A Recreational Physicist

My team lead has had an open challenge for me to spar him at his MMA/Muy Thai/Boxing gym for a few months, and the stars and our schedules finally aligned long enough for us to spar.  All I can say is it wasn't pretty.  I got owned.  Here's what I did wrong and what I'm going to do right at the rematch, because yeah there's going to be a rematch and I'm not going down.

1. I psyched myself out.  I do shaolin-do kung fu, and I've heard all the comments about there mcdojos and whatnot from the MMA, Krav Maga, "real" fighting crowd, and I started to believe it.  It's a bunch of bull.  A punch is a punch and a kick is a kick it doesn't matter what style you learn and sparring is sparring.  We do a lot of it, and we don't go all out, but there is plenty of solid contact sparring we do.
2. I did the full magic50 for the first time the night before.  50 burpees are way harder then 50 squats.  D'oh.
3. I let the arena psych me out.  We sparred in a raised boxing ring with some of the instructors watching.  I put too much pressure on myself.  I also wore MMA gloves and headgear for the first time.  I was so nervous I just tossed weak punches out there and threw a ton of weak front leg front kicks.  I don't even know where those came from.  In our style the only time you'd throw something like that is to take out someones knee.  All I accomplished was put my leg in grabbing position.  I guess I was so nervous about getting taken down, I just let myself go down.  Double D'oh.
4. I was completely outclassed on the ground, I don't think I could have done better, but I didn't do nearly enough to avoid going down in the first place.  Also, I went for a guillotine without the possibility of getting guard.  A guillotine is useless without guard.  I'm only going for it if I break leg control in the future.
   

I did do some things right.

1. Started with a kick to the groin.  In our sparring, the entire body is fair game, but no head contact unless headgear is worn.  Removing valid targets on the body gives the advantage to BJJ guys.
2. In the middle of getting taken down I landed repeated elbows to the back of the head and neck.  I'm sorry I did that because I could have really hurt my sparring partner, but again taking this stuff out of the fight just favors one style over another.  It just illustrated why I would hold back from a take down in a real fight.
3. My strength and conditioning seemed superior to my sparring partner.  He should have been dominating me more then he did, and I definitely think he was breathing harder after each round.  Ross conditioning kicks ass.

Things I learned.

1. Don't throw useless punches.  Make every punch and kick count.  I did that Monday night and it made a world of difference.
2. Don't be afraid to be aggressive, reckless is bad but nobody won a fight by hiding in the corner.
3. Take the mental game seriously.  I lost before I ever stepped into the ring.
   
4. Getting on the ground seems too exposed to eye gouges and pressure point grabs around the neck.  Also grabbing the head and slamming on the concrete seems way to likely.  This seems like sport fighting.
5. Practice like you mean it.  I'm taking every sparring session seriously.
6. Katas do help.  I was practicing Sea Dragon Cane and realized that I don't control my distance well.  I rush in for punches, but get in too close, while not attacking on the way out.  I drilling the moves really gave me time to think them through.