Fear when sparring with someone a lot better
Hello, I live in South Korea and I started boxing 2 months ago at a recently opened boxing gym close to my work. There is only one trainer which is the owner(former Korean pro boxer). I am a big guy in Korean standards, about 5’11 240lbs. There are not many guys who go to the gym that are close to my size. So I only spar with the trainer.
We have sparred about 5 times. He is a very good guy and pushes me for my own benefit. When sparring, he tells me that he uses 1 out of 10 power but his counter punches and uppercuts feel like a good 6-8 and his body shots sometimes have me on my knees with a good liver shot.
Before starting the gym I have never been hit or hit anyone. To be honest I feel a lot of fear now when sparring mostly because I know I’m going to get hit and it will hurt (We use full sparring gear).
This leads me to throwing punches from a mile away, landing almost nothing, and getting comboed to oblivion. He will sometimes stay in a high guard on the ropes and lets me try some combos or punches up close. But by this time I am gassed and have a hard time. He will then counter me and start hitting me again.
I think to myself that I’m going to get hit no matter what so just suck it up and let the fear go. But it doesn’t work.
I really enjoy boxing training and I look forward to sparring. I just feel the fear after getting hit a bunch of times and feel bad after that I did feel like that and wasn’t more aggressive or able to land many punches.
Has anyone else felt fear when sparring like this? If so how did you get over it?
Any advice is appreciated!