# Shaking off rust quickly and closing the skill gap that was created from my hiatus?



## MoldyCookie (Jul 17, 2022)

So in an earlier question I said that I have been sparring for 2-3 months.

I wasn't lying.. BUT..

Those 2-3 months was before a 5 month hiatus I took due to financial jargon.

Coming back to sparring earlier this month, I immediately notice some annoying problems. Most notably I'm back to flailing/looking away. I'm back to being completely flat-footed and getting hit is back to feeling like more of a big deal than it was before the hiatus.

Nerves. I can accept that those will dial down again as I get back into sparring regularly. But there's a more concerning problem.

The people who I was sparring with before obviously didn't go on hiatus with me. I come back and they're just about unrecognizable with how much better they've gotten.

How do I catch up to them, or at least get back to where I was before as fast as possible? I'll admit I'm looking for a bit of a magic pill here but I can't stop thinking about all this lost progress and it's seriously ticking me off.


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## Jared Traveler (Jul 29, 2022)

Do you shadow box offense and defense?


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