Good advice. Sparring is not worth the cost. Only worth sparring if you plan on being a fighter. If you're a white collar boxer, you'd be a fool to spar regularly and risk losing your main money making asset : your brain.
I hope to strike a balance. Spar lightly once or twice a week. That way you can fill in the gaps between drills and having someone with a brain fighting back. But also lower the risk of CTE and rattling your brain around Juijitsu on the other hand. Can get much harder with that
without hard sparring you can never be a fighter...I take lot of hard strike when i was competting in boxing and in some fight in the street too and my brain seem still intact (lol) cause i still can study and have my master in history…. I think it's not some few sparring in the month who are enought to destroy your brain!!!
@@DarkLight-dd4nc CTE alzheimers ect can be caused by repeated head trauma just becauses you're healthy doesn't mean everyone is and also the effects may develop later
If you don't spar hard mate then it's no more danger than football is... You also don't tell a soccer player you should only play soccer if you're paid for it... Lol. But if we're talking about hard sparring regularly, and you take a lot of shots, then yes, you have a point. But Imo sparring is the most fun about boxing (the usual training excercices in group bore me after some time), otherwise you can never really test your skills and what you learned in practice. I think just boxing recreationally without ever sparring, is only good if you're just doing it for general health benefit and if you can't box for shit (so you don't get beat up ;-)).
Plenty of boneheads leaving comments on this video. I especially love the "No sparring means no boxing" posts. Train with a good coach, learn the fundamentals, train heavy bag, and find a good group for light tag sparring, and you can enjoy boxing for a lifetime. Yes you will learn how to fight. Yes you will avoid getting hurt. Leave that to the fools with ego problems. Gym wars are not recommended, even for competitive boxers
Hey, if they want to end up like Ali or James Toney, (Two people who loved hard sparring and intentionally letting the partner to hit them to "harden" themselves), then let them. At the end of the day they will be the one's who have to live with CTE, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and overall brain damage. And people like you will be the one's who get to live a long and healthy life.
I'm a prospective "white collar boxer", about five months of just bagwork etc., trying to decide if I want to spar there or not. I'm also middle aged. Won't know until I see them spar up close I don't think. Funny though, I was talking to my coach and he was basically saying that while sparring is necessary to produce a competitive fighter (duh), a huge part of getting boxing training right is putting it all together in bagwork, and that you can gain a suprising amount of ability with simply bagwork and the right coaching.. He has apparently even brought up competitive fighters who did ok with minimal sparring, just due to their circumstances. Anyway, I come from years of Karate, and in that world I learned that 90% of sparring safety is just who you go with, and being -very- choosy.
@@ultimatesandwich9090 Do hard sparring long enough and youl end up in a real fight with CTE and other forms of brain damage. And you’ll never win that fight.
communication is key. my IT band was pretty chewed up from two consecutive days before and i just let each partner know the 3rd day and it was MOSTLY good.
me and my brother were sparring...both had headguards...we were going very light...but somehow i managed to get hit in the back of my head...my bro is like 190 lbs, had 12oz gloves...he threw that left hook with probably 20% of his real power...and i had headaches , i was seeing blurry, couldnt focus or anything for 2 weeks...yeah and after that i stopped sparring ...i hit the heavy bag, focus mitt, jump rope,striking sticks but just not them punches to the head...sometimes we do bodyshot sparring thats it...i am not trynna be professional fighter..its strictly for self defence...not worth dying or becoming a vegetable at 20 years old
i just gave up on boxing over the possible future brain damage, and i believe you made a great decision, despite the beauty of the sport, it takes real courage dedication and love to the sport to submit to such a dangerous activity
@@zaraiwzara honestly i think ill just end up sparring with friends only and not doing anything to the head. i mean i'd still wear all the protection just incase but that way you can still have a ton of fun and not worry about anything
@@soupiratethesoup6161having gear on, wont prevent concussions. Like helmets doesnt prevent concussions. They can in fact make them worse, since they give a "springload" effect. It's not the external damage you have to worry about, but the internal. 99% of the whole population think helmets prevent concussions, soo I dont blame you, for thinking that.
probably going to get hammered for this, but there should be a period at least 3-6 months where you are sparring not hard but i would say at 70-80%, because in my opinion you need to know how chaotic a fight really is, or how to recover from a hard shot, taking and giving shots. Getting hurt and still coming back the next day, don't get me wrong, after that period i would say just spar light, but the experience helps a lot. Light sparring doesn't replicate a real fight, but light sparring over hard sparring everyday of the week.
Actually good sparing is when you spar 50% max. This way you focus more on technique ,rather than beat crap out of your partners. Check Lomachenko or other great fighters and great technicians - they spar lightly, never unleashing full power. For full power - there is heavybag.
I guess fighting is everything some people have in their lives, so the side effects don't concern them, they wouldn't be doing anything else if they are not fighting.
MMA hasn't correlated positively with brain damage YET. It simply has not been around as long as boxing and football, but it will eventually be shown to be just as bad.
JSS GSP is from the French side of Canada, his English will always be bad. ( he learned the language when he was 18 y/o.) His speech seems ok. I don't think his discussions about aliens are a sign.
tapirtoon ` ground and pound is much weaker. Some commentators say it's only 60% as powerful as standup punches. I'm not a doctor, but an 8 count followed by receiving more damage seems a lot more dangerous. Another problem is that some gyms are run by idiots who allow hard sparring too often. Coaches will actually brag about one knockdown in the gym every session.
Wouldn't even need to dodge if you didn't put yourself in there, but hey, you do you, I guess some people just need the adrenaline, danger and rush that fighting provides for living a happy and exciting life.
I used to train MMA and now boxing, but I never spar. I am an architect and my whole life depends on my brain working well, so I just don't want to risk that, even though sparing is very fun. Keep your priorities in check
I'm studying Law in college and really want to be a lawyer. There's an MMA gym I want to join, if the coach says I have to hard spar to the head ot some shit I'll sadly get away from it, as much as I like the sport it's just not worth it
As far as sparring and CTE there is an option to do sparring drills as well and I'm sure if you're coach is skill oriented which is vital for development. I'm sure not a whole lot of people want to have headaches and trouble getting to work the next day as well.
Very relevant. I’ve watched a number of martial arts vids over the years, and have some limited experience in martial arts, but have hardly heard this addressed. It also ties in with the whole idea of self-defense a lot more than might be apparent, I believe. For example, moving to a safer area might be a better use of money than paying for martial arts lessons when perhaps a person could actually earn more money in that time and move. It’s true that the club might give long-lasting benefits, but so can looking after our brain cells. Personally, I’d like to get involved in martial arts again but the ideas in this video do caution me. I might be better off putting on muscle/weight as a deterrent, and finding a very low contact club, though I’m not ready at present to join any (excuses…) Great video, thank you!
Not to mention that in mma, if you get knocked out, then the fight is over. Whereas if you get knocked out in boxing/Kickboxing, then you’re given 10 seconds to get back up and continue fighting, thereby increasing the long term risk of brain damage. It’s safe to say that at least mma takes precautionary measures to protect its fighters.
@@hellofaname very true. Or you are dazed then taken down then submitted. Either way less pounding than boxing. MMA tends to be fewer rounds than boxing as well.
More brain injuries in soccer than in amateur boxing competition. Training is another story. When my sons decided to compete, I actually started my own club. I knew the local club would try to injure my kids, because of a long standing grudge they had against me. Yes, there really are evil people in sport. Some of them make that coach in the Karate Kid movie look like a saint. Be very cautious if your kids want to compete. If a gym has a rule that parents aren’t allowed to watch the training, avoid it. If your kid had headaches after training, stop training. Brain damage usually happens early in your career, but takes years to show up. If a coach compliments you on how tough you are, you’re going down a dark path.
Is that percentage wise, or just total amount of brain injuries in football vs total amount boxing? Because obviously alot more people play football than boxing, so the numbers are going to be higher. Now percentage wise is a different story
It could be real soccer is the most popular sport where I grew up. The tackles are vicious, if you are going for a header and the goalkeeper is going out he will punch the brains out of you. It happens often a player get hurt badly or knocked out. Acl, meniscus tear, torn ligaments and fractures are common for outfield players and KOs and broken fingers are also common for goalkeepers @thatPSNguy99
In my experience, I'm lucky to have found a gym that lets their fighters spar lightly with me. I made it clear since day 1 that I'm just there for the fitness aspect of it so during sparring sessions, their home fighters wouldnt go ape shit on me.
One thing you can do is NOT go to a weekend warrior gym full of assholes who never compete but are only there to beat someone up because they hate their job or their wife won’t fuck them anymore. Instead, go to a gym where the students compete regularly. They are in it for the long-term and won’t be willing to get damage for nothing.
Hi I'm the guy that Chris is referring to :). I'm glad that this video is getting popular. I sometimes watch this video on occasion and glad to see there are other people here that are just as passionate as I am in martial arts but still dont want to risk that fine line between serious head injury or living long enough to remember our children's names. As far as I know, there are two ways to do martial arts without serious head injury: 1. Find a martial art/ school that doesnt spar. This includes fitness/ conditioning boxing, kickboxing, Kung Fu schools like Wushu, etc. 2. Find a martial art that spars but is KNOWN to be RELATIVELY safe. This includes: -Olympic Style Fencing (Very safe), -Escrima/ Arnis/ Kali (body spar/ technical spar) - BJJ (possible to get hit in the head but not as common.) - Aikido (not necessarily sparring but you do get flipped on the mat.) - Kendo (You do get hit in the head but it's not a full force swing. More like snapping motions. From what I heard you dont feel the hit but i still be wary.) Like this comment to spread the word. I think everyone deserves to do martial arts the way they want to. I'm currently doing a martial art called Escrima and I only body spar in the art in request to my instructor. Theres a video on my channel if you want to see :). The only problem is that not every person that does escrima do this kind of spar but it's not uncommon to say the least.
@@arock8586 unfortunately I since stopped doing martial arts. The last sparring session I had in my escrima club, I got a headache after getting hit in the head. Light sparring doesn't mean you won't be susceptible to head injuries by the way. The only realistic option to avoid injury is to stop sparring and just do padwork or forms/kata.
I decided for private lessons. I only spar with my coach and his most advanced students who know how to pull punches and haver zero to prove sparring with a person like me.
In North NJ and NYC, most boxing gyms, even many of the ones that really want to attract and train very competitive boxers, have classes for boxing with no sparring; have trainers who will work with you if you don’t want to be competitive (you’re paying them a lot of dough); have light sparring; and will let you do your own thing on your own. Now, if you say you want to go amateur or pro and you thus want the time of a trainer to get there, you eventually have to spar hard. It’s totally necessary if you want to be competitive. The trainer won’t put up with your telling him how to train you.
I think if you don't want to be a fighter, it's gonna be better that you really focus on practicing skills like footwork, defence, speed , etc. And just light spar once~twice a week for using the skills you practiced
This is a great subject, and Brain Trauma is a concern for me, I have floaters in my eyes and kind of detached retina type but not from fighting, the gel in the back of the retina or eye detaches sometimes and this happens when Im stressed out, much like a migraine and have had depression/anxiety for 2 decades and taking meds for that, recently getting better and coming off meds, would love to train in MMA or BJJ, Judo, Boxing etc but worry about Brain Trauma, especially when you hear about the possible Dementia risk, my father has Dementia, believ me guys you don't want that, it is heart breaking for the whole family, you forget who your family is, where you are, its one of the worst thing that can ever happen to a human being, its worse than a disease happening to you, its happening to the deepest part of YOU, the core, your MIND is fucking GONE!! When I see my Dad whom I love with all my heart, he was a tough guy, aggressive at times, powerful and I looked up to my Dad as a tower of strength and power, now he cries and says he is confused, I tell him its all going to be okay, I have to take Dad to the toilet, have to help him up from bed, cloth him, make food for him and the once Tower of my Life cause of Dementia is a shadow of his former self. Now I look at my 3 yrs old son and he looks up to me as a beast, we do some fighting, wrestling and he bites the shit out of me at times, lol. I see my Dad in me and myself in my son, I was thinking should I train in MMA but then think of Dad and Dementia taking over him ... I wonder if one could train to almost never get hit, was'nt sugar ray leonard almost impossible to catch in the head, he was very evasive. I want to do MMA and my quality of life may improve but the end of life quality if one gets Dementia isn't worth it. How can a person train smarter if I want to avoid being bashed in the brain? Like training in bob, weave, duck and master it so you hardly ever get hit, surely there must be guys who are very tough to hit.
Man I think I'll answer my own question, better to get a Gun or be proficient with knives or even those WWII combatives or military style self defense training not those garbage self defense classes but something as realistic as possible. To be honest Ive never had to fight as our family always had Big German Shepherd dogs, the Dementia or brain injury is a serious issue though guys, the brain is like Jello and shaking it many times it will injur and the problem is that its not bruising an arms that will repair, cells die and die and die with no repair, thats the problem, our brain is who we are, if that breaks down we break down, the very core of who we are is gone. Its tough saying this if you like martial art or combat sport as I do.
Late reply but I was the person that Kennedy mentioned in the video. If you want something realistic for self defense then you should try something like Escrima. It's a weapon based system that focuses on stick and knives as well as some open hand (depending on the club. Most clubs dont focus on open hand at all.) The gear that some escrima clubs use is this big padded vest with a very thick helmet made specifically to reduce the impact from the sticks being used. In my club, we just use a fencing helmet and a padded stick. Still hurts the body but surprisingly protects the head decently. Not a single headache and I'm already in my fourth class. I suggest you research more on escrima and the different kinds of sparring they do. And see if it's right for you.
I think you will be fine with wrestling and bjj. But dont take my word for it. Also you can do mma casually. Just dont spar if you worry about your brain.
@@adyp5176 excellent points adrian. Do you happen to do BJJ and if so what has your experience been like? Also what do you think about aikido? I know aikido has a lot of flak of not being an effective martial art but I'm still going to try it at some point.
@SciSci Toys I think I have the same thing. I dont know what's goin on but I have some floaters and it's super annoying. I feel mine might be stress related too. Is this reversible?
There's a very light combat training even kids could do without much risk of repetitive shakes to the brain. It's where you and the other person are just trying to touch each other on the shoulder(s) with your fingers, and prevent being touched on the shoulders. The movements and dynamic has a ton of overlap with standing off in a fist fight. Only real risk is poking someone's eye out, but aside from that, it's very very light combat training with hardly any major risks, while still giving some basic competence for a fist fight situation.
Hey glad to hear I am not the only one thinking the same! First time I hear this kind of advice. I agree entirely. A main problem for me is that lots of gyms do not let you spar on your first day, even if you boxed before ... So you can not see how they spar ... So you can not always check the way people spar
I dont want brain damage and started to do fencing. I will attend in competitions and it will give me the same feeling like fighting in the ring cos at least i will fight but this will be in so safe zone. Ur brain is important guys protect it.
Good to hear this. I still think the best way is to no-glove it though. I've looked into it a bit and it seems that when you get hit by someone with gloves, it does damage to your brain. It also seems the heavier the gloves are, the more the brain damage is. Unfortunately I used to be that asshole that would beat the snot out of his training partners, to those people I apologize. Thankfully I've learned to be a better person. Thanks for the vid.
When I got punched in fights, it didn't hurt as much when I had hard sparring sessions in Boxing. That might be because boxers know how to fully leverage their punches though. But tbh whenever I get punched, I don't feel much due to my thick bone structure. The difference with Boxing is the pain after if the match is a war. It's that reason that I advocate for light sparring in most cases. If someone's gonna take damage, try to leave more of that for the actual fights.
Join a Kyokushin gym if your lucky enough to have one in your area. Best sparring I ever did. No punching to the head but you can kick to the head and punch full contact to the body. It's a system that WILL toughen you up and at the same time not getting your brains scrambled. And most practitioners better than you are careful with their kicks to the head.
I think empty-handed skills are most certainly needed, but tool(s) related self-dense skills are even more needed. I'm not looking for fair play, I'm for getting as much advantage as I could get trying to keep in my moral responsibility for the given situation as I see it. Granted, life is not always that simple and a person can do things a 100% right and be 100% wrong. That's why it's good to train at those experiences others have gone through to learn from them. I don't think a person rises to an occasion, I think they fall back. Fall back on to how they trained.
Great video. i would just say that was a great question. in my opinion, hard sparring is stupid. you might as well just have live kick boxing matches instead. Hard striking is a whole different thing from hard wrestling and jujitsu.
Take breaks between sparing sessions, I spar about once a week. Don't go constant consecutive days with hard sparring and your brain will be able to heal itself from sub concussive blows before the next sparring session.
There are about 100 billion neurons in the brain. When you get hit you lose some of them permanently. Same with drinking alcohol at young age. I only spar once a week because of that.
Usually sparring etiquette dictates you dont throw knees and elbows, especially with no padding. Find a gym that does light sparring as well and just peace out on the days they do hard sparring. Nothing wrong with not wanting to do that
I searched on Wikipedia and saw that some boxers who won world medals or olympic medals didn't turn pro. The doctors probably advised them not to do it.
Find a a training partner that you can trust. Some people can't control their emotions or are malicious. In my experience there is always one guy that is a spaz. I remember when I was kickboxing my trainer had me spar with heavyweights even though I was fighting at 130. Even had me spar with a girl and told me not to hit her in the face. So what does she do? She kicks me in the groin multiple times and then apologizes. I leg swept her so hard she went airborne. I should have kicked her in her cooch.
How are you going to tell use to find a partner you can trust because they can't control their emotion and then proceed to talk about how you beat up a girl because you couldn't control your emotions 😂
@@freeyourselfmorowa9243 Different situation altogether; my gym preaches dish out what you want returned. And don't be afraid to beat up douche bags who have no self-control lol
People would rather feel the fighters are safe so they don't feel bad. They also make a difference in their head between sport and fighting by the gloves
The amount of time over a year spent sparring is important too. Let's say you get hit in the head about 2 or 3 times per minute when sparring, that can mean a lot of shots over a whole year.
I just decide to not spar that much, I box and I used to spar hard regularly for 3 years, not worth it, its better to focus on conditioning and technique, and spar for strategy and working on different things, really you should only spar hard if you have a fight, it's more about quantity, if you don't do hard sparring that much, you should be fine, I don't completely shut out hard sparring, because there's times when its needed, but not every day, I just toned it down
I am 41 now. Still Training. My last fight was in 2012. Today i just train for fun. That means i spar only with people who are technically good. And able to control themselves. If someone wants a hard sparring i Tell them always the same..stop fighting in the gym like a World Champion. Go out and do real competion against similar fighter.
At my school I could outbox most students except one guy. He was 7 feet tall and sparred like he was Tyson. I got knocked down several times after taking some brutal headshots. Not wanting to be a quitter as one of the top ranking students, I would come back for more after some recovery time. I stopped going after developing bad headaches, light sensitivity, trouble falling asleep, and forgetting things. I was in a doctoral degree and decided my ability to remember what I’d learned was more important than learning how to beat the human tank who couldn’t train light. I still attend the school, but I made it clear, I want nothing more to do with that jackass.
Best way to go for self-defense is grappling heavy style and then become adept at striking. Be one of the better guys striking-wise in your gym, but try to be the best grappler. You're more street ready in that case.
Try the 90/10 formula, 90% power to the body and 10% to the head. We barely tap the head and smash each others stomach's. We also spar with 16oz gloves, headgear, and a mouthguard. It gives you the feeling of hard sparring without putting your brain at risk lol.
Beginner kickboxer here - it feels like even in light sparring, the kicks could be strong enough to be damaging. For example if you slip into the guy's punch if he fainted or something. Is it a good rule of thumb that anytime you feel a bit shaken up, it means you've received a potentially damaging hit? Also... how effective is headgear? thanks
in all honesty, headgear is a waste of money - does nothing to stop either neck rotation / whiplash motions, it provides a bigger target, makes your "chin" easier to catch, blocks your peripheral vision & probably motivates your opponent to hit you as hard as they can because "of the protection". It basically boils down to agreeing level of intensity (1-10) beforehand, if your sparring partner won't hespek that sort of boundary, never spar with them again.
Do what you love for a short while bro but avoid the longterm route. Sparr light and don't do it too often especially if you get shaken up. Focus on good evasions and defense. That being said if you go to fight you gotta put all thoughts of injury aside or the fear will distract you
there's nothing more entertaining and worthy experience wise that to land a punch at the right time, on the right target and stop the punch right in the target without putting excessive pressure on said punch. You're basically on god mode. And you control emotions too (fear being the main one). If you monkey fight at full force it's like a bar brawl and there is no training value on it, only adrenaline. This is what my gym is teaching me "It's harder to land a controlled punch than to land a hard one". And this is what I go by. No value in messing the face and the brain of a young kid. Now all the brawl people can roast me, I don't care. 9 times out of 10 the controlled guy is the most dangerous one.
I think shoulder and body sparring is enough for someone who doesn't want to compete in boxing, it is nowhere near traditional sparring but thats the closest without brain damage. you have to choose one or the other.
I was kicked in the side of the head! it was not a hard kick! But it still hurt! What symptoms should I be afraid of? Can it be harmful to the brain? Please answer!!
Ahh man, I've been training 120mins kick boxing and 120mins wing chun a week. I really love the kickboxing but got hit hard on the head last sparring session, still not feeling right. So is BJJ safe? Maybe can swap for some BJJ, Judo or the like?
BJJ and Judo are extremely safe in most gym! Most BJJ and Judo teams spar daily, and it's always been very safe in my experience. That being said, I wouldn't give up on Kickboxing altogether. Just try to avoid sparring with the guys that go too hard, or just avoid sparring completely if your gym always spars that way.
So. With strong headgear, light technical sparring ( getting hit in the head but with open fists and not full force) is there still risk of brain damage?
I joined many fight camps when i was training for kickboxing and i was sparring a lot … i gained a lot of experience, but in end i only have headaches rn
When I took Karate the kids could not hit each other in the head. When I took Kung-Fu it was ok for your glove to touch a persons head but not punch someone. I think there is a way to spar and get training. Just depends on the gym.
I've looked this up before and haven't found any studies or articles about it. My guess, however, is that no, you wouldn't get any brain damage from that.
I understand the concern for brain injury but I will say that I believe if you practice martial arts you should go live every so often to make sure your engine is running smoothly. I don’t see the point of learning martial arts unless it can be applied in real life scenarios. If you only ever hit pads or light spar then when someone comes at you real one day it’s gonna throw you off.
................ but if you train any striking art that spars your gonna get more brain trauma than if you never train and get beat up a few times in life lol
I'm the guy that Kennedy is referring to in the video. Because of him I found a way to spar without brain damage AND full force. All I did was switched to a different martial art called escrima. It's a weapon martial art though. I have more contact areas compared to someone who does kickboxing but I only body spar. As you can see, limitations are still there but it's the best I can come up with. My next stop is fencing.
You should still look for a boxing gym too train at! Boxing is one of the best martial arts, in my opinion, and you should definitely still go train. Just make sure that you and your sparring partners and careful with each other. Good luck!
@@HomelessNinjaKennedy if I just sparring light like 20-30% shouldn’t I be fine I’m not training to be a fighter just self defense and to build confidence
If you trust your coach, then do as he says. If you're injured and you know that your coach is wrong to make you spar, then you need to stop training under that guy and find a new coach.
I mean to be honest, if you only spar once a week and have a few hard sparring rounds, It shouldn't be that bad, I hope, guess we will know in 40 years lol
@@manopu2113 its harder to knock someone with the gloves and cte is caused by the brain constantly banging inside the skull, so without gloves it will hurt more but less brain damage
Do you spar light and do you mean head injury? I'm thinking about getting into it but I might just not do that if it's impossible to survive without brain damage..
hey i have a question. when do call it light sparring? does jabs and light hooks also give you brain damage?? im 16 years old an i would like to spar once in a week with an friend. do you think its save????
I mean anytime you get hit in the head it’s not good right but if you do tap sparring with light jabs and trying to tap the forehead and not wreck someone in the chin you should be fine.
It depends on which level you want to be in Boxing. There is a huge different to do Boxing just for fun and fitness or to become an active fighter. If you want to learn how to defend yourself and how to attack an opponent,you have to do sparring. There is no other way if you want to be an active Boxer, same in other Sports like Soccer, if you don't make training matches in soccer, your team would lose maybe all matches. You cannot be a pro Soccer guy if you only train how to shoot penalties. I'm an active Boxer since over 15 years and know what I'am talking about...as I said: It depends what level of Boxer you want to reach.
@@manopu2113 Absolutely enough. You should start with Sparring, but be careful if you are new in Boxing. From time to time you will become better. You will notice it yourself. And do Sparring against experienced Boxers. Say to your partner that you're there to learn, he should be very defensive during you Sparr, because at first you have to develop your own skill and get on with punches coming in, how to cover, how to move, when to move... and so on...
@@novell80 your analogy is completely mistaken. The purpose of soccer is to score more goals than your opponent, not causing damage or attack fisically your oponent. The purpose of boxing, kickboxing, muay thai and even mma is to cause harm and attack your opponent and the head is the main target if you want to win by points, decission or knockout. Most mma fans say mma is not dangerous but the head is also a target during fights if the fighter wants to win by knockout or decission. The most "humane" way to win in mma is by submission but before that there are punches and the head is a main target. Many full contact fighters have low iq because of that and the damage is long term. In conclussion: *Fighting is not a game*.
@@pepedestroyer5974 Who told you this Disneyland stories that the most fighters have low IQ? Many pro fighters just look like they've low IQ because they aren't interested in other things, they sacrifice their life and IQ only for their occupation, same like a teacher would do for his occupation. You cannot measure IQ's, because every IQ test includes special topics. I myself studied Engineering and I do Boxing for many years. Keep in mind, the most people don't know that many soccer players have also brain damages, because of headers and Football player even more. This is pretty well proven of medical Doctors. It is what it is: "You can't play Boxing like ball sports! Boxing is much more harder than any ball sport." And as I said, you cannot win Soccer matches if your team trains only shootings or penalties ;). You have to simulate a real match in your training to develop tactics and strategy with your team, otherwise your soccer team would lose nearly all matches. The same in Boxing, if you don't do sparring, you will lose your fights surely. I mentioned the example between soccer and Boxing because I myself trained for some years in a soccer club when I was a teenager.
Me and my brother were sparring yesterday both 16 Oz gloves no headgear tho and he started going rough on me we done atleast 12 2 minute rounds and he’s 80 kg I’m only 65kg and he got me very hard with a left hook dazed me abit tho I was sweet kept going but I don’t know don’t think I’ll spar him again is it really worth the risk I’m only 17 got in to a few hard spars already was sparring in this other gym against a lad 10kg heavier and we went full at it wouldn’t call it a spar I ended up gassing and swinging off balance then bang my feet raised up off the ground and my stance changed to southpaw in mid air basically don’t know how it happened but when I was high up with my chin he caught me with a lovely overhand right dropped me clean got up fast enough but got rocked bad for one stupid reason not concentrating and It cost me bad I was only 15 Turning 16 a few weeks after so after watching this video it’s sort of frightened me abit I only started boxing like 2 and a half years ago aswell never thought you could actually go through brain damage in amateur boxing with a headgear never mind fighting in a pro ring with a lot smaller gloves and no headguard I always thought I wanted too turn pro then I started doing my research on how scary boxing really is made me think twice !💯
Headgear does NOTHING for concussions. In fact, they can make them worse, since you get the "springload" effect from helmets. Same with bike helmets. In boxing, you have to worry about the internal damage, not the external.
I have trained BJJ and wrestling for 6 months and never got cauliflower ear. Not always. You need to be aware not to take hard hits to the ears. It's also a good idea to have a needle ready or a plan incase you get one. It's easy to remove if you do it at the time. But, once it hardens you can never get it out without plastic surgery. As long as are wary not to rough them up, then the chances of getting one are really low. You can also wear rugby headgear, wrestling headgear, or tape your ears down like in rugby.
Look into wearing wrestling headgear for grappling training if you are worried about cauliflower ears. I’ve been training for about a year and haven’t gotten them but if you wear headgear it’s less likely!
CTE is not as big a problem in boxing as it is in football? Maybe you're right, but I'm finding it hard to believe. Football players usually don't get knocked out, as far as I know.
99% of professional American football players have CTE: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nfl-cte-99-percent_us_5977621ce4b0e201d5786da9 As for professional boxers, the number is unclear, but "boxing.com suggests the number could be twenty percent": traumaticbraininjury.net/2013/02/19/boxings-history-with-cte/
I don't have time to read through this now, so I'll just ask: Is it the same type and degree of injury we're comparing? It would be good news for boxers then. The only explanation I could think of off the top of my head would be that football players get hit more often because they play more often.
Thanks to both of you for the info. Maybe another important difference is that when football players get hit it's probably usually two bodies that are moving towards each other with all of their mass, so while they don't specifically go for the head, as they do in boxing, the forces at work could be significantly greater. I'm just guessing though.
Bit of a late reply but another thing to mention is that boxing takes place on canvas where as a football player landing on their ass hits the back of their head on a metal helmet. Concussions are much more of a concern when taking a hit from the back of the head, which is a large reason why so many combat sports don't allow it. Meanwhile in football you can really do some damage to the nape of your spine and your brain from the back if you take a big hit.
Yeah, that could play a role, too. If you look at street fights, if somebody dies it's usually not directly from the impact of the punch, but from hitting their head on the ground. Grass is much softer than asphalt, but I'm still sure that it can hurt a lot if you get slammed down onto the pitch.
Don't make sparring a regular thing. I box for fitness and self defence and spar twice a week. I DO go all out with my opponents and give the rest of the week for my body and head to recover and heal itself. Those who take boxing seriously train seriously and spar everyday. They don't give themselves time to recover and therefore build up more damage as time passes. Remember too much of anything can be bad for you. Take breaks, don't spar everyday and if you need to take a break after a spar, go for it.
In my gym we have sparring once a week and it's optional. Since brain is my main working device - I decided to to sparr only once a month. I do really love my gym that they do not even encourage us to sparr hard and there is always 2 competent guys watching every sparring session.
Do you think I did enough sparring to cut down to at least once a month cuz at the beginning of the year I sparred hard everyday for 3 months and my skill shot to the sky. But I stopped cuz I realized how bad it was
@@calimyellowface5614 you can also body spar so you don't have to feel like your missing out. But remember, to add head sparing in there at least once or twice a month. Also, if you do head spar, ask your opponent to go light and not treat it like a death match. If they refuse speak to your coach for a diffrent partner.
Good advice. Sparring is not worth the cost. Only worth sparring if you plan on being a fighter. If you're a white collar boxer, you'd be a fool to spar regularly and risk losing your main money making asset : your brain.
real talk
I hope to strike a balance. Spar lightly once or twice a week. That way you can fill in the gaps between drills and having someone with a brain fighting back. But also lower the risk of CTE and rattling your brain around
Juijitsu on the other hand. Can get much harder with that
without hard sparring you can never be a fighter...I take lot of hard strike when i was competting in boxing and in some fight in the street too and my brain seem still intact (lol) cause i still can study and have my master in history…. I think it's not some few sparring in the month who are enought to destroy your brain!!!
@@DarkLight-dd4nc CTE alzheimers ect can be caused by repeated head trauma just becauses you're healthy doesn't mean everyone is and also the effects may develop later
If you don't spar hard mate then it's no more danger than football is... You also don't tell a soccer player you should only play soccer if you're paid for it... Lol. But if we're talking about hard sparring regularly, and you take a lot of shots, then yes, you have a point. But Imo sparring is the most fun about boxing (the usual training excercices in group bore me after some time), otherwise you can never really test your skills and what you learned in practice. I think just boxing recreationally without ever sparring, is only good if you're just doing it for general health benefit and if you can't box for shit (so you don't get beat up ;-)).
Plenty of boneheads leaving comments on this video. I especially love the "No sparring means no boxing" posts. Train with a good coach, learn the fundamentals, train heavy bag, and find a good group for light tag sparring, and you can enjoy boxing for a lifetime. Yes you will learn how to fight. Yes you will avoid getting hurt. Leave that to the fools with ego problems. Gym wars are not recommended, even for competitive boxers
Hey, if they want to end up like Ali or James Toney, (Two people who loved hard sparring and intentionally letting the partner to hit them to "harden" themselves), then let them. At the end of the day they will be the one's who have to live with CTE, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and overall brain damage. And people like you will be the one's who get to live a long and healthy life.
I'm a prospective "white collar boxer", about five months of just bagwork etc., trying to decide if I want to spar there or not. I'm also middle aged. Won't know until I see them spar up close I don't think. Funny though, I was talking to my coach and he was basically saying that while sparring is necessary to produce a competitive fighter (duh), a huge part of getting boxing training right is putting it all together in bagwork, and that you can gain a suprising amount of ability with simply bagwork and the right coaching.. He has apparently even brought up competitive fighters who did ok with minimal sparring, just due to their circumstances. Anyway, I come from years of Karate, and in that world I learned that 90% of sparring safety is just who you go with, and being -very- choosy.
Until you get into a real fight and get whooped because you never had real sparring
Hard sparring is a double edged sword, it does help you very much. Imo you should go 50% to the head and hard to the body and legs
@@ultimatesandwich9090 Do hard sparring long enough and youl end up in a real fight with CTE and other forms of brain damage. And you’ll never win that fight.
Usually it works just to tell the sparring partner "hey lets go light"
César Alves yep! It’s all about practicing your craft not killing each other
Sure it does... :)
Not at any of the gyms I've been to.
Next tell us how to have unprotected sex with a lady boy in thailand and not get an std
communication is key. my IT band was pretty chewed up from two consecutive days before and i just let each partner know the 3rd day and it was MOSTLY good.
me and my brother were sparring...both had headguards...we were going very light...but somehow i managed to get hit in the back of my head...my bro is like 190 lbs, had 12oz gloves...he threw that left hook with probably 20% of his real power...and i had headaches , i was seeing blurry, couldnt focus or anything for 2 weeks...yeah and after that i stopped sparring ...i hit the heavy bag, focus mitt, jump rope,striking sticks but just not them punches to the head...sometimes we do bodyshot sparring thats it...i am not trynna be professional fighter..its strictly for self defence...not worth dying or becoming a vegetable at 20 years old
i just gave up on boxing over the possible future brain damage, and i believe you made a great decision, despite the beauty of the sport, it takes real courage dedication and love to the sport to submit to such a dangerous activity
@@zaraiwzara honestly i think ill just end up sparring with friends only and not doing anything to the head. i mean i'd still wear all the protection just incase but that way you can still have a ton of fun and not worry about anything
@@soupiratethesoup6161having gear on, wont prevent concussions. Like helmets doesnt prevent concussions. They can in fact make them worse, since they give a "springload" effect. It's not the external damage you have to worry about, but the internal.
99% of the whole population think helmets prevent concussions, soo I dont blame you, for thinking that.
@@R-py6uf yeah I know I didn't know that when I wrote that but after fighting with no helmets on I noticed there was really no difference at all
U fuckup by letting him use 12 oz gloves . Always spar in 16 or even 18
probably going to get hammered for this, but there should be a period at least 3-6 months where you are sparring not hard but i would say at 70-80%, because in my opinion you need to know how chaotic a fight really is, or how to recover from a hard shot, taking and giving shots. Getting hurt and still coming back the next day, don't get me wrong, after that period i would say just spar light, but the experience helps a lot. Light sparring doesn't replicate a real fight, but light sparring over hard sparring everyday of the week.
I completely agree, actually
Ones a month hard sparring with experience fighter is good. Other than that light sparring, work on your techniques is better.
Hard sparring once or twice a month is fine but not every week
Actually good sparing is when you spar 50% max. This way you focus more on technique ,rather than beat crap out of your partners. Check Lomachenko or other great fighters and great technicians - they spar lightly, never unleashing full power. For full power - there is heavybag.
"no one wants to get brain damage" lol right
Pinkus Floydus if you do you'll be on the dark side of the moon!
I guess fighting is everything some people have in their lives, so the side effects don't concern them, they wouldn't be doing anything else if they are not fighting.
MMA hasn't correlated positively with brain damage YET. It simply has not been around as long as boxing and football, but it will eventually be shown to be just as bad.
Gary Goodridge has CTE.
i think gsp has it aswell
JSS GSP is from the French side of Canada, his English will always be bad. ( he learned the language when he was 18 y/o.) His speech seems ok. I don't think his discussions about aliens are a sign.
MMA might be slightly safer because there's no 8 count. And you can end the fight in other ways.
tapirtoon ` ground and pound is much weaker. Some commentators say it's only 60% as powerful as standup punches. I'm not a doctor, but an 8 count followed by receiving more damage seems a lot more dangerous. Another problem is that some gyms are run by idiots who allow hard sparring too often. Coaches will actually brag about one knockdown in the gym every session.
Word of advice from a famous fighter named Piccolo: DODGE!!!!!!
Haha amen to that
Happy to see some TFS fans here and there 😂
TFS is awesome and they made DBZ relevant again.
Team Four Star
Wouldn't even need to dodge if you didn't put yourself in there, but hey, you do you, I guess some people just need the adrenaline, danger and rush that fighting provides for living a happy and exciting life.
I used to train MMA and now boxing, but I never spar. I am an architect and my whole life depends on my brain working well, so I just don't want to risk that, even though sparing is very fun. Keep your priorities in check
I'm studying Law in college and really want to be a lawyer. There's an MMA gym I want to join, if the coach says I have to hard spar to the head ot some shit I'll sadly get away from it, as much as I like the sport it's just not worth it
As far as sparring and CTE there is an option to do sparring drills as well and I'm sure if you're coach is skill oriented which is vital for development. I'm sure not a whole lot of people want to have headaches and trouble getting to work the next day as well.
Or trouble living life falling asleep
Exactly, you only need maybe 1-2 hard spars a week.
@@brianhanes5413 bro 1-2 hard spars a week is still way to much maybe one 1 light spar a week and hard spar only in fight camp
Very relevant. I’ve watched a number of martial arts vids over the years, and have some limited experience in martial arts, but have hardly heard this addressed. It also ties in with the whole idea of self-defense a lot more than might be apparent, I believe. For example, moving to a safer area might be a better use of money than paying for martial arts lessons when perhaps a person could actually earn more money in that time and move. It’s true that the club might give long-lasting benefits, but so can looking after our brain cells.
Personally, I’d like to get involved in martial arts again but the ideas in this video do caution me. I might be better off putting on muscle/weight as a deterrent, and finding a very low contact club, though I’m not ready at present to join any (excuses…)
Great video, thank you!
You're the best ! I've watched a few of your videos and I'm very happy to find such a precious content! Thank you! Keep it up !
You don't see brain damage in mma as much because it is a new sport.
TooFreshproductions mma has been around for years, u mean the ufc
That is not what I meant, the guys are still young those effects haven;t taken place we are starting to see it a little bit with the pioneers
All of them have collie/colly flower ear. Those big ass ugly tenderized meat ears. That is causing equilibrium damage. And brain.
Not to mention that in mma, if you get knocked out, then the fight is over. Whereas if you get knocked out in boxing/Kickboxing, then you’re given 10 seconds to get back up and continue fighting, thereby increasing the long term risk of brain damage. It’s safe to say that at least mma takes precautionary measures to protect its fighters.
@@hellofaname very true. Or you are dazed then taken down then submitted. Either way less pounding than boxing. MMA tends to be fewer rounds than boxing as well.
More brain injuries in soccer than in amateur boxing competition. Training is another story. When my sons decided to compete, I actually started my own club. I knew the local club would try to injure my kids, because of a long standing grudge they had against me. Yes, there really are evil people in sport. Some of them make that coach in the Karate Kid movie look like a saint. Be very cautious if your kids want to compete. If a gym has a rule that parents aren’t allowed to watch the training, avoid it. If your kid had headaches after training, stop training. Brain damage usually happens early in your career, but takes years to show up. If a coach compliments you on how tough you are, you’re going down a dark path.
Is that percentage wise, or just total amount of brain injuries in football vs total amount boxing? Because obviously alot more people play football than boxing, so the numbers are going to be higher. Now percentage wise is a different story
I think that soccer fact is total bullshit. but i agree w the rest no capper
Who you wanna be, Daniel son or Cobra Kai?!?!
@@sowhat9018 I don't remember. It was a statistic from a government study in Canada over 30 years ago.
It could be real soccer is the most popular sport where I grew up. The tackles are vicious, if you are going for a header and the goalkeeper is going out he will punch the brains out of you. It happens often a player get hurt badly or knocked out. Acl, meniscus tear, torn ligaments and fractures are common for outfield players and KOs and broken fingers are also common for goalkeepers @thatPSNguy99
In my experience, I'm lucky to have found a gym that lets their fighters spar lightly with me. I made it clear since day 1 that I'm just there for the fitness aspect of it so during sparring sessions, their home fighters wouldnt go ape shit on me.
One thing you can do is NOT go to a weekend warrior gym full of assholes who never compete but are only there to beat someone up because they hate their job or their wife won’t fuck them anymore. Instead, go to a gym where the students compete regularly. They are in it for the long-term and won’t be willing to get damage for nothing.
def talking about someone specific
Beating someone up because wife wouldn't give you cheeks is insane but I don't doubt for a fact that doesn't exist.
Hi I'm the guy that Chris is referring to :).
I'm glad that this video is getting popular. I sometimes watch this video on occasion and glad to see there are other people here that are just as passionate as I am in martial arts but still dont want to risk that fine line between serious head injury or living long enough to remember our children's names.
As far as I know, there are two ways to do martial arts without serious head injury:
1. Find a martial art/ school that doesnt spar. This includes fitness/ conditioning boxing, kickboxing, Kung Fu schools like Wushu, etc.
2. Find a martial art that spars but is KNOWN to be RELATIVELY safe. This includes:
-Olympic Style Fencing (Very safe),
-Escrima/ Arnis/ Kali (body spar/ technical spar)
- BJJ (possible to get hit in the head but not as common.)
- Aikido (not necessarily sparring but you do get flipped on the mat.)
- Kendo (You do get hit in the head but it's not a full force swing. More like snapping motions. From what I heard you dont feel the hit but i still be wary.)
Like this comment to spread the word. I think everyone deserves to do martial arts the way they want to. I'm currently doing a martial art called Escrima and I only body spar in the art in request to my instructor. Theres a video on my channel if you want to see :).
The only problem is that not every person that does escrima do this kind of spar but it's not uncommon to say the least.
did u find gym that does light sparring? Im searching for one.
@@arock8586 unfortunately I since stopped doing martial arts. The last sparring session I had in my escrima club, I got a headache after getting hit in the head.
Light sparring doesn't mean you won't be susceptible to head injuries by the way.
The only realistic option to avoid injury is to stop sparring and just do padwork or forms/kata.
@@Azami0001 Thank you for being real. Thats the sad truth tho.
I decided for private lessons. I only spar with my coach and his most advanced students who know how to pull punches and haver zero to prove sparring with a person like me.
Great video. Well said, and very accurate!
I don't know why people go hard to the head no need for that during sparring.
One word: EGO
Master Rosi had brain damage, and Goku too, both act like idiots, also Vegeta has anger all day. The proof !
Thats a really important and good advice. Thanks!
In North NJ and NYC, most boxing gyms, even many of the ones that really want to attract and train very competitive boxers, have classes for boxing with no sparring; have trainers who will work with you if you don’t want to be competitive (you’re paying them a lot of dough); have light sparring; and will let you do your own thing on your own.
Now, if you say you want to go amateur or pro and you thus want the time of a trainer to get there, you eventually have to spar hard. It’s totally necessary if you want to be competitive. The trainer won’t put up with your telling him how to train you.
I think if you don't want to be a fighter, it's gonna be better that you really focus on practicing skills like footwork, defence, speed , etc. And just light spar once~twice a week for using the skills you practiced
Agreed. Find the right fit for you.
Also you can set the policy with you current sparring partner.
"We go light, with focus on technique ? " or "we go medium force with technique ? "
Usually yes, unless your partner is a douche lol
Alot of sparring partners won’t listen
In my gym they spar every Saturday and its optional to go so that's great
@L Lawliet I like yours 2 😢
@Shen Hua you guys are so cute 🤧
Now kiss
This is a great subject, and Brain Trauma is a concern for me, I have floaters in my eyes and kind of detached retina type but not from fighting, the gel in the back of the retina or eye detaches sometimes and this happens when Im stressed out, much like a migraine and have had depression/anxiety for 2 decades and taking meds for that, recently getting better and coming off meds, would love to train in MMA or BJJ, Judo, Boxing etc but worry about Brain Trauma, especially when you hear about the possible Dementia risk, my father has Dementia, believ me guys you don't want that, it is heart breaking for the whole family, you forget who your family is, where you are, its one of the worst thing that can ever happen to a human being, its worse than a disease happening to you, its happening to the deepest part of YOU, the core, your MIND is fucking GONE!! When I see my Dad whom I love with all my heart, he was a tough guy, aggressive at times, powerful and I looked up to my Dad as a tower of strength and power, now he cries and says he is confused, I tell him its all going to be okay, I have to take Dad to the toilet, have to help him up from bed, cloth him, make food for him and the once Tower of my Life cause of Dementia is a shadow of his former self.
Now I look at my 3 yrs old son and he looks up to me as a beast, we do some fighting, wrestling and he bites the shit out of me at times, lol. I see my Dad in me and myself in my son, I was thinking should I train in MMA but then think of Dad and Dementia taking over him ... I wonder if one could train to almost never get hit, was'nt sugar ray leonard almost impossible to catch in the head, he was very evasive.
I want to do MMA and my quality of life may improve but the end of life quality if one gets Dementia isn't worth it.
How can a person train smarter if I want to avoid being bashed in the brain? Like training in bob, weave, duck and master it so you hardly ever get hit, surely there must be guys who are very tough to hit.
Man I think I'll answer my own question, better to get a Gun or be proficient with knives or even those WWII combatives or military style self defense training not those garbage self defense classes but something as realistic as possible. To be honest Ive never had to fight as our family always had Big German Shepherd dogs, the Dementia or brain injury is a serious issue though guys, the brain is like Jello and shaking it many times it will injur and the problem is that its not bruising an arms that will repair, cells die and die and die with no repair, thats the problem, our brain is who we are, if that breaks down we break down, the very core of who we are is gone.
Its tough saying this if you like martial art or combat sport as I do.
Late reply but I was the person that Kennedy mentioned in the video.
If you want something realistic for self defense then you should try something like Escrima. It's a weapon based system that focuses on stick and knives as well as some open hand (depending on the club. Most clubs dont focus on open hand at all.)
The gear that some escrima clubs use is this big padded vest with a very thick helmet made specifically to reduce the impact from the sticks being used.
In my club, we just use a fencing helmet and a padded stick. Still hurts the body but surprisingly protects the head decently. Not a single headache and I'm already in my fourth class.
I suggest you research more on escrima and the different kinds of sparring they do. And see if it's right for you.
I think you will be fine with wrestling and bjj. But dont take my word for it. Also you can do mma casually. Just dont spar if you worry about your brain.
@@adyp5176 excellent points adrian. Do you happen to do BJJ and if so what has your experience been like? Also what do you think about aikido? I know aikido has a lot of flak of not being an effective martial art but I'm still going to try it at some point.
@SciSci Toys I think I have the same thing. I dont know what's goin on but I have some floaters and it's super annoying. I feel mine might be stress related too. Is this reversible?
There's a very light combat training even kids could do without much risk of repetitive shakes to the brain. It's where you and the other person are just trying to touch each other on the shoulder(s) with your fingers, and prevent being touched on the shoulders. The movements and dynamic has a ton of overlap with standing off in a fist fight. Only real risk is poking someone's eye out, but aside from that, it's very very light combat training with hardly any major risks, while still giving some basic competence for a fist fight situation.
Also should work on defense so you can control damage defense can save you
Best comment
Floyd money mayweather
@@Fightanalysis677 Boxing fans call him one of the most technical, dumbasses call him Usain Bolt.
Hey glad to hear I am not the only one thinking the same! First time I hear this kind of advice. I agree entirely.
A main problem for me is that lots of gyms do not let you spar on your first day, even if you boxed before ... So you can not see how they spar ... So you can not always check the way people spar
I dont want brain damage and started to do fencing. I will attend in competitions and it will give me the same feeling like fighting in the ring cos at least i will fight but this will be in so safe zone. Ur brain is important guys protect it.
Great video, brother osss!
Oh thanks bro. I don't even remember what I said in a lot of these old videos. I wonder if I'd still agree with old Me 🤔
Good to hear this. I still think the best way is to no-glove it though. I've looked into it a bit and it seems that when you get hit by someone with gloves, it does damage to your brain. It also seems the heavier the gloves are, the more the brain damage is. Unfortunately I used to be that asshole that would beat the snot out of his training partners, to those people I apologize. Thankfully I've learned to be a better person. Thanks for the vid.
So your suggestion is bare knuckle sparring?
@@benhourican5648 Much less force, and people are more careful, since punching without gloves hurts.
Or just learn to punch light and controlled to the head
@@alexandresilva3427 Much less force but you'll need a medic to stitch you up afterwards and a cleaning lady to mop up the blood.
When I got punched in fights, it didn't hurt as much when I had hard sparring sessions in Boxing. That might be because boxers know how to fully leverage their punches though. But tbh whenever I get punched, I don't feel much due to my thick bone structure.
The difference with Boxing is the pain after if the match is a war. It's that reason that I advocate for light sparring in most cases. If someone's gonna take damage, try to leave more of that for the actual fights.
Join a Kyokushin gym if your lucky enough to have one in your area. Best sparring I ever did. No punching to the head but you can kick to the head and punch full contact to the body. It's a system that WILL toughen you up and at the same time not getting your brains scrambled. And most practitioners better than you are careful with their kicks to the head.
Perfectly said.
Great advice
Damn, McMahon's son is buffed now.
I think empty-handed skills are most certainly needed, but tool(s) related self-dense skills are even more needed. I'm not looking for fair play, I'm for getting as much advantage as I could get trying to keep in my moral responsibility for the given situation as I see it. Granted, life is not always that simple and a person can do things a 100% right and be 100% wrong. That's why it's good to train at those experiences others have gone through to learn from them. I don't think a person rises to an occasion, I think they fall back. Fall back on to how they trained.
That's why I like muyi Thai sparring.
They often call it fun sparring or tag sparring.
Great video. i would just say that was a great question. in my opinion, hard sparring is stupid. you might as well just have live kick boxing matches instead. Hard striking is a whole different thing from hard wrestling and jujitsu.
I'm glad that my kickboxing coach usually insists on light sparring
Take breaks between sparing sessions, I spar about once a week. Don't go constant consecutive days with hard sparring and your brain will be able to heal itself from sub concussive blows before the next sparring session.
Your brain can't heal lol, only your headaches
@@vegannegan9652 Yes you brain does heal. Just look at any one person who has had a concussion or traumatic brain injury and recovered fully.
There are about 100 billion neurons in the brain. When you get hit you lose some of them permanently. Same with drinking alcohol at young age. I only spar once a week because of that.
@@vegannegan9652 same
@@vegannegan9652
Bdnf doesn't disappear when you get hit.
Thanks, I’ve recently been training Muay Thai for a month now, and brain damage is one of my concerns. Especially with the elbows, knees, and kicks.
Me the same and I want my brain be healthy to become sn engineer.
Usually sparring etiquette dictates you dont throw knees and elbows, especially with no padding. Find a gym that does light sparring as well and just peace out on the days they do hard sparring. Nothing wrong with not wanting to do that
Have faith bro keep training don’t think about you will be ok
Thank you bro 🙏🏾
If a coach says that hard sparring is good then that’s a bad coach
Light sparring sounds fun until you try to spar hard and lose your ass
I searched on Wikipedia and saw that some boxers who won world medals or olympic medals didn't turn pro. The doctors probably advised them not to do it.
You gotta be willing to die for it
Find a a training partner that you can trust. Some people can't control their emotions or are malicious. In my experience there is always one guy that is a spaz. I remember when I was kickboxing my trainer had me spar with heavyweights even though I was fighting at 130. Even had me spar with a girl and told me not to hit her in the face. So what does she do? She kicks me in the groin multiple times and then apologizes. I leg swept her so hard she went airborne. I should have kicked her in her cooch.
LOOOOL
How are you going to tell use to find a partner you can trust because they can't control their emotion and then proceed to talk about how you beat up a girl because you couldn't control your emotions 😂
@@freeyourselfmorowa9243 Different situation altogether; my gym preaches dish out what you want returned. And don't be afraid to beat up douche bags who have no self-control lol
@@freeyourselfmorowa9243 😂😂😂
Take of gloves on fighters and you will get less hit.
There Will be shorter fights, with less hard hits.
Only fighters know wtf I am talking about
Bareknuckle - Gentleman sport
People would rather feel the fighters are safe so they don't feel bad. They also make a difference in their head between sport and fighting by the gloves
Dominus Providebit - No because the bones in your hand aren’t as strong as the skull. So you’re more likely to break your hand when striking.
That's true, but you will destroy your joints faster.
Bernie Sanders might not get brain damage but will get broken bones in your face and hands
The amount of time over a year spent sparring is important too. Let's say you get hit in the head about 2 or 3 times per minute when sparring, that can mean a lot of shots over a whole year.
Thanks Aaron Paul
I just decide to not spar that much, I box and I used to spar hard regularly for 3 years, not worth it, its better to focus on conditioning and technique, and spar for strategy and working on different things, really you should only spar hard if you have a fight, it's more about quantity, if you don't do hard sparring that much, you should be fine, I don't completely shut out hard sparring, because there's times when its needed, but not every day, I just toned it down
I am 41 now. Still Training. My last fight was in 2012. Today i just train for fun. That means i spar only with people who are technically good. And able to control themselves. If someone wants a hard sparring i Tell them always the same..stop fighting in the gym like a World Champion. Go out and do real competion against similar fighter.
At my school I could outbox most students except one guy. He was 7 feet tall and sparred like he was Tyson. I got knocked down several times after taking some brutal headshots. Not wanting to be a quitter as one of the top ranking students, I would come back for more after some recovery time. I stopped going after developing bad headaches, light sensitivity, trouble falling asleep, and forgetting things. I was in a doctoral degree and decided my ability to remember what I’d learned was more important than learning how to beat the human tank who couldn’t train light. I still attend the school, but I made it clear, I want nothing more to do with that jackass.
@@rezlogan4787 good decision, man 👍🥊
Best way to go for self-defense is grappling heavy style and then become adept at striking. Be one of the better guys striking-wise in your gym, but try to be the best grappler. You're more street ready in that case.
lol "street ready" for one person? grappling is useless if +1 person attacks you, and you won't be attacked by only one guy on the streets
Try the 90/10 formula, 90% power to the body and 10% to the head. We barely tap the head and smash each others stomach's. We also spar with 16oz gloves, headgear, and a mouthguard. It gives you the feeling of hard sparring without putting your brain at risk lol.
Boxers who get brain damage usually does hard sparring
ALWAYS!
it's inevitable but want to reduce it
Beginner kickboxer here - it feels like even in light sparring, the kicks could be strong enough to be damaging. For example if you slip into the guy's punch if he fainted or something. Is it a good rule of thumb that anytime you feel a bit shaken up, it means you've received a potentially damaging hit? Also... how effective is headgear? thanks
Headgear is designed to protect your skin. Infact, head makes the punches do more damage to your brain.
in all honesty, headgear is a waste of money - does nothing to stop either neck rotation / whiplash motions, it provides a bigger target, makes your "chin" easier to catch, blocks your peripheral vision & probably motivates your opponent
to hit you as hard as they can because "of the protection". It basically boils down to agreeing level of intensity (1-10)
beforehand, if your sparring partner won't hespek that sort of boundary, never spar with them again.
Do what you love for a short while bro but avoid the longterm route. Sparr light and don't do it too often especially if you get shaken up. Focus on good evasions and defense. That being said if you go to fight you gotta put all thoughts of injury aside or the fear will distract you
there's nothing more entertaining and worthy experience wise that to land a punch at the right time, on the right target and stop the punch right in the target without putting excessive pressure on said punch. You're basically on god mode. And you control emotions too (fear being the main one). If you monkey fight at full force it's like a bar brawl and there is no training value on it, only adrenaline.
This is what my gym is teaching me "It's harder to land a controlled punch than to land a hard one". And this is what I go by. No value in messing the face and the brain of a young kid.
Now all the brawl people can roast me, I don't care. 9 times out of 10 the controlled guy is the most dangerous one.
Good video
You sound and look like a more jacked Aaron Paul lol
people forget you can drop someone really easily with a liver shot...but we always go for the head for some reason...body shots are devastating!
I think shoulder and body sparring is enough for someone who doesn't want to compete in boxing, it is nowhere near traditional sparring but thats the closest without brain damage. you have to choose one or the other.
I was kicked in the side of the head! it was not a hard kick! But it still hurt! What symptoms should I be afraid of? Can it be harmful to the brain? Please answer!!
I wanna learn how to defend myself if I get into a fight but at the same time, I don't want brain damage over time by sparring so wtf do I do?
i have a feeling i watched this video already but i dont remember
you should start hard sparring to jog your memory
That's insane lol the gym owner may own the gym but the gym wouldn't exist without the members
what if you hit hard but once you land you dont follow through
thanks !
Ahh man, I've been training 120mins kick boxing and 120mins wing chun a week. I really love the kickboxing but got hit hard on the head last sparring session, still not feeling right. So is BJJ safe? Maybe can swap for some BJJ, Judo or the like?
BJJ and Judo are extremely safe in most gym! Most BJJ and Judo teams spar daily, and it's always been very safe in my experience. That being said, I wouldn't give up on Kickboxing altogether. Just try to avoid sparring with the guys that go too hard, or just avoid sparring completely if your gym always spars that way.
So. With strong headgear, light technical sparring ( getting hit in the head but with open fists and not full force) is there still risk of brain damage?
Yes if u get too much hit
I always want to do light sparring but non of my friends want to and in the gym they always go full out so that's kinda depressing
That sucks, man. It might be time to look for a new gym.
Those aren't your friends, better start looking for new ones as well.
@@PirateTubeTV I meant that they don't want to do sparring at all
The whole point of sparring is for you and your partner to get better with minimal pain.
@@emmy4537 you do combat sports?
I joined many fight camps when i was training for kickboxing and i was sparring a lot … i gained a lot of experience, but in end i only have headaches rn
Sorry to hear that, man. Take care of yourself.
Lucky me in uk my local boxing gym have amazing coaches with allow you chose what sparing you want most of it its just body sparring no head shots
Best thing to do is learn footwork and combos on youtube get a freestanding punching bag and practice your moves
When I took Karate the kids could not hit each other in the head. When I took Kung-Fu it was ok for your glove to touch a persons head but not punch someone. I think there is a way to spar and get training. Just depends on the gym.
Light sparring lite sparring light sparring guys as simple. Light contact to the head... Hard to the body
Can you get brain damage from just light sparring? Like getting hit in the face but never rocked
I've looked this up before and haven't found any studies or articles about it. My guess, however, is that no, you wouldn't get any brain damage from that.
@@HomelessNinjaKennedy Alright thanks bro
Anything is possible but it's really unlikely. I'd say that's a really responsible way to spar. @@jairberg1518
Got hit on the back of the head, headaches for days now, doctors can't do much what should I do
I understand the concern for brain injury but I will say that I believe if you practice martial arts you should go live every so often to make sure your engine is running smoothly. I don’t see the point of learning martial arts unless it can be applied in real life scenarios. If you only ever hit pads or light spar then when someone comes at you real one day it’s gonna throw you off.
................ but if you train any striking art that spars your gonna get more brain trauma than if you never train and get beat up a few times in life lol
I'm the guy that Kennedy is referring to in the video. Because of him I found a way to spar without brain damage AND full force.
All I did was switched to a different martial art called escrima. It's a weapon martial art though. I have more contact areas compared to someone who does kickboxing but I only body spar.
As you can see, limitations are still there but it's the best I can come up with. My next stop is fencing.
I've really wanted to start doing boxing since I was 13 but I really didn't want brain damage that might come with boxing.
You should still look for a boxing gym too train at! Boxing is one of the best martial arts, in my opinion, and you should definitely still go train. Just make sure that you and your sparring partners and careful with each other. Good luck!
@@HomelessNinjaKennedy Yo thanks for the reply, I probably will join a gym to do sparing and train so that I can have something to work on
@@HomelessNinjaKennedy if I just sparring light like 20-30% shouldn’t I be fine I’m not training to be a fighter just self defense and to build confidence
I'd say wear head gear with a nose guard. Those in particular in my experience absorb the blows rather well
Your brain still shakes inside the skull. Those gear only prevent cuts.
Just wait till you get better and learn a lot of head movement so you don't get hit as hard
What if my coach requires me to spar even when I'm getting injury
If you trust your coach, then do as he says. If you're injured and you know that your coach is wrong to make you spar, then you need to stop training under that guy and find a new coach.
I mean to be honest, if you only spar once a week and have a few hard sparring rounds, It shouldn't be that bad, I hope, guess we will know in 40 years lol
1 hard blow to the head every week for 10 years, that's 520 hard shocks to your brain, can't be good.
Be good at out boxing like floyd mayweather jr that wont give you brain damage
If you want to avoid CTE more effectively look into bare knuckle boxing. Only other fighters know what I mean.
But do the punches there not hit harder than with glove?
@@manopu2113 its harder to knock someone with the gloves and cte is caused by the brain constantly banging inside the skull, so without gloves it will hurt more but less brain damage
Lots of talk in these comments but it never really works out that way. I always get injured on sparring night
Do you spar light and do you mean head injury? I'm thinking about getting into it but I might just not do that if it's impossible to survive without brain damage..
hey i have a question. when do call it light sparring? does jabs and light hooks also give you brain damage?? im 16 years old an i would like to spar once in a week with an friend. do you think its save????
I mean anytime you get hit in the head it’s not good right but if you do tap sparring with light jabs and trying to tap the forehead and not wreck someone in the chin you should be fine.
But I love sparring....I spar all the time but with 20% force
Maybe i'll start pencak silat
I agree.
It depends on which level you want to be in Boxing. There is a huge different to do Boxing just for fun and fitness or to become an active fighter. If you want to learn how to defend yourself and how to attack an opponent,you have to do sparring. There is no other way if you want to be an active Boxer, same in other Sports like Soccer, if you don't make training matches in soccer, your team would lose maybe all matches. You cannot be a pro Soccer guy if you only train how to shoot penalties. I'm an active Boxer since over 15 years and know what I'am talking about...as I said: It depends what level of Boxer you want to reach.
Is light sparring enough for self defens?
@@manopu2113 Absolutely enough. You should start with Sparring, but be careful if you are new in Boxing. From time to time you will become better. You will notice it yourself. And do Sparring against experienced Boxers. Say to your partner that you're there to learn, he should be very defensive during you Sparr, because at first you have to develop your own skill and get on with punches coming in, how to cover, how to move, when to move... and so on...
@@novell80 your analogy is completely mistaken. The purpose of soccer is to score more goals than your opponent, not causing damage or attack fisically your oponent. The purpose of boxing, kickboxing, muay thai and even mma is to cause harm and attack your opponent and the head is the main target if you want to win by points, decission or knockout. Most mma fans say mma is not dangerous but the head is also a target during fights if the fighter wants to win by knockout or decission. The most "humane" way to win in mma is by submission but before that there are punches and the head is a main target. Many full contact fighters have low iq because of that and the damage is long term. In conclussion: *Fighting is not a game*.
@@pepedestroyer5974 Who told you this Disneyland stories that the most fighters have low IQ? Many pro fighters just look like they've low IQ because they aren't interested in other things, they sacrifice their life and IQ only for their occupation, same like a teacher would do for his occupation. You cannot measure IQ's, because every IQ test includes special topics. I myself studied Engineering and I do Boxing for many years. Keep in mind, the most people don't know that many soccer players have also brain damages, because of headers and Football player even more. This is pretty well proven of medical Doctors. It is what it is: "You can't play Boxing like ball sports! Boxing is much more harder than any ball sport." And as I said, you cannot win Soccer matches if your team trains only shootings or penalties ;). You have to simulate a real match in your training to develop tactics and strategy with your team, otherwise your soccer team would lose nearly all matches. The same in Boxing, if you don't do sparring, you will lose your fights surely. I mentioned the example between soccer and Boxing because I myself trained for some years in a soccer club when I was a teenager.
Good point. Do you think that boxing is the best way for a young boy to prove what he's made of and demonstrate his masculinity.
Me and my brother were sparring yesterday both 16 Oz gloves no headgear tho and he started going rough on me we done atleast 12 2 minute rounds and he’s 80 kg I’m only 65kg and he got me very hard with a left hook dazed me abit tho I was sweet kept going but I don’t know don’t think I’ll spar him again is it really worth the risk I’m only 17 got in to a few hard spars already was sparring in this other gym against a lad 10kg heavier and we went full at it wouldn’t call it a spar I ended up gassing and swinging off balance then bang my feet raised up off the ground and my stance changed to southpaw in mid air basically don’t know how it happened but when I was high up with my chin he caught me with a lovely overhand right dropped me clean got up fast enough but got rocked bad for one stupid reason not concentrating and It cost me bad I was only 15 Turning 16 a few weeks after so after watching this video it’s sort of frightened me abit I only started boxing like 2 and a half years ago aswell never thought you could actually go through brain damage in amateur boxing with a headgear never mind fighting in a pro ring with a lot smaller gloves and no headguard I always thought I wanted too turn pro then I started doing my research on how scary boxing really is made me think twice !💯
So how is it left now?
Headgear does NOTHING for concussions. In fact, they can make them worse, since you get the "springload" effect from helmets. Same with bike helmets.
In boxing, you have to worry about the internal damage, not the external.
I have another question : does grappling arts cause cauliflower ears ? If yes how can you prevent it and does it happen even if you don’t compete?
I have trained BJJ and wrestling for 6 months and never got cauliflower ear.
Not always. You need to be aware not to take hard hits to the ears. It's also a good idea to have a needle ready or a plan incase you get one. It's easy to remove if you do it at the time. But, once it hardens you can never get it out without plastic surgery.
As long as are wary not to rough them up, then the chances of getting one are really low. You can also wear rugby headgear, wrestling headgear, or tape your ears down like in rugby.
Burns Vaughan thank you for your response man!
Look into wearing wrestling headgear for grappling training if you are worried about cauliflower ears. I’ve been training for about a year and haven’t gotten them but if you wear headgear it’s less likely!
@@ryansiroproductions thank you man!
CTE is not as big a problem in boxing as it is in football? Maybe you're right, but I'm finding it hard to believe. Football players usually don't get knocked out, as far as I know.
99% of professional American football players have CTE: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nfl-cte-99-percent_us_5977621ce4b0e201d5786da9 As for professional boxers, the number is unclear, but "boxing.com suggests the number could be twenty percent": traumaticbraininjury.net/2013/02/19/boxings-history-with-cte/
I don't have time to read through this now, so I'll just ask: Is it the same type and degree of injury we're comparing? It would be good news for boxers then. The only explanation I could think of off the top of my head would be that football players get hit more often because they play more often.
Thanks to both of you for the info. Maybe another important difference is that when football players get hit it's probably usually two bodies that are moving towards each other with all of their mass, so while they don't specifically go for the head, as they do in boxing, the forces at work could be significantly greater. I'm just guessing though.
Bit of a late reply but another thing to mention is that boxing takes place on canvas where as a football player landing on their ass hits the back of their head on a metal helmet. Concussions are much more of a concern when taking a hit from the back of the head, which is a large reason why so many combat sports don't allow it. Meanwhile in football you can really do some damage to the nape of your spine and your brain from the back if you take a big hit.
Yeah, that could play a role, too. If you look at street fights, if somebody dies it's usually not directly from the impact of the punch, but from hitting their head on the ground. Grass is much softer than asphalt, but I'm still sure that it can hurt a lot if you get slammed down onto the pitch.
Don't make sparring a regular thing. I box for fitness and self defence and spar twice a week. I DO go all out with my opponents and give the rest of the week for my body and head to recover and heal itself. Those who take boxing seriously train seriously and spar everyday. They don't give themselves time to recover and therefore build up more damage as time passes. Remember too much of anything can be bad for you. Take breaks, don't spar everyday and if you need to take a break after a spar, go for it.
In my gym we have sparring once a week and it's optional. Since brain is my main working device - I decided to to sparr only once a month. I do really love my gym that they do not even encourage us to sparr hard and there is always 2 competent guys watching every sparring session.
@@michadebicki6534 exactly. All you have to do is train smart.
Do you think I did enough sparring to cut down to at least once a month cuz at the beginning of the year I sparred hard everyday for 3 months and my skill shot to the sky. But I stopped cuz I realized how bad it was
@@calimyellowface5614 you can also body spar so you don't have to feel like your missing out. But remember, to add head sparing in there at least once or twice a month. Also, if you do head spar, ask your opponent to go light and not treat it like a death match. If they refuse speak to your coach for a diffrent partner.
@@mr28086 thanks for the advice appreciate it
Hey, bro
I think you should invest some money in adveritising your channel. Because 1,4 k subs. is far under your content.
Huh money? You'll need a hell lot of views to win that back then :)
Me and my brother own 14 Oz gloves and headgear
I wear a mouth guard
I’m 155 and he’s about 20 pounds heavier than me
We light spar
Long story short you can mitigate it but not prevent it
lookin like a buff jesse pinkman