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Closing my eyes when sparring... any suggestions

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I have been sparring for about 3 months now. My ground game is pretty good but I tend to freeze up during sparring. I have the speed and head movement but when i get hit with a combination i tend to close my eyes... is there any way you guys have gotten around this or do i just need to get hit alot and get use to it???? Thanks all
 
I get younger weaker kids to start throwing combos at my head and i try to stop from blinking and keeping my eyes closed.

It comes with experience, once you sparr enough you'll get used to it.
 
thanks... thats whay i hope... i have gotten alot better and i dont look away and take the hit. but its the combos taht get me... i can take one or two but once my eyes start flinching its like they are on auto
 
A punch is going to hurt all the same whether your eyes are open or not. I don't think the eye-lid provides alot of padding. Just messing with ya.

It is probably more of a reflex than anything. Eventually it will go away. I used to be a catcher when I played baseball back in my teens and taking a lot of foul tips to my catcher's mask pretty much killed those eye-closing reflexes.

Hell, you can get a cheap/used catcher's mask and have someone lightly toss tennis balls off it while you wear it. Eventually you'll be able to keep yourself from blinking. Getting rid of a natural reflex takes time but you'll get it eventually.
 
One way my instructor told me to train the blinking out is to splash water in my face without blinking.
 
You should get used to it by sparring more. But there things you can do to help. You can get somebody to throw punches at you with little contact and try not to blink. I found the double end bag helps as well.
 
how long did it take most people to quit blinking/flinching? I've been consistently sparring for about 3 months like the TS, and although not as bad as the beginning, I do still blink when a combo is coming; either that or I will look towards their stomach region. Can't wait to completely break the habit.
 
In the end though after you get this down, neck muscles are what matters so you should probably exercise that concurrently with the 'not blinking' thing

Having strong neck means your head doesn't get snapped back, which is HUGE, I repeat HUGE in striking. The neck is everything.
 
After 12 years I still catch myself wincing/blinking from time to time. It takes a concious thought for me to stop. sometimes I just bury my chin and take a few to the forehead other times once I realize I'm doing it I stop. Sometimes I go several rounds and can't stop.

A simple solution there may not be one for all people. Getting hit hurts and its a natrual reaction to blink when stuff is flying towards your eyes thats what eye lids do. A antherh method if you don't like taking shots to the forehead is take a few off your gloves right in front of your face and focus on the problem.

I think more rounds will most likely help but so will a concious effort to stop once you start. Some people will do it for as long as they lt people try to hit them in the face.
 
In terms of taking shots to the forehead -

I've taken some pretty big shots to the forehead (right on the hardest part) they just seem to land there when I have chin tucked and they can't get through my guard to my chin. I've taken a BIG overhand left from my southpaw sparring partner, and it just hasn't even really phased me, it's a big hit, but it just feels like no damage is done.

What are your thoughts on this? Take it on the forehead = no problem, man! or taking it on the forehead = your guard should have been there, or your head shouldn't have been there
 
In terms of taking shots to the forehead -

I've taken some pretty big shots to the forehead (right on the hardest part) they just seem to land there when I have chin tucked and they can't get through my guard to my chin. I've taken a BIG overhand left from my southpaw sparring partner, and it just hasn't even really phased me, it's a big hit, but it just feels like no damage is done.

What are your thoughts on this? Take it on the forehead = no problem, man! or taking it on the forehead = your guard should have been there, or your head shouldn't have been there


You need to think long term. Sure, it doesn't seem like shots to the forehead phase you now but you need to think about long term damage. That is, if you plan on doing it long term. My advice would be to work on head movement, guard and all together avoiding shots to the head(obviously). Look at the long term affects on boxers and even football players. Alot of them seem totally out of it later in life and brain damage is a very real possibilty. MMA is still a young sport so you don't see alot of examples yet but there are plenty of boxers and other athletes who are suffering later in life for their rough occupations.
 
Just keep sparrin'. Situational sparring is really good as well since you get a chance to see a lot of punches coming at you with, but its a lot less taxing on the body. Lately, we've been doing our regular sparring (3-5 rounds), and then we'll do 2-4 rounds of situational sparring. Works well.
 
truth. and if you lose your vision, so be it. hell, van dam won bloodsport and he couldnt see shiet.

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vandamme.jpg


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At my Gym, they actually do mma de-flinching classes around fight season. I never went to one, but they are supposed to be pretty beneficial.
 
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