I went to my first sparring class last week.  I did really well, considering it was my first time.

Probably my worst habit was when my opponent came to close on me, or if he landed a good punch to my head, I would instinctively turn my head away and present the back of my head to him.  This is a natural reaction, but likely to really get me pummeled.

When I did this my (more experienced) opponents would go bambambambambam and land a half-dozen quick bunches to the back of my head and neck.[img]http://www.stopstart.freeserve.co.uk/smilie/fight.gif[/img]  They were light "taps" and not really punches, more of a tap just to let me know that I was leaving myself vulnerable.

What methods have you martial arts guys found to most quickly eliminate these bad habits?

I guess I could ask them to hit me a little harder when I turn my head so it hurts more and I could learn through operant conditioning.  Any suggestions for more painless ways?

-Nick Viejo.

relax, go back to class.  in 6 months you will be an old hand at it.

Make no mistake, I had a blast at sparring class.  I wish I could do it more than once/week.

I also continue to go to the normal classes througout the week.  I'm just looking for ways to speed up my improvement.

-Nick Viejo.

Just give yourself some try and try to do a mental review after each sparring match to see what you could have done better.

As an aside, I heard somewhere recently that it takes 10,000 repititions to really learn a physical movement like a punch in martial arts or a movement in dancing.  It takes 30,000 repititions to re-train after learning something incorrectly.  So focus on learning things correctly, rather than something that just gets you by