May be you should train that none of your opponent's initial 20 punches can hit your head. After you can deal with 20 punches, you then go to 30 punches, and ...
How take a hit well
- Thread starter DrewTheTKDStudent1992
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- class competition sparring
JR 137
Grandmaster
But it’s not the same thing. When you know there’s an opponent, you’re mentally ready to take a hit. When you’re mowing your lawn and a ball hits you in the back of the head out of nowhere, it somehow hurts more.
The training should be to protect your territory and don't let your opponent to move into the punching range. You should develop the alert when someone moves behind you. How to develop that can be an interested discussion subject.
I have learned that a body can be tempered to deal with fear, pain, etc. One way is to face increasing doses of the situation that is causing the fear or pain to sort of build an internal and increasing tolerance to fear or pain. As others have suggested, start with someone that you trust and that has control and go thru the situation, start slowly and lightly. The moment that the fear or pain comes lighten up and slow down (for either the hitter or receiver) – back off the pedal a bit but always continue the drill just slower and lighter and build back up to and past the previous point.
One of the simple and often fun drills that is often used to help Systema students explore the strong emotion of aggression while also allowing the partners to get comfortable hitting to the face and of course to receive contact to the face. The drill is to face your training partner close enough to touch each other’s face with your closed fist. In this drill you alternate taking turns and alternate your striking fist. One partner simply places their fist on the others check and pushes with that fist. The partner receiving the push turns their head to bleed some of the power and to provide a bit of momentum and energy to their return push. The partners exchange one after the other each taking turns pushing. You start light and then start to gradually push harder. Now what happens is that one or the other will push a bit harder than the other wished and there is an immediate wish to return the ‘favor.’ This is the point when the students can explore internal aggression as well as feeling aggression from their partner. If one or the other becomes ‘too’ aggressive they back off a step and do a VERY slow push-up breathing the entire time to help release the aggression. Then they line up and start the drill over. The idea is to push harder and harder. Both gets lots of solid contact to their faces and looks at the coming contact as the fist is often placed very quickly prior to the ‘push’. There are a lot of other lessons to be learned in the drill making it well worth the effort and time.
Another way I have learned to deal with fear or pain is to gain a different perspective of the situation causing the fear or pain. A situation can change by changing the perspective on the situation. Getting hit can teach a lot to both the person being hit and the person doing the hitting. It can show excess tension for example. It can release long held pain and injury. For example, If the perspective can be changed from “I goofed, failed, and so am hit” or “dang, that hurt”, or, “freck, ran into again” into a perspective of gratitude instead, the pain, anger, and fear, change and disappear into a feeling of gratitude. One way to achieve this is to practice. A way to practice is to turn a hitting drill into a massage or to change a massage into a hitting drill. For example, one partner lays on the floor and their partner places both fists on the prone partner and does a series of push-ups on the prone partner. Both fists placed say one on the stomach and the other on the chest or arm and a push-up is done, then one fist is lifted and placed elsewhere on the partner’s body then the other fist is lifted and placed elsewhere on their partner and another push-up is done, on and on for say ten or twenty push-ups. Then the partners switch. The person doing the push-ups gets immediate feedback on where to place fists on a human body that provide comfort and support while doing push-ups (or hitting of course) and the partner providing the body exploration ‘painfully’ learns how to deal with the fists deep and penetrating lessons. A hint for those newer to this exploration, learning how to relax rather than tense releases much of the pain. A hint for those doing the push-ups, keep the body low (no high rear triangle looking push-ups) provides better feedback to the partner. Place each fist deliberately and settle into place prior to starting the push up and breathe thru the entire movement and hold after the push up prior to switching fist locations. Do not be surprised if your partner jerks, flinches, and flees the contact. Take a moment to learn how you can control that movement by changing the angle of the push-up. This drill can be done with three of four people doing the push-ups on one partner either simultaneously or random. A variation of the drill is to allow the prone partner to slowly move continually by spinning ala the three stooges, or to slowly barrel roll or to even do forward and back rolls or whatever movement might cause the partner(s) doing the push-ups a bit of work. Another simple way to gain a perspective change is to lay prone and let a partner do push-ups and at a painful spot to start laughing. Laugh hard and honestly and the pain will change.
An old Russian joke. A man came out of his home and while walking down the street had four men surround him and ask if he was “Ivan”, before he could answer, they knocked him to the ground and beat and kicked the blank out of him. After they departed the man slowly picked himself off the ground and thought to himself, “ God, sure am glad I am not Ivan”.
Good luck on your journey DrewTheTKDStudent1992, the fear you are exploring, well, this too shall pass with continued exploration, so enjoy it while you have it and do not be too eager for it to pass. Fear is a tool and one we often do not listen closely enough or understand deeply enough.
Regards
Brian King
