I think a lot of people are not comfortable with getting hit in the face. The striking and clinching class we have at our school generally has much less attendees than the grappling only sparring classes. I'm so grateful to be able to practice the striking and clinching. Slowly but surely, little by little, I am able to flinch less, close my eyes less, and and more and more comfortable moving forward when the opponent is striking and being able to counter strike and evade blows. The more time i spend in the pocket, the more familiar I am getting with defending and evading strikes. It takes time but consistency is key, Getting punched in the nose is no fun tho so I get it. It's not totally exactly the answer to the question but its semi related and is what came to my mind when I read the post.

I still find myself holding my breath a lot. Gonna try to remember to focus on that. My diet is pretty solid. For focus I can always keep working on trying to eliminate distractions and be more present at home with the family instead of watching self defense related content on my phone 😅. Working on balancing more strength training in also. I usually pick jiu jitsu instead.

I did better this week with the breathing. Gonna keep trying to be present in my mind to that.

I’m going to work on my mount attack triad: cross choke, Americana, arm lock.

fantastic Q and A session

Does a successful foot lock prevent the opponent from chasing after you when you get up and run away?

@James Driskill I’ll take it!