Flinching Problems

GreatSayiaman

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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.
 
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
 
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
 
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.
 
Have someone throw punches at your face while you just stand there and watch the fist
 
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
 
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. :)
 
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.
 
Do about 20 rounds of sparring at a stiff pace until you just don't give a crap about being hit any more.
 
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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.

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

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