Confidence

[Whitebelt]

I often find myselfe lacking confidence during sparring. I feel sorry for the opponent if i think i have hurt them and end up not competing to my full potential due to my concern about the oponent. Do any of you have a way of boosting your confidence or forgetting your concern over your oponent?

 

[Andrew Green]

I often find myselfe lacking confidence during sparring. I feel sorry for the opponent if i think i have hurt them and end up not competing to my full potential due to my concern about the oponent. Do any of you have a way of boosting your confidence or forgetting your concern over your oponent?

Do some full contact stuff. The reason you worry about your opponent is likely to do with inexperience in getting hit, and hitting other people hard. Not knowing the effects of hits first hand.

Think of it like with throws. Until you've taken a few they can be a little frightening, recieving and giving them. Once you've made many landings and landed many people it stops being "concerning" and just a part of the game.

Strikes are no different, until you've experienced them they are more threatening then they should be. Afterwards getting hit still sucks, but you also realise that its not gonna kill you to take a few...

 

[Pale Rider]

Since you are a Yellow belt - I am going to post a video that I have when I was a yellow belt. Confidence is the BIGGEST key.
Yellow Belt Sparring

Here is a short footage of when I was a Brown Belt...
Brown Belt Sparring

With time you will gain more confidence as you see your abilities get better. Right now is a learning stage for you. Just remember to practice what you know, throw different combinations. And stay calm.

 

[VSanhodo]

First, I wish you the very best in your training and the long road ahead of you. To answer your question about confidance, Im not going to try to complicate this, I think the asnwer is rather simple. If you want to get better and gain more confidance then simply spar more. How do you get to Carnegie Hall?????? Practice Practice Practice.

I honestly dont think it is anymore difficult than that.

good luck

san

 

[Aqua4ever]

Hi! Don't worry, I often feel like this too, it just takes a lot of sparring, and some good partners. My instructor can often be heard telling me to stop saying sorry, there's no place for sorry in the ring, make your apolgies after if you really need to. I once lost a tournament at our club to an adult (there were few in my division, a very small tournament, they combined) becuase I was afriad to go in and risk hurting her. My instructor won't let me forget it, and I now get threatened with runs/push-ups/wind sprints if I start letting up. Maybe you can find someone nice enough to do this for you Or, if this doesn't work for you, try finding a good partner that will let you just hit/kick at them, and have them tell you honestly how much it hurts them or affects them. With time you'll learn the bruises are expected, no one holds them against you (bruises or other injuries) and it will get easier
Best of luck
Aqua

 

[MJS]

I often find myselfe lacking confidence during sparring. I feel sorry for the opponent if i think i have hurt them and end up not competing to my full potential due to my concern about the oponent. Do any of you have a way of boosting your confidence or forgetting your concern over your oponent?

One of the best ways to feel confident about something is to keep doing it over and over. There is so much that can be learned by sparring, and each time you spar, it should be a learning experience for you. As far as hurting someone goes...the Martial Arts are a contact activity. Getting hit, some bumps and bruises are going to happen. To go into the ring during that friendly sparring match and intentionally trying to hurt them is not good.

Use each match as a learning experience. Go in there with something to work on. Like anything, over time, you'll find yourself getting better.

Mike

 

[Drac]

There is not much I can add to these posts that hasn't been said..I too suffered from lack of confidence at one time..It was the first time that I sparred with Sensei and I actually tapped him that I began to feel any type of cofidence, he enforced that by adding that I couldn't have done that a month ago..For the record that tap was the only contact I made during that session

 

[DeLamar.J]

I often find myselfe lacking confidence during sparring. I feel sorry for the opponent if i think i have hurt them and end up not competing to my full potential due to my concern about the oponent. Do any of you have a way of boosting your confidence or forgetting your concern over your oponent?

Just dont hurt no one on purpose, if you do apologize. Your sparring to learn, not hurt someone, but it happens. Sometimes your going to slip and hit to hard, but as long as your not breaking ribs and noses, your ok. If your breaking peoples bones your throwing way to hard to begin with for sparring.

 

[Whitebelt]

No one has answered my question yet.

 

[VSanhodo]

No one has answered my question yet.

If you honestly feel nobody has answered your question, You need to do one of 4 things

Continue training.
Stop training and take up badmitten
Have someone who has trained longer than you read the posts to you
Go back to school and learn to read

I Was going to say I dditn mean to be critical but YEs, Yes I do. PPl have taken their time to answer your post and frankly I think they have dont a good job of it. Like many ppl today you want it spelled out and handed to you on a silver platter. I go back to what I said before, if you want to get batter at sparring and overcome your concerns of harming someone SPAR it isnt rocket science.

Thanks

San

 

[Ceicei]

No one has answered my question yet.

If you are looking for a quick solution to increasing confidence or decreasing your concern for others, there isn't an instant answer. What others have said basically is that this takes time. The sparring itself is what helps build the confidence through experience. The understanding of physiology and control of hits in sparring will lessen your concern of injuring others.

- Ceicei

 

[mj-hi-yah]

No one has answered my question yet.

I do agree with the others who have told you that practice will build your confidence, but here's a training drill that you can try that might help you. Find a partner that you trust, and work in the ring taking turns being offensive and defensive. So to start you will only strike and he/she will only block and then switch. This drill is a confidence builder, because it allows you to practice your skills as a beginner without the worry of being offensive and defensive at the same time. You get to see under less stressful conditions that you are ok and your partner is ok. Eventually you should mix it all up and spar both offensively and defensively, but by that time you will have experienced success in both areas and hopefully you will feel more confident in your abilities. :asian:

 

[jkdhit]

i remember i used to feel sorry for my opponent when i first started sparring a long time ago. but once you let go of that, you'll notice a giant change in the way you train

everytime i spar, i just remember that my opponent is sparring me by his or her own free will and that they know there's a chance they'll get hurt. i also think that they're not thinking about me getting injured as well which makes it a bit easier. however, this is hard to do when you're sparring with friends

 

[kenpochad]

I often find myselfe lacking confidence during sparring. I feel sorry for the opponent if i think i have hurt them and end up not competing to my full potential due to my concern about the oponent. Do any of you have a way of boosting your confidence or forgetting your concern over your oponent?

The more you spar the more control you will gain and confidence .
having some concern for you trainning partner i think is good thang after you guys are famliy.

 

[andy]

White__ I'll tell you what my teacher said to me as I began.. Mind, no mind-
Relax and enjoy what your doing it's just a quick moving game of chess

Mushin --( I think thats what it's called)

 

[Knarfan]

Just try & clear your mind & try & remember why your training in the first place . Get used to hitting & getting hit hard like you have already been told . Don't try & solve all your problems in one sparring session . Keep it clean, help the other person develope their skills , you will be doing them a favor . your all there to help each other develope . Accidents will happen, don't worry , your learning how to fight not play badmitten . Just make sure you don't mess with anyones MONKEY !:btg:

 

[MA-Caver]

What Ceicei said: "...there's no instant answer..." Confidence comes from within. How you feel about your training and your ability to handle someone trying to do to you what you want to do to them. Your ability to do everything that you spent hours, weeks, and even months in practice and training.
Just like everything else in life that we learn how to do; riding a bike, driving a car, cooking, sex, running computer programs, martial arts, walking, and everything else. You're going to make mistakes and you're going (hopefully) to learn from them.

One key thing is... relax.