the face


 I might give that a try, Thanks.


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## paitingman (Jun 15, 2018)

Partner drills.

Jab drills where partners jab at your forehead and you slip. Get comfortable. Eventually your bad flinches will become good reactions and your eyes will get better and better. Have fun


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## Kung Fu Wang (Jun 15, 2018)

Try to brain wash yourself that if someone kills you with punch, make sure you remember his face so your ghost can hunt him for the rest of his life.


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## pdg (Jun 15, 2018)

Both suggestions above, but don't try to get rid of the flinch completely - use it.

Instead of flinching leading to stuff like closing your eyes and freezing up - convert it into a fast response start to your block/avoid/counter.


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## yak sao (Jun 15, 2018)

Have someone throw punches at your face while you just stand there and watch the fist


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## oldwarrior (Jun 15, 2018)

GreatSayiaman said:


> As the Title says, What are some great ways to work on not flinching when Punches start coming towards yourself. I have been working on catching kicks to try to remedy the problem.
> 
> What are some good simple drills to drop the bad flinch habit.




With more experience it will come ...as you become more at ease with the blocks or techniques you are being taught then your confidence will grow and you will flinch less

Also if you get hit it won't hurt forever ...if it kills you well it not hurt at all lol


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## CrazedChris (Jun 16, 2018)

Practice practice practice. 

I flinch when sparring with some people, and not others.  It's a trust thing.  Like when Sensei is throwing super fast punches at me as a demo for defense, I don't because I know he is not really going to hit me, but when someone I don't know does, that's another story.

As for actual punching, I am not there yet, but I would imagine practice would still help.  Oh, and turn that flinch into a dodge.


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## axelb (Jun 16, 2018)

Lots of drills, particularly against the attacks you flinch most at. 

Work the drill from a very easy pace that is comfortable.
Then liven it up by moving round and have the attacker become less regulated.


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## drop bear (Jun 16, 2018)

Do about 20 rounds of sparring at a stiff pace until you just don't give a crap about being hit any more.


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## Monkey Turned Wolf (Jun 16, 2018)

With the sparring, make sure there's some sort of contact. So that way you get used to being hit, and know it's not the end of the world


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## Danny T (Jun 16, 2018)

drop bear said:


> Do about 20 rounds of sparring at a stiff pace until you just don't give a crap about being hit any more.


Except that you are going to get hit. People say or think they accept that but accepting is really about getting hit and there is no reaction. Stand with your hands down, close your mouth, open your eyes and have a partner with gloves on lightly punch you in the face 20 times at the end of every training drill. We do catch-parry-cover stand your ground drills. Partner throws punches, you can’t move around (sometimes we do this on a wall or against the cage) you can only catch-parry or cover. 30 seconds then the other person punches for 30 seconds then a new partner repeating for 5 minutes. Your acceptance to getting hit goes up your brain calms down, flinching goes away and your defensive skills go way up. After that happens then we start on slipping and using footwork to evade.


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## JowGaWolf (Jun 16, 2018)

GreatSayiaman said:


> As the Title says, What are some great ways to work on not flinching when Punches start coming towards yourself. I have been working on catching kicks to try to remedy the problem.
> 
> What are some good simple drills to drop the bad flinch habit.


Learn to recognize when someone is committed to punching and stop trying to anticipate a punch. A short term fix to your problem is to turn your head slightly so that your chin pointing to about 5 inches away from the outside of your opponents.  It should give you the slight feeling that you are trying to look out the corner of your eye (off center).  This will help you to identify movements of real punches and kicks.   Be sure to spar to learn and that your opponent isn't kicking or hitting you too hard.  Start at a slower punch and kick speed and have your opponent increase the speed when you start to get too comfortable with the current speed.  The only thing you need to be doing is watching, blocking, and moving.  The most important thing you have to do is watch, so if you get tagged in the face then that's fine so long as you didn't close your eyes.   Eventually you will get out of your flinching habit because you are seeing what is going on vs anticipating what you think will come.  

Getting hit is part of the learning process so make sure you train this way with a partner that can control their strikes.  If you get hit more than 2 times in a row then you need to slow the striking speed down.    Through out the process you never slow down your evasion and blocking speed because it will balance out as the strikes come in faster.


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## drop bear (Jun 17, 2018)

Danny T said:


> Except that you are going to get hit. People say or think they accept that but accepting is really about getting hit and there is no reaction. Stand with your hands down, close your mouth, open your eyes and have a partner with gloves on lightly punch you in the face 20 times at the end of every training drill. We do catch-parry-cover stand your ground drills. Partner throws punches, you can’t move around (sometimes we do this on a wall or against the cage) you can only catch-parry or cover. 30 seconds then the other person punches for 30 seconds then a new partner repeating for 5 minutes. Your acceptance to getting hit goes up your brain calms down, flinching goes away and your defensive skills go way up. After that happens then we start on slipping and using footwork to evade.



There will be no reaction by the time you reach the stuff it phase.


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## Kung Fu Wang (Jun 17, 2018)

GreatSayiaman said:


> What are some good simple drills to drop the bad flinch habit.


If you can keep your opponent's fist away from your face, you won't flinch that much. To do so, the rhino guard can do that job.


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## Danny T (Jun 17, 2018)

drop bear said:


> There will be no reaction by the time you reach the stuff it phase.


Yep. Start light, make it a part of every training session and even the most timid to getting hit become acclimated. Then they see openings for counter attacks and timing them goes up as well. Staying in the pocket and being able to stuff, slip, slide in & out of range, and being able to survive if getting rocked.


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## axelb (Jun 17, 2018)

drop bear said:


> Do about 20 rounds of sparring at a stiff pace until you just don't give a crap about being hit any more.



This is just going to train bad flinching habits. 

You need to make sure that you are training/ drilling defence at a level where you can apply valid defence.  
Build it up slowly over time. 

Going on to being hit at constantly isn't going to teach anything about defence.
It may waste your time and give you a bad taste about what sparring is. 

The flinch is your very basic reaction to an attack, whatever you do, you don't want to untrain yourself into *not* reacting to an attack. 

Once you have confidence in your defence drills, you flinch will become parry, slip or whichever defence works best for you. 

Never ever stand there and let someone hit you in the head, even if it's light contact- this is of no benefit to anyone.


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## drop bear (Jun 17, 2018)

axelb said:


> This is just going to train bad flinching habits.
> 
> You need to make sure that you are training/ drilling defence at a level where you can apply valid defence.
> Build it up slowly over time.
> ...



Because you stand there and let people hit you in sparring?


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## axelb (Jun 17, 2018)

drop bear said:


> Because you stand there and let people hit you in sparring?


If your reaction to being hit is to flinch, then yes you will just get hit. 
Defensive drills should be worked first to a competent level for a student to not be flinching frequently, otherwise sparring will just train bad habits and waste time. 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## JowGaWolf (Jun 17, 2018)

axelb said:


> If your reaction to being hit is to flinch, then yes you will just get hit.
> Defensive drills should be worked first to a competent level for a student to not be flinching frequently, otherwise sparring will just train bad habits and waste time.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


As a kid I played a game with friends  where people would get hit for flinching.  After a while it eventually go boring because no one flinched.


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## Gerry Seymour (Jun 17, 2018)

I've seen two approaches work, and it might be that they work for different people. One is what @drop bear suggested: just go spar long enough in one go (a bunch of rounds) that you get tired and don't really care about being hit. Some folks just "get over it" after doing that. Make sure you're not doing that sparring in a way that's beating up your head - that's not the point. It should be light sparring, and your focus really is on defending the ones you flinch from.

The other approach is closer to what Danny and some others have pointed to: work light drills on just those attacks (or, with more of those attacks than others). I use "defensive sparring" (where there's no counter-attack from the student) to help with this. Their focus is to keep moving and control distance (opening and closing distance to control my very light attacks).


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## JR 137 (Jun 20, 2018)

JowGaWolf said:


> As a kid I played a game with friends  where people would get hit for flinching.  After a while it eventually go boring because no one flinched.


“Two for flinching?”


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## Kung Fu Wang (Jun 20, 2018)

Your eyes will open big when you feel excited. How can you make your opponent's incoming punch to make you feel excited? You may just need to develop an effective counter against a face punch that will have high successful rate.

Next time when someone throws a punch at you, you will have a big smile on your face.


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## axelb (Jun 21, 2018)

Kung Fu Wang said:


> Your eyes will open big when you feel excited. How can you make your opponent's incoming punch to make you feel excited? You may just need to develop an effective counter against a face punch that will have high successful rate.
> 
> Next time when someone throws a punch at you, you will have a big smile on your face.


yes! don't learn to get hit, learn to defend against a hit, that's the point of martial arts training  
other wise it is just training how to be a punch bag. 

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk


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## Deafdude#5 (Jun 22, 2018)

Like the others said...don’t get hit. Start by moving out of the way. Never just stand in one place.

Practice, practice and practice so that you can learn as you make mistakes.


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## FriedRice (Jul 6, 2018)

Deafdude#5 said:


> Like the others said...don’t get hit. Start by moving out of the way. Never just stand in one place.
> 
> Practice, practice and practice so that you can learn as you make mistakes.



One of the main problems of Muay Thai, IMO, is not a lot of footwork. MT is trained to ultimately pack in as much pain & destruction as possible in 3 rounds of fighting to keep it exciting for the spectators and especially, the Thai gamblers. 

That's why it can be very annoying to see some Karate guy running around the the ring all day while the MT chases him. This can be seen in MMA with Wonderbread, Machida and other points fighting style, Karatekas getting booed to hell in most to all of their fights...during and after the fight, and even when they've been awarded the win by decision. 

In MT, it's mostly about going straight in and out, exchange damage to see who gets KTFO.  It's rarely breaking stance by moving/running way out of range like Kung-Fu, Karate, etc. does.


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## EddieCyrax (Jul 6, 2018)

I developed a flinch with one of my instructors a few years ago. During a moderate sparring match i got popped harder than he intended as i walked into it.  From that point, my brain went into auto-defense every time i sparred him.   No one else, just him.

I am not sure what padding you use, but we generally do not wear head gear as control is generally there with the higher ranks.  This said, I started wearing head gear when i sparred him.  Through time, I lost the flinch as the protection gave me the confidence that i had lost.

Just a thought.


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## EMT (Jan 2, 2019)

A simple conditioning against flinching: when taking a shower face your showerhead with your eyes wide open and let the water drops hit your eyes without closing them. This way you will desensitize your eyes to rapid movements in front of them.


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