I am curious to hear how you went in your first few sparring classes, how did you feel, how did it go etc??

On saturday I had my 2nd sparring class. I have been doing muay thai for a few months now but decided recently to try our Intro sparring class. The first part of the class is doing drills then the last 15 mins is freeststyle.
Now I know you are gonna get punched in the face and kicked around I accept that but I just felt like a complete noob - I basically stood there and got pummeled. Mind went blank . I got punched in the faces a few times as I was careless with my guard but I was too nervous to throw my own punches back as I felt like if I did throw a punch it would be obvious or I would be too slow.. Also I am so embarrassed to say I felt like crying, just from frustration and the feeling of being useless. I felt a bit panicy like "wtf do I do" as the guy was landing punches on me. I did manage to land some kicks but alot of mine he blocked and he landed a few on me as I was too slow to block as I was quite nervous & finding it hard to concentrrate on everything at once
.And the guy I was paired up with was going a little too hard, I did tell him it was my 2nd time. I should have told him to go a bit more easy but at the time I thought I just had to suck it up.

So would appreciate feedback, advice etc . I know it is a great learning experience but I feel a little down to be honest.

thanks!

A couple of thoughts. Sparring can be great or it can be a bummer depending on whether it is at a level that is accessible to you. I do feel it is good to learn correct form before you turn up the sparring--a month, two at most on basics of stance, footwork, basic kick mechanics and basic boxing mechanics. Usually I have people start sparring and go light and build volume. If they go too hard early they'll develop bad habits like flinching and swinging wildly and won't learn the infighting part of the art. Usually if I get a group of people who can manage to spar light without killing each other I know they can learn a lot and get better together. All the while they should be working hard on the conditioning and physicality work, so they will be able to have the legs and the lungs to deal.

As they progress they can work up to medium sparring (and by medium sparring I mean you aren't getting hit hard enough to get knocked out.) A lot of general population people don't go much beyond medium sparring. People who are fighters? That's different. They need a lot of hard sparring, but also that sparring needs to be periodized around their fight schedule. They need to taper down 1.5 weeks out and do no sparring at all the last 5 days. Note: In Thailand where a lot of guys have fights every week or two they spar very easy between fights, hence the term "Len Chen" timing sparring.

For women beginners starting in sparring (or anybody of smaller stature), walk up to the most advanced fighter you can and ask to spar them. The fighters will not hurt you. Instructors will not hurt you. It is the bonehead 20 year old stupid guy beginners who you have to fear. In my gym, we try to keep an eye out for that. And if we see a guy hammering on a girl beginner, there will be 6 or more very advanced guys that will line up to give that bonehead guy a taste of his own medicine in no uncertain terms. And after that the rest of the class gets the message.