Fear of getting hurt badly in Kickboxing-is Judo/Wrestling more my style?

What's with all the "man up" nonsense? Would the question or the answer really be any different if the OP were female?

 

No, now stop trying to turn this into a feminist debate. The terms "man up" and "grow some balls" are just generic ways of saying to toughen the hell up. Nobody here is questioning the toughness of woman.

I didn't watch the Vid but I'm assuming they are talking about sanctioned fights? The OP is scared of injury so is competition something he even has in mind? If not, then you can't compare sparring to competition because when you spar you aren't trying to knock your opponents brains out.

 

Yeah and I told him to man up. Not be stupid.

 

I'd say the same thing and assume the op, being involved an CONTACT sport in which you fight each other would have the skin thick enough to see my point and not argue over petty semantics in language

 

Yeah well... down time and pain sucks

 

Ok I do indeed agree with Betty 100%. But in looking at the big picture maybe he enjoys the sport but has issues with taking a hit, looking for a solution so he can enjoy this sport without fear would be better then to not work out at all, no? I am a woman, I know and respect my own boundries, I don't care what others think, I know my limits of what I will subject myself to. My family depends on me. I think it is very important to know your limits and boundries in order to enjoy longevity in MA.

 

"Just getting hit more" sounds pretty stupid to me. Especially if OP's concerns are routed down from something that can actually permanently damage him.

You've totally missed my point.

 

And you've missed mine.

Everyone gets the fright first time they step in the ring/on the mat/in the cage.
After a short while they'll take a few hits, maybe bust a lip or get a black eye and realise it's not that big of a deal and become more confident.

Talking about permanent damage etc is not the way to improve someone's confidence about taking a shot.

 

Long story!!!!!!

I get used to light contact but fear creeps back in if:
a) I get hit hard in the nose (but it's only bled once)
b) I get rattled with a heavy hit (never been K.O'd and don't know what it does-will I be comatosed/hospitalised or lose my memory?
or
*the biggest problem*
c) I take more than a month off of competing (but I still train though)

Let me give you my training timeline

End of 2005-Mid 2006:- Started learning Kickboxing based on Lau Gar Kuen,Boxing,Karate and Jiu Jitsu. Used it originally as cardio for bodybuilding.

Summer 2006:- Heat and examinations stopped my consistent training

Autumn 2006-Mid 2007:- Went to college and had a part time job-**** poor time management. Started sparring in 2007 WITH FACESHIELD

Mid-Summer 2007- No training
Late 2007-Mid 2008-training BUT after failing a grading I should've passed in, I took almost 6 months off due to embarrasment. Started doing 30 mins of 'grappling' for 4-6 weeks as part of kickboxing

Late 2008-2009- restarted training but hardly did any lessons until the summer. Still took a back seat to bodybuilding.No more grappling but practiced breakfalls solo

November 2009-first competition in kickboxing and sport karate-fought as a novice and thought it'd be easy but got scared. Wore faceshield still but 1st karate fight I lost 10-1,second 10-3 and in kickboxing I had my ass handed to me.
Started training at University club AS WELL.

2010-Competitions took priority. Won 2 matches (one in karate,one in continuos) and lost 2 in the second competition (second kickboxing loss was a forfeit-his punches rocked me and rattled my brain)-STILL WORE FACESHIELD.
Tried to get used to fighting without it and in March 2010 I had the biggest competition of my life-National Universities Kickboxing Competition in Leeds,UK; was put in as Intermediates even though I didn't feel ready. Got my ass handed to me then. A week later, did another local competition as a novice and lost all my matches (2 point fights,2 continuos).
Began training with rival club for extra training and FINALLY won a match without faceshield in May 2010 but still lost continuos. Was still happy and trained hard for the local competition in my town a month later- b*stard misplaced my slip for points fighting so I went straight into continuos. Was intimidated by opponent and thought he hit hard even though he didn't-was too late since he was faster/accumulated more hits. Second match I lost to my friend's brother-it upset me because I trained harder and expected it to be like in the movies i'd win but I lost that too (even though one judge out of 2 called it a draw)
In Feb-March 2010 we did Ju Jitsu days once a month at my club for 2-3 hours.

Summer 2010-tried Japanese Tenjin Shinyo Ryu/Goshin Jutsu and liked it. Sensei taught my kickboxing instructors this style. Didn't do kickboxing

Autumn 2010-my last competition in kickboxing under my old club-won a points match,lost one to my old clubs NEW 'golden boy'-****ed me off a cocky brat with only 2-3 months training beat me.
Joined rival club for kickboxing full time.
Was wearing faceshield during above competition and ever since because a) wasn't ready and b) guy at my new club has really heavy punches and am afraid my poor nose will be busted.

January 2011-Tried fighting without faceshield again until my best friend kicked me in the nose and made it bleed-set me back! However, did a competition a week later and lost my points fight by 1 POINT and in continuos I was screwed over- won the first round and drove opponent off of match 3 times in 30 seconds and in round 2 I was gassed but blocked most of his hits. Wasn't even wearing faceshield.

The problem is i've only done one national competition and the last time I fought was over 2 months ago-fear crept back in.

 

To be honest, looking at that, it looks like a combination of poor coache and poor training from yourself.

 

poor coaches? I've been part of 3 clubs in kickboxing.

Club #1 (my original) is run by 2 people. The head honcho was an ex-MMA fighter in Britain (dk what circuit), has won at least 4 national championships and has black belts in Lau Gar Kuen,Kickboxing and just one belt off of black in Ju Jitsu. The partner has a black belt in Ju Jitsu and Kickboxing. One of the assistant coaches has won at least one national championship and has knowledge of Lau Gar Kuen as well as knowledge of chin na. The other assistant is black belt in Kickboxing and knows Ju Jitsu.

Club #2 (my University club) is run by a 3 time gold medallist (in UK) in Wushu and was on Jackie Chan's choreography team. His background is in Praying Mantis Kung Fu.

Club #3 is run by my current coach-he is a 10x British Champion in both Sport Karate and Kickboxing and his full contact record is 4-0-1.

 

Please read my timeline/training history

 

That doesn't mean anything. You ca't throw a stone in the martial arts world without hitting SOME sort of world champion bla bla bla. And it's particularly bad amongst sports with a heavy focus on semi contact. Indeed, most serious gyms wont even bother training people for semi contact OR entering them in such tournaments\fights because its a waste of time.

Trust me, those credentials sounds like the standard. The trick is finding out WHAT organisations they're champions of and when.

Lol technically, I'm a WAKO amaeur K1 scottish champion. Means nothing. I don't even include it in my record as a fight.

They sound like poor coaches.

 

Yeah, I'm a world champion grappler and world champion in full-contact karate.
It's true, but it doesn't mean anything. I rolled over two guys who had never grappled before and point-sparred with some guys who had never seen head movement or any hand strike besides a backfist. It's an arguably international organization that calls its winners "world champions", but there's not much in the way of a proving ground there. I get to call it full-contact because they didn't specify any contact limits during the rules meeting. Credentials don't mean anything beyond the governing body which bestows them, and even then they don't mean that much.


Anyway, the only thing that got me to where I wasn't concerned about getting tagged was full contact sparring/competition. When you realize you're not made of glass and have the experience to intuitively know that putting your chin down and weathering it is better than cringing or turning away or sticking your arms straight out, you tend to cope a LOT better with getting hit.

 

I would also tend to go with MB and Seiken Steve with this.
I used to have a similar problem to you, I used to get it much worse when I didn't get to spar properly enough. Basically I took a few shots, everywhere. Had a bit of fun chucking the gloves on and sparring with full contact legs/kicks with a couple of boxers/kickboxers. That started making me feel better, as the gloves (16/14oz I think) meant I never really felt any effects beyond the day.

Back into my karate training and I took a lot of body shots with some more intense sparring, a cracked rib or 2 from stray unguarded shots, instructors that weren't too soft on me. Also since being down here as a student, I have had 1 or 2 scuffles in town late at night. Nothing serious, I try to avoid them, but I've been hit in the head and not been too phased. It hurt but I could've done 2 things. 1 I could've thought ow that really hurt! and curled up in a ball, or done what I did, accepted it and smiled at the guy, that actually put him off. It's simply about confidence. To be honest that's all you need.

Like MB said, I still go into sparring sessions I know will be solid with apprehension, but I take a hit or 2 and start fighting much, much better.

Hit a muay thai gym or something and just try giving it a go. I can't make any comment on credentials but there are a lot of opportunities out there for people to fill out their MA CV...

 

I haven't seen anyone post this yet but if you are switching to judo/wrestling to avoid pain you are in for a big surprise. Because of knees and elbows flying around as you grapple you will still take shots to the face, not the same as getting punched but still happens. You are going to get slammed into the mat and limbs twisted into positions god did not intend them to be in.

If getting hit bothers you, you will most likely not enjoy grappling either.

If you like the idea of martial art focus on those that are form(kata) based. You can still compete, be very athletic and not get punched or slammed.

This is supposed to be fun, if you don't enjoy it, don't do it.

 

Coaches of club 1 Kickboxing wins are under IMAO-run by Humphrey Broomes (ex BKFA),a CIMAC and WAKO (for one of the assistant coaches)

Club 2 coach is ICMAC champion

Club 3 is varied-4-5 under IMAO, 6 CIMACs and 4 BSMA

Gordon Mitchell (WAKO Bronze/Silver and CIMACs and IASKA World Bronze) taught clubs 1 and 3-Humphrey Broomes taught Gordon Mitchell.

Why?

 

People tell me not to turn away but easier said that done-I STILL keep turning away even though I try not to. Plus the fact that once my poor nose got bloodied and it hurt, I reverted back to faceshield-well that and the fact we have a really heavy puncher at my new club

 

OK the only ones there that I recognise are the WAKO ones.... and they're not good. Any fool can be a WAKO champion - i am lol. WAKO-PRO is a different league and they're still not exactly a highly respected organisation.

Trust me, those credentials don't mean anything. and neither does a blackbelt. You show me a 3rd dan blackbelt world champion in shotokan karate and all that jazz... and I'll show you an amatuer kickboxer with half the training time and no belts who'll kick his butt. Thats what a belt means.

 

I don't know if it is a complete waste of time to train for semi-contact competitions. However, training for competing in kickboxing and competing in semi-contact at the same time is generally not a good idea.

The thing about competition is you train to win. Pick kickboxing or pick karate for competing and stick to it. Don't try to compete in both.

Now I'm not saying you can't train/spar in both... training is training and there may be some footwork benefits from the karate training that will help you in counter striking and striking more quickly without telegraphing your intentions even if you are training for kickboxing competition.

As for the fear of getting hit in the face, there are a few approaches to this used in combination. The first is the full contact approach where you basically have someone punch you in the face, over and over again until you get conditioned to the strike... however, this only works if you have a particular strike in mind, such as a right cross. So you learn to take the hit but at the same time you learn that only minimal movement is needed to evade it also. This is one of the methods used to condition fighters who have been knocked out by a particular punch, they just have someone hit them with that punch over and over again in training until they learn to accept, avoid and counter it.

Another approach is to "always feel you are protecting yourself" so you keep your hand up, keep your chin tucked, and keep your feet moving... in this way you always feel you are protecting yourself and then the fear won't be as bad. I've been knocked out by a kick to the head and rocked hard by hooks to the head, so now I just keep my hand up higher than normal in sparring to cover the area, making it look like it is protected and getting the opponent to try to hit me somewhere else. I also use my elbows a lot to block stuff as a move off the line of attack so that it hurts the opponent trying to hit me.

The last approach has to do with dealing with previous bad experiences. Basically when the body is injured or has a traumatic experience, you get something like "shell shock". You body remembers being hurt and even if you don't intend it, when a similar situation comes up, your body can respond in a way to protect itself. For instance, I have injured my hand before and for even a month after it was healed I still had a mental block that prevented me from hitting full force with that hand. I basically had to work through the mental block, like going to physical therapy. I started using the hurt hand and progressively hit harder and harder until the strength and power was back. In your case, you might trying something like milling training... basically, controlled sparring where you aren't allowed to block or dodge but only just attack. Now you can use your attacks to defend yourself, such as hitting to the arms and shoulders of your sparring partner, tucking your chin and covering vitals when attack, but no blocking allowed or anything that is purely defensive in nature. You get used to attacking at all times and this might help.

Just some suggestions.