Progress stalling!

[Mike1962]

Another thing to keep in mind, progress in martial arts isn't linear. You'll see a ton of improvement, then you'll plateau and see almost no improvement. Then you might see some improvement, but nowhere near as fast as you want. Then you might see yourself actually getting worse for a few months, followed by a random spike in your ability.

It sucks, it's frustrating, and it happens to all of us for various reasons. You're also not going to notice your improvement if you compare yourself to other people in the dojo - they're also improving at their own rates! And you can't even compare rates of improvement since, as above, progress isn't linear.

That's really helpful - I do feel like I'm going backwards right now, so it's reassuring that that its just something that happens. I guess it's something to do with how the brain works. Actually, I'd not connected before but I'm learning French and I've found that happens there sometimes - I have got really frustrated at times when I come across something I can't do, yet I know I could do it a few weeks before. Maybe that's why I'm extra frustrated with my last few sessions, when I seem to have been going backwards, because before then, when I was progressing slowly, I'd always think "Well, at least I'm improving a bit each week". Thanks!

 

[drop bear]

When you say you don't respond properly, what do you mean? ie: Is your reaction speed too slow, do you panic/flinch, do you get sensory overload, or do you do react with a block/strike, just not the 'right' block/strike?

You've gotten some good advice here, but which advice will help the most depends on what the underlying issue is.

It is common in drills. You stand in front of someone and they get to punch or kick you with either hand, either leg and you have, say, 4 different responses. One for each strike.

And you find there is no way you can process the information in time to do the correct defence to the correct attack. Even if you can pull off defenses in sparring. All of this is compounded if you are not striking back. Because the other guy just walks straight up the middle in range and camps there booping you with impunity.

And this is because strikes happen faster than you can react kind of.

This is also why good striking defence is not set up that way.

So for the O.P. you don't defend striking in the manner you think you do. You mitigate some of the striking with footwork. You don't stand where they can hit you untill you hit them. You move at angles that have the highest percentage chance that they were going to strike.(if they have thrown a left. You move out of the way of their cross)

Then you have a guard. It just sits there to either catch the shots you haven't moved out of the way of. Oe it limits the effective shots they can throw.

It is a super common mistake. And commonly solved by trying to be faster and have faster reactions. Which is ambitious.

Then you consciously react to what's left. And then you might have a chance to respond to an attack and do the correct thing.

 

[Badhabits]

Another point on your combos and joining them together in a smooth way as you said- there's the speed of the punches themselves, what most people focus on in the beginning. There's also the little gap in time between the punches. You launch a simple 1-2-3, say a jab-cross-hook. There's a gap between when you launch each punch. When that gap of time is relatively long your combos will look and feel sort of jerky, disjointed. Not flowing like you feel they should. Jab...half second....cross....half second....hook. Practicing combos slowly and smoothly can also help you focus on shrinking that time between launching each punch. It's not about the speed of the punch. It's about launching each punch sooner. That's when your combos will start to flow better. It'll also create the illusion that your punches are faster. Not because the punches themselves are, but because the time it takes to throw the entire combo will be less. Hope that makes sense.