HOW TO OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF BEING HIT

Hi everyone,

If you have been reading my articles for the past little while you know that when it comes to my philosophy on street fighting I always say that “combat is 90% mental and only 10% physical”. When it comes to dealing with fears such as the fear of being hit the same motto holds true. Think about this for a second what is the scariest thing about violence? Is it the fact that when you are actually fighting you could be in pain after getting hit? Or is the scariest thing about violence the anticipation of getting hit before the physical act of violence even occurs.

Bottom line the anticipation of violence is much worse then violence itself.


Like I have mentioned in my previous posts before every feeling there is a thought. So if you are standing across from your enemy at a stand off before the physical act of violence occurs you will experience multiple thoughts that are playing in your head. If you are afraid of being hit this will usually factor in fear based thoughts about being hit going off in your head. Think about it for a second when you actually get hit do you feel pain? The answer is no because your adrenaline is pumping so high it protects you and heightens your pain tolerance. Like I said earlier the worst thing about violence is the stand off seconds before the physical assault takes place because you start to over think things. When the blows start coming those feelings disappear and you do not feel any pain when you’re being hit.

So the next question is how I go about conquering my fear of being hit? First by retraining your brain to have a trigger that puts you into a “killer instinct mindset” (I have written about this in previous posts so I won’t go over it again). You can also perform this physical training exercise. Stand blindfolded with your arms and legs spread. Have a partner while wearing boxing gloves or pads begin striking you with there hands and feet at about 50% of there force. Have them strike you’re arms, chest, torso, legs and face (when striking the face only use in minimal amount of force this prevents trauma to the brain).


What you will find by performing this exercise is that since you cannot see when or where your partner is going to strike your brain will work in over drive because it will anticipate where the next strike will occur. This will force you to control your thoughts while at the same time give you confidence in your ability to handle being hit.


As you perform more of this exercise, have your partner add more force to his strikes. Please remember that you do not want your partner going full force on you and keep the striking power to the head and face to a minimal for your useless if your have any brain trauma.

P.S. When getting hit remember to breathe out on impact and to go with the flow of the blow.

Till the next time remember there’s no such thing as a dirty fighter only an educated one.

Norm “The Cannibal” Bettencourt