Regaining confidence

[Woldog]

I've been training and fighting since I was 12 years old, I'm 27 now and I've had quite a lot of amateur bouts in my life. I've been out of sparring for over a year after a hand injury and I've found I've lost confidence in myself, not that I can't take the blows (I've never been knocked out or concussed in boxing or rugby) but that I'm gunshy when the blows are coming and I tend to freeze up.
How do you go about retraining your mind and your confidence? I've never had this problem before and I guess it could come from self doubt I'm currently feeling in my day to day life not just my fighting.

 

[William Huggins]

I've been training and fighting since I was 12 years old, I'm 27 now and I've had quite a lot of amateur bouts in my life. I've been out of sparring for over a year after a hand injury and I've found I've lost confidence in myself, not that I can't take the blows (I've never been knocked out or concussed in boxing or rugby) but that I'm gunshy when the blows are coming and I tend to freeze up.
How do you go about retraining your mind and your confidence? I've never had this problem before and I guess it could come from self doubt I'm currently feeling in my day to day life not just my fighting.

Have you lost confidence in the hand you had the injury on? Which came first the general lack of confidence or being gun shy?

 

[ironkhan57]

Just keep going to your classes and to the sparring sessions, if you feel gun shy, try pushing yourself to just attack more. Everything gets better with practice including being more confident.

 

[makedansure]

Can't force it. It might be the hand thing, it might be more than the hand thing.

Read a pretty interesting article that mentioned that Coach Javier at AKA is asking that all of his fighters disclose anything that may be bothering a fighter. I would say best to continue training, and definitely don't spar until your mind is right. I love working with the slip bag as it's predictable, but gets my head moving. Balance gives me the most confidence out of any of the physical traits.

You'll know when you're ready. Watching videos, reading about fighters that have had similar experiences, and physical excellence through training will help I believe. This video always gets my juices going:

 

[eternaldarkness]

I've been training and fighting since I was 12 years old, I'm 27 now and I've had quite a lot of amateur bouts in my life. I've been out of sparring for over a year after a hand injury and I've found I've lost confidence in myself, not that I can't take the blows (I've never been knocked out or concussed in boxing or rugby) but that I'm gunshy when the blows are coming and I tend to freeze up.
How do you go about retraining your mind and your confidence? I've never had this problem before and I guess it could come from self doubt I'm currently feeling in my day to day life not just my fighting.

Avoid those monstrous islanders. I get gun shy just looking at them. Just joking though, but maybe try sparring fighters that have limited firepower until you get your grove back?

 

[Woldog]

Have you lost confidence in the hand you had the injury on? Which came first the general lack of confidence or being gun shy?

The hand doesn't bother me, but before it I wasn't gunshy at all, but now after almost a year out I flinch as the shots come in

Just keep going to your classes and to the sparring sessions, if you feel gun shy, try pushing yourself to just attack more. Everything gets better with practice including being more confident.

I try to push the action but flinch when I see a shot coming in, I've never had the problem before and actually get called Mayorga at my gym because I'd just take the shots and ignore them but now I don't know it's a strange feeling makes me feel like a coward.

Can't force it. It might be the hand thing, it might be more than the hand thing.

Read a pretty interesting article that mentioned that Coach Javier at AKA is asking that all of his fighters disclose anything that may be bothering a fighter. I would say best to continue training, and definitely don't spar until your mind is right. I love working with the slip bag as it's predictable, but gets my head moving. Balance gives me the most confidence out of any of the physical traits.

You'll know when you're ready. Watching videos, reading about fighters that have had similar experiences, and physical excellence through training will help I believe. This video always gets my juices going:

I think it may be linked to the lost fitness over the year I was out, perhaps I lost confidence in myself because I'm no longer as fit as I was.

Avoid those monstrous islanders. I get gun shy just looking at them. Just joking though, but maybe try sparring fighters that have limited firepower until you get your grove back?

Unfortunately 95% of the fighters at my gym are professional cruiserweights and heavyweights, the few that aren't are high level middleweights I'd hazard I may in fact be the smallest fighter at the gym fighting at lightweight/super lightweight

 

[ironkhan57]

The hand doesn't bother me, but before it I wasn't gunshy at all, but now after almost a year out I flinch as the shots come in


I try to push the action but flinch when I see a shot coming in, I've never had the problem before and actually get called Mayorga at my gym because I'd just take the shots and ignore them but now I don't know it's a strange feeling makes me feel like a coward.


I think it may be linked to the lost fitness over the year I was out, perhaps I lost confidence in myself because I'm no longer as fit as I was.



Unfortunately 95% of the fighters at my gym are professional cruiserweights and heavyweights, the few that aren't are high level middleweights I'd hazard I may in fact be the smallest fighter at the gym fighting at lightweight/super lightweight

Well it should come back within time, I use to be really scared of being hit, now I'm not. Because I've been hit a lot. But it will come back for you. It's like in the military to build mental toughness, they put you through hard training and yell the shit out of you and treat you like shit, and in the marines (for some reason this video keeps getting deleted) they have you fight in a area until your un able to defend yourself.

It's all mental man trick yourself into thinking you can take a hit man.

 

[makedansure]

@Woldog
fitness is huge, especially if that is what gave you confidence. Especially going against bigger guys, fitness is one of the biggest necessities. Slipping, ducking, and general moving out of the way can get very tiring. Hard to get back into shape especially when working against father time, but there's a ton of value there.

 

[ironkhan57]

@Woldog
fitness is huge, especially if that is what gave you confidence. Especially going against bigger guys, fitness is one of the biggest necessities. Slipping, ducking, and general moving out of the way can get very tiring. Hard to get back into shape especially when working against father time, but there's a ton of value there.

Very true, nick diaz said that, his triathlon training, made sure he was mentally prepared for each fight, he said that if you take away that fear of getting tired then that's what makes you mentally prepared.

 

[FightGuyOpenMind]

How did you break your hand?
Perhaps consider re-evaluating your style for your current age, priorities, and personality.

For example:

I use to move a lot in sparring, throwing jabs from weird angles counter punching. I had hyperextended, and injured my knee. It fatigues faster now than ever before. It has become difficult to maintain the level of movement that I use to. I changed my style to use more in, and out movements (linear) instead of relying so heavily on angles (lateral). Walking in isn't as taxing on my knee as shuffling.

Changing my style has required me to angle my stance more instead of being squared off. Less mobility means I have to cover up better, more focused on catching and blocking shots than slipping, ducking, and leaning back. I also have to keep my hands way higher, and where they're supposed to be from a technical standpoint. No more dropped hands.

Perhaps change your style to fit the new you. Utilize a style that gives you the most confidence. If you use to be the brawler and hurt your hand this way, maybe try being the boxer?

 

[shincheckin]

you could just be rusty after a year off.

when your regularly fighting and training, even just taking 4 days off, i can feel a slight loss of "sharpness". ease back into it.

you have a sharp knife, you use it alot, it gets dull, it takes more than one swipe to re-sharpen it, but after a while you can get it just as sharp or sharper than before.

 

[Odysseus]

Just my 2 cents from personal experience: Flow sparring at a slower, light pace helps a lot. Also, partner defense and reaction drills help “see” the strikes again and should help you rebuild good habits for sparring and fighting. Obviously you can build up the speed and intensity as you become more comfortable. Hopefully your coach and teammates are willing to work with you and slow things down a bit.

 

[Woldog]

How did you break your hand?
Perhaps consider re-evaluating your style for your current age, priorities, and personality.

For example:

I use to move a lot in sparring, throwing jabs from weird angles counter punching. I had hyperextended, and injured my knee. It fatigues faster now than ever before. It has become difficult to maintain the level of movement that I use to. I changed my style to use more in, and out movements (linear) instead of relying so heavily on angles (lateral). Walking in isn't as taxing on my knee as shuffling.

Changing my style has required me to angle my stance more instead of being squared off. Less mobility means I have to cover up better, more focused on catching and blocking shots than slipping, ducking, and leaning back. I also have to keep my hands way higher, and where they're supposed to be from a technical standpoint. No more dropped hands.

Perhaps change your style to fit the new you. Utilize a style that gives you the most confidence. If you use to be the brawler and hurt your hand this way, maybe try being the boxer?

I've never been a brawler, more an outside fighter but if I got caught on the ropes or had to trade I would, I generally relied on headmovement more than a guard, this is why flinching isn't great because I use the philly shell and I need my wits about for it to work.
I broke my hand on a new heavybag at the gym, the gloves I took that day had a split in the padding I hadn't noticed and my knuckle went through with the only protection being the leather of the glove, technically it wasn't a break it was a ruptured tendon but its far easier to just call it a break than explain it.
I've had ruptured ligaments in my left knee and broke my right foot in 3 places with permanent tendon damage, so I've already adjusted my style to being less mobile than I once was, but I'm a switch hitter and a counter puncher, so flinching really isn't great for my style.

you could just be rusty after a year off.

when your regularly fighting and training, even just taking 4 days off, i can feel a slight loss of "sharpness". ease back into it.

you have a sharp knife, you use it alot, it gets dull, it takes more than one swipe to re-sharpen it, but after a while you can get it just as sharp or sharper than before.

No doubt I'm rusty, I've really only done pads and bag work for the last 6 months, only just started sparring again and I've been a bit underwhelmed with how I performed.

Just my 2 cents from personal experience: Flow sparring at a slower, light pace helps a lot. Also, partner defense and reaction drills help “see” the strikes again and should help you rebuild good habits for sparring and fighting. Obviously you can build up the speed and intensity as you become more comfortable. Hopefully your coach and teammates are willing to work with you and slow things down a bit.

Majority of the gym are good to work with but in sparring a fair few become "sparring bullies" who don't understand that some of us are not heavyweights lol. I've never had a problem with it until my return and now I'm gunshy and getting hit because of the flinching.

 

[Sinister]

Fitness, IMO, is one of the best and worst things to build confidence around. If the foundation of your ability to do what you do was how fit you were, and then after that came skills, then when you have just skill, you're only going to be as confident as those are worth on their own. Fitness should be pushed to build confidence AFTER a certain amount of skill is there (enough that any fighter believes they can defend themselves), and as that is forged they learn to shake off poor reactions to punches, even if they're rusty.

 

[FightGuyOpenMind]

I've never been a brawler, more an outside fighter but if I got caught on the ropes or had to trade I would, I generally relied on headmovement more than a guard, this is why flinching isn't great because I use the philly shell and I need my wits about for it to work.
I broke my hand on a new heavybag at the gym, the gloves I took that day had a split in the padding I hadn't noticed and my knuckle went through with the only protection being the leather of the glove, technically it wasn't a break it was a ruptured tendon but its far easier to just call it a break than explain it.
I've had ruptured ligaments in my left knee and broke my right foot in 3 places with permanent tendon damage, so I've already adjusted my style to being less mobile than I once was, but I'm a switch hitter and a counter puncher, so flinching really isn't great for my style.



No doubt I'm rusty, I've really only done pads and bag work for the last 6 months, only just started sparring again and I've been a bit underwhelmed with how I performed.



Majority of the gym are good to work with but in sparring a fair few become "sparring bullies" who don't understand that some of us are not heavyweights lol. I've never had a problem with it until my return and now I'm gunshy and getting hit because of the flinching.

Counter puncher?.....I guess you'll be rooting for Canelo then huh? lol well the flinching should go away as you feel more comfortable. Comfort usually comes back with more time in the ring (considering that you've been away for a year or so). You are an experienced fighter, so it could just be ring rust.

I flinch when I've been away from sparring, and come back. I think it's a reflex we have to train out of ourselves. What has helped me with that is making the conscious effort to keep my eyes wide open so that I can see everything. It has helped me react productively instead of flinching.

I would talk to your coach. Perhaps do more mitt work with the coach to re-establish your rhythm. Spar light. Spar with someone you trust, and ask if they can restrict their shots (maybe a 1,2) so you can become adjusted to being back in the ring. Record yourself, and study the tape. These are all options I can think of. Oh....and philly shell? You're in luck. Study Floyd. lol I would be watching the heck out of his tapes. Hope it goes well for you brother.

 

[Alech33]

As fucked up as this may sound I'd recommend you go against the new guys (I'd say white belts if it were BJJ)
I'm not suggesting that you hurt them or anything but when you are consistently successful you will begin to feel confident again

 

[Alech33]

Let me just add to that still work on particular skills you are looking to work