I got caught with a high kick during my 4th sparring session, and I can’t stop thinking about it
Yesterday , while sparring in kickboxing, I got hit in the jaw with a high kick. I’ve only been doing kickboxing for about a month and a half to two months, but I’m still pretty new to sparring. At first, I couldn’t participate in sparring because I didn’t have a mouthguard, so I missed out. Eventually, I managed to join one session, but then I got sick and missed the second sparring session that week. This week, I finally started sparring regularly. When this happened yesterday, it was only my fourth sparring session.
My opponent had been doing kickboxing for months and had more experience than me. We started sparring, and he dodged every punch I threw. He was moving really quickly, and then he suddenly threw a high kick. I had momentarily dropped my guard, so his kick landed directly on my jaw. I didn’t fall or get knocked off balance, but I was genuinely caught off guard and didn’t know what to say because I wasn’t expecting anything like that. My sparring partner was also surprised and hugged me afterward.
I then told him that I was still pretty new to sparring, and he said we should slow things down. We did, and he occasionally gave me advice on keeping my guard up. He still threw some hard kicks from time to time, but nothing like that initial high kick happened again throughout our sparring session. Afterward, we switched partners and sparred with different people.
Later, while we were chatting in the locker room, he mentioned that he had thrown the high kick because he thought I was going to put my guard up.
Anyway, I didn’t really feel anything emotionally in the moment, but a few hours later, when I got home, I found myself replaying the moment I got hit by that high kick over and over in my head. I can’t really bring myself to get angry about it, but I also can’t seem to get it out of my mind.
Since I’m still new to sparring, am I overreacting, or is this a normal thing to experience?