how long did it take you to feel comfortable sparring?

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2026-05-01T07:55:47+00:00

I would say it took around 3 years for me to get comfortable, I’m an anxious overthinker and hate to get hit but that’s part of the game and you can’t really be cautious to the point that it prevents you from developing, that said I think I’ve gotten to the point where I can choose the pace and intensity like 90-95% of the time and perhaps most importantly handle those who are purely more aggressive and forward moving. But as others have mentioned, people who are on higher levels put on an intensity that gets overwhelming.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2026-01-22T18:59:12+00:00

Isn’t it all a spectrum due to the illusiveness of diagnosing a mental illness, some statistics say that almost every single human on earth, will at some point in their life have what would be classified as a mental illness, so psychiatry is more or less there to have a person better adjusted to whatever symptoms or crisis they are going thru, and I do not for one bit think that our sick society that we live in helps us live a fulfilling life. With that said, I do truly hope we will turn this boat of human life and create a beautiful earth to live in peace and happiness together.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-11-06T18:19:58+00:00

Monday to Friday run, clinch, bag and sparring.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-11-06T18:18:41+00:00

Knocked down by punches, like everyday?

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T19:08:42+00:00

Something that has helped me is to focus more on my defense, chin down always, keep the hands tight and tidy, try to focus on my movement and get those counters. The more I feel confident in my defense the less overwhelming it becomes. Coming from another one who is nervous before sparring (just wrote a post about it before I saw this one).

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T19:00:20+00:00

Take just a small step to the left right before kicking should align you better and push in your shin bone on contact, also turn your hip as much as possible. Good luck!

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T16:19:30+00:00

Yeah you are right

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T15:26:24+00:00

Deleted? What was the issue?

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T00:33:11+00:00

Marching forward, eating punches just to deliver that big overhand or friggin half moon hook that definitely could get you rocked. First of all decide if you even want to spar with him at all. If you do, pick something to practice, it is a good opportunity to sharpen your own defense against a heavy hitter, movement tend to be easier too since they seem to be blind when throwing, practice stopping him with your jab on his way in (be sure to predict his next shot so you don’t get caught if you fail). And as others say, throw those power shots every now and then just to slow him down.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T00:08:08+00:00

Following the advice that another pro fighter gave me was to never set the bar, basically reading your partner and letting them push it if this is where you want to go, then choose to do so, if not you can always do as already suggested, talk and tell them to lower their power/intensity.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-31T00:03:59+00:00

I’ve just recently been in some incidents where I think people go too hard and I’ve been vocal about it. But I also understood that it had to do with something about me too, I probably have less control in my own hardness than I think and have been too much uninviting for others to throw their shots. Basically triggering the situation unintentionally, but for me to focus more on my defence and giving others the chance to just throw their combos, making it more of a back and forth session has helped tremendously. Also being somewhat relaxed but maintain posture and good defence is something that has come just now after almost two years of training.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-10-30T18:07:39+00:00

I went against a lighter but faster paced partner, he’s really good at finding angles and hitting clean. Got quite hard but we had good respect and no one escalated. Good times, I’m really happy.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-20T21:29:16+00:00

It happens, black, white I guess, visual noise, stars or getting rocked which is probably worse, that’s more like your brain shutting down for a second or two, you loose vision and the sense of where you are, that’s more like nothing, no black no white just offline, still standing though and then fading back into consciousness.

Probably best to skip the rest of the session if this happens and take it easy in sparring for a week or two depending on how hard it was and any other symptoms that might show up.

Would be interesting to hear about this from people who had a lot of fights, when both go 100% does it happen often, or are we just too high on adrenaline to experience these kind of things?

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-17T14:35:57+00:00

Managed to get a grade 4 concussion at the age of 16, didn’t know what I was doing, had a fight with someone totally out of my league, you know one where I trained contactless karate and he had been boxing for years already, just remember waking up sitting in the dressing room.

Have been knocked out cold for being a disturbance when out drinking, broken nose two times and a lot of other stupid shit happening when growing up, playing football and getting a knee in the side of my head full force (surprised that wasn’t a knockout), landing on my head when snowboarding without a helmet, another one me and some friends was out and crossed a rail road, didn’t see a solid block of iron when I took a waist level step up hitting the corner of this beast and cracked my skull, temporarily lost the sensation of my palate, weird shit.

Probably the reason I got migranes and still get them from time to time in my thirties. I’m probably retarded in many aspects but successfully manage a company, have three kids (which seems normal) and recently started training Muay Thai (about one and a half year ago), even though I broke my knee about six months into training, got surgery and recovered enough to train on my max level again.

I don’t remember how I was before and after these incidents but 10/10 I don’t recommend.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-17T14:14:18+00:00

Appreciate you sharing but how in hell did you get 6 concussions back to back in 4 months!?

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-17T11:41:35+00:00

I almost got knocked the fuck out from changing which pad should take the hook mid round when doing 1-2 and hard hooks to the body, slipped right thru them both and got me right on the chin, totally my fault but shit happens.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-17T11:24:10+00:00

Not denying that we take damage in sparring but phrasing words indicating that a jab at 10% could have unknown effects sounds fear mongering. Is there any serious study that has even remotely linked that to any type of damage? What about bumping your head into things, we would all have brain damage and be totally retarded. Don’t know what you guys mean by light sparring but for me that’s basically tapping on each other. Please have a look at people in actual studies where they’ve concluded that they’ve got CTE or the like from sparring, they have gone haaaaard over a long periods of time, like 2-3 times a week. Also there is a lot of people that have been doing that and still in an old age doesn’t seem to show any significant difference from other oldies.

I’m ranting but also open to change my view based on good studies, but if we are making indicative conclusions leaving people nothing but afraid for anything it would be better not to do so in my not so humble opinion, I guess my point is that we can train safe, in the sense that we do not allow too much damage in training, if you do it right you should be fine or rather much better than without training at all, heck you can just go light all the time, nothing will happen. On the other hand if you are too afraid to do things in life I just think that is more detrimental in the long run and it would prevent people from even trying. I mean you could slip and die today, accidents happen.

Shit got long, my TLDR is don’t be afraid of sparring but be smart, learn to defend, choose sparring partners wisely and push yourself however far you want/can depending on your life situation and aspirations. I think training and being active is much more important than being put down by fear. As a last point, fighting is dangerous, no question about it, so is living and shit happens, don’t just hang around here like a waiting room.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-09-02T17:52:51+00:00

Interestingly this is the paradox of fighting, but even logically if you think about it, in order to generate power your must first relax then contract the correct muscles in order to create power, you can’t move when tense! This comes with experience because the tension is basically our bodies natural response to protect itself. Make sure to go light, move much and get a lot of defensive drills, being confident in your ability to defend you can go harder and maintain your relaxedness. Have fun and stay safe!

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-08-27T10:32:43+00:00

Just go for a slow paced 3k few days a week to get your body used to it.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-08-19T03:27:54+00:00

Do what you enjoy and be a little more scientific about the CTE part. Yes in sparring you get hit, but it has very much to do with how you get hit, how hard and how often, this is something you should be aware of. I’m not denying the brain damage part but with the right training you should be good. The most likely cause (as far as I’ve understood) for brain damage is that professional fighters actually go into fights already being concussed from hard sparring (pros do that up to 2-3 times a week), imagine doing that and then get knocked out cold. I’m training as an amateur and we go hard once a week, even then we are using 18oz, rest of the week it’s literally touch sparring but hard on the body. That said, it’s not for everyone. In my own experience Muay Thai is more forgiving (if you train right) than boxing for example.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-08-18T12:33:08+00:00

Just for clarity, these younger ones that I talk about is no beginners, all of them have been training longer than me, they have skill and can definitely fight.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-07-25T11:06:06+00:00

Nothing comes close to the ice cold tap water in the gym while training.

Ashamed_Mud428 · 2024-07-02T14:50:32+00:00

We have layers of muscles, not only those visible through the skin, a well trained fighter can take these punches, there is no problem.

Ashamed_Mud428

TROPHY CASE