Budoblr, I Need Some Help With Learning Control
To be honest, the idea of actually hitting someone freaks me out. I understand that martial arts will hurt and that I will feel pain, but I'm scared to hit. As a white belt, I have been warned that because I have yet to learn control, my hit could harm my training partner. This was a good warning because my first concern will always be for my training partners safety, so I don't have a qualm with it. My issue is my fear. I am so scared that I'll hit someone too hard, so I always wimp out. I think it's causing me to doubt myself. I have training partners that constantly tell me to actually hit them, but I wimp out. I'm starting to get concerned that I'm annoying my training partners because I don't pose a challenge. The sensei that's a little harder on me continues to remind me that I shouldn't be gentle and that I actually need to *hit*, and I think he's a little frustrated about it. So, like... I'm really frustrated with myself. I want to be good with this because I love it and because I want to be able to defend myself. I *REALLY* love and respect the people on the roster, and I fear becoming "that person" who hurts and injures their training partners because I didn't do it right. Has anyone ever dealt with this? I want to overcome this. How did you learn control? Was their something that your sensei/instructor/training partner did that changed it, or did it take time?