It happened very unexpectedly. I was watching some of the other people at my gym spar and I asked one the trainers that was there who I should be watching to pick up techniques from. He must've misunderstood me because he asked me if I wanted to spar. I tried to make excuses like "I didn't have any equipment etc." but he said they had some so I said ok. Now, previously, I had done 3 rounds shadow boxing, 3 rounds jump rope, and 6 rounds heavy bag hard but I was very worried that my conditioning wouldn't even allow me to last a round. Plus I was very scared that I was going to get hurt inside there. However, this was my goal and I wanted to test myself so I got in there. One of the guys gave me advice and told me to keep moving my head or I was going to get hit a lot. I decided to take this advice to an extreme because I didn't want to get taken a part because the guy I was sparring with was much more experienced that me. The experience was very dreamlike. I know I got hit but I didn't really notice any pain until after the whole thing was over. I slipped a lot of punches and even at one point I slipped a jab and countered with a right hand and I also landed a right uppercut to the body which I think might have actually hurt him. I lasted two rounds. Then on the third round, they noticed I was getting tired and decided to stop it because I kept dropping my hands. They told me running more would help me. There was only fifteen seconds left in the third round when they stopped it so I was a little disappointed but, considering that I would've been happy if I lasted one, I was very pleased. Sparring for the first time was an experience I would never forget. When it was over, the adrenaline was coursing through my body still so I walked around the gym to get rid of it, and a lot of people, some of whom had never said a word to me in the gym, told me I looked really good and to keep coming. It was a very proud moment for me.
Right on man! You are now a "member" of the club. Dudes who actually get work. Keep reflecting on the event and use it as fuel for your training.
I should point out that my sparring partner wasn't going hard on me. They told him not to because I was new but I didn't know that when we were sparring so when I asked him if he was going hard and he said no I was slightly disappointed b/c I wanted to know if I could take a punch. When I brought this up to the trainer, he seemed to know what I was getting at and told me not to worry about that right now because if I went in with someone experienced and they went hard, I might quit. He told me a story about how he was boxing when he was younger and he sparred against someone who was much more experienced than him, and that his partner went hard and hit him with a liver shot and he threw up and then proceeded to curse out the trainer and left and never came back. He said, instead, to build up my skills and spar with guys with similar experience to me and eventually work my way up. I was satisfied with this explanation, but I was still a little disheartened because I somehow felt as if this made the experience less meaningful. But they did say that I did really good for my first time so I was happy about that.
Well done man if you managed to last 2 rounds your conditioning cant be all that bad. My guess is that you got tired in the 3rd round partly due to inexperience and nerves from never sparred before. My first sparring sesh was very dreamlike aswell, and the lack of pain is from your body running on pure adrenaline...as time goes on you will be able to control this adrenaline to an extent so that you will feel like you are in control of your actions completely as well as being able to conserve yourself. Sounds like you got a good coach aswel, keep it up!
Sounds better than my first time sparring. Got whupped for 6 rounds straight, completely exhausted but didnt have the nerve to quit either in front of everyone. I think I landed 6-7 punches. You usually learn very quickly after that, in a week i was already making it tough for lads that had been there for some years (I was 13, so the "veterans" were the kids that had been there since age 6-11).
By the way, I sparred again this time. I did a lot better, but I got rocked this time by a left hook. I was ok, only lasted two rounds this time, but I think I'm getting a little more comfortable in there. Just gotta work on my cardio.
