hard sparring = brain damage?

[Eldarbong]

I have been thinking about this. You need to spar obviously to learn good technique, this is not disputed. You also need to spar hard (at least some of the time) if you want to be prepared to actually fight, but how dangerous is this, overall?

I read somewhere that boxing gloves actually make it more dangerous when you spar (this makes no sense to me at first thought), and that headgear really doesn't do too much to protect you when you are getting hit hard. Most of the people I spar with fight, and always seem to punch very hard, but this seems to be the norm for people who are training for fights. I worry sometimes about the effect that this training has, I mean it is fighting, and there are inherent dangers, but I wonder if it is worth the potential brain damage to train like this if you are not interested in being a fighter.

[Airman Kai]

I think this is a bit of an alarmist attitude to take. I hit on head much times and not dumb. You should be fine unless your taking 400 blows to the head every day.

[Feryk]

There are risks. There are in anything. There are lots of people who train your chosen arts taht are NOT brain damaged, btw. If you are training in something where striking is part of the deal, shouldn't you learn how to do it properly? And shouldn't you also learn how to handle it properly?

If you don't want to do that, then why are you training MT?

[BackFistMonkey]

I have been thinking about this. You need to spar obviously to learn good technique, this is not disputed. You also need to spar hard (at least some of the time) if you want to be prepared to actually fight, but how dangerous is this, overall?

I read somewhere that boxing gloves actually make it more dangerous when you spar (this makes no sense to me at first thought), and that headgear really doesn't do too much to protect you when you are getting hit hard. Most of the people I spar with fight, and always seem to punch very hard, but this seems to be the norm for people who are training for fights. I worry sometimes about the effect that this training has, I mean it is fighting, and there are inherent dangers, but I wonder if it is worth the potential brain damage to train like this if you are not interested in being a fighter.

Limet you full contact sessions and you will be fin . I no I don't seem to have bad effect often .

[JP]

Limet you full contact sessions and you will be fin . I no I don't seem to have bad effect often .

I'd plus rep you for that if I could.

I've heard somewhere that one or maybe two hard sparring sessions a week is sufficient if you're drilling technique the rest of the time. If you're going really hard all the time you're risking injuries of other sorts.

But seriously, if you're that worried about getting hurt why are you traing muay thai? My worries revolve around joints getting fucked up. Doesn't mean I don't train but head injuries seem less common than say, a blown ACL which scares the **** out of me.

[Deadmeat]

The reason some neurologists say that boxing gloves can make matters worse is that because individual hits aren't as impactful, a boxer, over the course of his career, receives a phenomenal amount of repeated blunt force trauma to the head as opposed to an MMA fighter.

The MMA practitioner, for example, may get knocked out in a spectacular fashion from time to time, but over the course of an entire career probably will not ever come close to approaching the overall degree of cumulative insult (injury) sustained by a boxer. Also, it's not just the impact of the punch itself, it's also the resultant rattling of the brain within it's enclosure of bone that significantly contributes. additional padding to the outside of the head does not significantly reduce the impact of the brain against the skull.

The Brain Injury that results from a lifetime of being hit in the head is called Dementia Pugilistica - Boxer's Dementia. It also increases vulnerability and predisposition to degenerative conditions like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, etc.

An early warning sign is an appearance of sunken pupils - where they seem to be really deep within the eye, It's kind of hard to explain, but if you look at recent photos of Crocop, for example, you can see what I mean. He's a pretty high risk candidate for dementia pugilistica in later life.

[TheMightyMcClaw]

As I understand it, the danger of brain damage comes from repeated concussions. I gave one of my friends a concussion with a spinning hook kick over the summer (Whoops!) and the doctor said that one concussion wouldn't lead to any long term problems, but contact sports of any kind were out for the next three weeks. Apparently, according to the doctor, there have been cases where football players got a concussion in practice a few days before the game, didn't tell their coach, and then died from another concussion recieved during the game itself. Ouch.
So yeah. You should be fine, so long as if you get a concussion, you don't get another one soon after.
As for headgear, I've heard various intepretations, but if nothing else, it keeps me from getting cauliflower ear (which is beyond nasty) and helps keep my long beautiful hair out of my eyes.

[Emevas]

Don't be concerned. I've been sparring hard for 4 cheeseburgers and an order of fries please and I've had no ill effects.

[Wounded Ronin]

No worry. Spar good, brain strong. No loss smartness.

[Eldarbong]

Limet you full contact sessions and you will be fin . I no I don't seem to have bad effect often .

Don't be concerned. I've been sparring hard for 4 cheeseburgers and an order of fries please and I've had no ill effects.

No worry. Spar good, brain strong. No loss smartness.

So basically, yes it does cause brain damage, but who cares?