my sensai pointed something out to me

[nystangkid]

We have class Mon, Tues, and Thurs. Every Thursday, we do some sparring. Last night was my second sparring session. My sensai pointed out, which I also noticed the previous week and last night, when someone takes a swing at me, whether it's a kick or a punch, I tend to drop my hands slightly and kind of lean forward a bit. My sensai said, sooner or later I'm gonna get my head knocked off if i don't fix that . It almost seems to me maybe I'm afraid of getting hit . Any advise of what I can do to avoid this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks everyone.

[2007]

what we do at my dojo is:

we practise a lot of slow-mo sparring, where you obviousley go slow then over a couple weeks build up faster and faster... it does work and you become more of a relaxed natual fighter on the mat.

ask your instructor to try this, as it's only your second sparring session , surely your instructor can not expect you to be 100% perfect...

[blackxpress]

I agree with your sensei but I'm puzzled about something. You say he (I'm assuming your sensei is a he) told you you're gonna get your block knocked off if you don't fix the problem. How does he expect you to fix it? Didn't he give you any pointers? If my sensei tells me I'm doing something wrong I expect him to take it a step further and show me how to correct my error.

[nystangkid]

My sensai was telling to never let my hands down and block rather than lean into it. I'm just wondering if theres anything I can do for this or if it's just gonna come with practice.

[lordtariel]

It'll come with practice if you pay attention to it. I used to wind up leaning when I first started sparring and wound up taking a good front kick to the sternum for it. That made me make sure to pay attention afterwards What really helps is getting a partner and doing one and two step sparring... slowly. You need to get used to having someone attacking you, so do it in a safe and slow environment so you can see what works and what doesn't work without worrying about whether or not you're going to lose our head. Stand far enough away that he can barely touch you so you have to do your techniques correctly in order to reach him. Both of you pay special attention to your posture.

[bushido_man96]

The best way to fix this problem is to keep sparring and make yourself conscious of what you are doing. That way, you can work on making yourself not do it.

Have someone lightly spar with you, or do th slow-mo sparring mentioned earlier. Now, everytime they see you lean and drop your hands, have them tell you about it, so you can fix it. Another thing you might do is have them make you do push-ups everytime you do it. That may give you a little incentive as to becoming aware of what your body is doing.

These kinds of things are common to beginners, and they just take time and practice to overcome them. Keep at it, and you will be fine.

[Ziyad]

I never kept my teeth locked or my eyes open in certain rare situations.

Practice and practice patience.

[Killer Miller]

Good sparring technique and proper guarding is developed through good timing training. Timing training is various types of drills with a partner where you work on different combinations of techniques using proper technique and timing in a safe environment - meaning not free sparring.

The catch here is that your instructor is the one that is supposed to be teaching this to you prior to you sparring. So, take what I stated in the previous paragraph and present that statement to your instructor and ask him if he can show you some of the above drills to work on with a partner. There are many of these types of drills, so I will no go into detail because these drills can be customed to fix a specific problem - which I wouldn't know what your problem specifically is...

- Killer -

[cathal]

What worked for me is this:

Stand in ready position while a partner throws punches at your face from constantly varying angles. You aren't allowed to blink, move, or respond to the punching in any way.

The moment you lean back, to the side, or forward -- or blink -- you do something like push-ups.

[cross]

What worked for me is this:

Stand in ready position while a partner throws punches at your face from constantly varying angles. You aren't allowed to blink, move, or respond to the punching in any way.

The moment you lean back, to the side, or forward -- or blink -- you do something like push-ups.

Im not sure i see the point of this? If you already know that they arnt going to hit you, and all you have to do is stand there, i dont see why anyone would move???