Sparring

Hey, I’m a beginner and I have been doing Muay Thai for about a year now and I really do love the sport. However for whatever reason I do not enjoy sparring. When it comes to sparring everything I know goes out the window and become super anxious and stiff. I have just changed gyms due to class schedules and I am now at a more reputable gym that trains a ton of fighters. I definitely feel more like a beginner now more than ever and it’s especially noticed when sparring and classmates are throwing bombs at me. Last sparring session which was only my second time at this new gym my partner landed a liver kick right to my ribs and it took me out for a bit. Now I know mauy thai is a combat sport and I am use to sparring and I’m well aware people can hit hard but I guess at my old gym we always made sure to match each others intensity especially when working with new people. I feel more anxious than ever about sparring at this new gym so I’m just wondering what the best way to approach this is. Should I just from the start let my partners know that I’m new and would like to go lighter and work up intensity from there, or should I ask the coach if I can hit the bags instead? I definitely don’t want to come off as rude or that I’m avoiding sparring because I do know how important it is but I genuinely think the people that train here are way more advanced than me with sparring and it really has been giving me a lot of anxiety. My only other thought is to change gyms again but I do feel where I am now has a lot of potential to teach me better techniques since everyone seems so skilled.

Thanks.