shadow boxing blindfolded

[thai_me]

Poked in the eye by what?

[gabbah]

Call it a modified flinch then.When a blow comes to you head you cannot tense you head in any useful way. You tense your neck, shoulders, chest, traps, lats and stomack to spead the shock. If the blow goes to you stomach you tense you stomach, arms, shoulders and everything else for the same reason. If you get kicked in the thigh you cannot tense if because you will fall down. You must thrust you weight onto it to make the muscle flex.

I've been training kickboxing for 3 years, so yes i have been sparring for quite some time, and I spar every time I train.
I don't agree you need to tense all those muscles when taking a blow to the head. It's mostly the neck and shoulders that need to tense.