First fight back after 3 years. Feeling like my first fight again...
I was injured and finally got to get back into competition after 3 long years of hiatus.
I had a little over 5 fights before I got injured and thought I was finally getting over my fight nerves and perform somewhat similar to how I practice and spar before the injury.
I just had my first fight back and even though I was confident in my ability and wasn't nervous much before the fight, as soon as I put the fight gear on, I knew the nerves were hitting me.
When I shadow boxed with the fight gear on, all of the sudden, my shots felt slow and weak immediately when they felt fine before hitting pads getting ready.
During the fight, I used almost no footwork and couldn't think much. My distancing and timing was completely off. It almost felt similar to my first fight except I had better cardio this time.
When I looked back at the footage, none of my strikes had much snap or weight behind them. I pride myself in strong kicks but my kicks were so non-committal that it just pretty much touched my opponents, not push them back like how it usually does. So they were able to just take it and continue to attack me without getting disrupted.
I have another fight coming up soon in about 3 weeks and hoping to get rid of this nerve.
Should I try to simulate fight stress by doing hard 3 rounds in the ring few times before the fight?
What helped you get over the fight nerve?
It's really frustrating since I felt like I was finally getting over the fight nerve and could think in my fight just for it to return feeling like my first fight...