Love hard sparring - braindamage concerns?

[Mad Dollar]

I'm 24 with 2 kids and full time job, so I only have time to train 2 times a week, so I only go to classes in my MMA gym that I know involves hard kickboxing sparring! - Should I be concerned about my brain health and stop doing it? My wife certainly thinks so, but I just love fighting and only have time to train twice a week, and really feel like I "wasted" a training if I go light at sparring, or take a grappling class instead.
Any advice is much appreciated !

 

[j123]

I'm 24 with 2 kids and full time job, so I only have time to train 2 times a week, so I only go to classes in my MMA gym that I know involves hard kickboxing sparring! - Should I be concerned about my brain health and stop doing it? My wife certainly thinks so, but I just love fighting and only have time to train twice a week, and really feel like I "wasted" a training if I go light at sparring, or take a grappling class instead.
Any advice is much appreciated !

Is it affecting you? Typically hard are these sessions? If its intense, fast its fine. But if you feel headaches all the time, have memory issues a week down, then thats a problem.

Everyone handles concussions differently, some can shake it off and continue, others have to hang up the gloves. I'm lucky so far to not have had any despite competing, but a 2 of my teammates have and had to quit the sport for good.

You sound somewhat new to the sport. The way it works is that sparring is where you practice stuff you've been practicing and drilling all week in a live environment; Be it techniques, tactics, etc. The actual fights are saved for well.. the fights themselves. You're going to get brain trauma regardless so its best to have it chipped away where its supposed to be. Whether you're a rocket scientist, or laborer, when upstairs is ruined, you're done. Its like dipping your electronics into water.

Keep the sparring intense, don't drop the speed, but do drop the power. This goes for your partners as well. Real hard sparring has its place, I recommend at most 2-4x in a camp.

 

[fluffball]

Regardless of whatever you do with sparring, you really need to take some technique classes as well. You're actually wasting time doing nothing but sparring.

 

[ZemoKicks]

What's your goal ?

Why waste your brain when you only train 2x a week. If you were to makw money of it 2x a wwek is nothing.

 

[MB5161]

Sounds like you may have a little brain damage already. Hard sparring twice a week with no conditioning in between?

 

[Mad Dollar]

Is it affecting you? Typically hard are these sessions? If its intense, fast its fine. But if you feel headaches all the time, have memory issues a week down, then thats a problem.

Everyone handles concussions differently, some can shake it off and continue, others have to hang up the gloves. I'm lucky so far to not have had any despite competing, but a 2 of my teammates have and had to quit the sport for good.

You sound somewhat new to the sport. The way it works is that sparring is where you practice stuff you've been practicing and drilling all week in a live environment; Be it techniques, tactics, etc. The actual fights are saved for well.. the fights themselves. You're going to get brain trauma regardless so its best to have it chipped away where its supposed to be. Whether you're a rocket scientist, or laborer, when upstairs is ruined, you're done. Its like dipping your electronics into water.

Keep the sparring intense, don't drop the speed, but do drop the power. This goes for your partners as well. Real hard sparring has its place, I recommend at most 2-4x in a camp.

Yeah I'm fairly new to the sport, I've only been training for 2 years, mostly kickboxing. I've only really experienced anything related to my head last week, when I woke up and felt dizzy as hell the day after sparring, besides that it's just the normal bruises spread across the body.
I just love to fight, and wish I had more time to train actual MMA, and not just kickbox twice a week !

 

[Mad Dollar]

Regardless of whatever you do with sparring, you really need to take some technique classes as well. You're actually wasting time doing nothing but sparring.

My first year of training was all technique, but then I started sparring, and haven't really been doing any thing else besides that since.. I have a 45kg heavybag at home, I practice new techniques on all the time

 

[Mad Dollar]

What's your goal ?

Why waste your brain when you only train 2x a week. If you were to makw money of it 2x a wwek is nothing.

That's the problem, and don't have a goal, I just enjoy beating the hell out of my teammates, if I had more time to train MMA, I found definitely concentrate, on fine tuning everything so I could get a real fight !

 

[Mad Dollar]

Sounds like you may have a little brain damage already. Hard sparring twice a week with no conditioning in between?

Haha, that's why I'm making the post dude, you hear about this cte stuff every time you read about fighting, and I certainly don't wanna have braindamage when I get older..! I do go to the regularly fitness gym, and strength train at least 3 times a week also. I have 45 min drive to the MMA gym, that's why I can only go there twice a week,

 

[Mad Dollar]

Is it affecting you? Typically hard are these sessions? If its intense, fast its fine. But if you feel headaches all the time, have memory issues a week down, then thats a problem.

Everyone handles concussions differently, some can shake it off and continue, others have to hang up the gloves. I'm lucky so far to not have had any despite competing, but a 2 of my teammates have and had to quit the sport for good.

You sound somewhat new to the sport. The way it works is that sparring is where you practice stuff you've been practicing and drilling all week in a live environment; Be it techniques, tactics, etc. The actual fights are saved for well.. the fights themselves. You're going to get brain trauma regardless so its best to have it chipped away where its supposed to be. Whether you're a rocket scientist, or laborer, when upstairs is ruined, you're done. Its like dipping your electronics into water.

Keep the sparring intense, don't drop the speed, but do drop the power. This goes for your partners as well. Real hard sparring has its place, I recommend at most 2-4x in a camp.

But I definitely try to keep the power down from now on and just try to focus on speed and technique.!

 

[j123]

Yeah I'm fairly new to the sport, I've only been training for 2 years, mostly kickboxing. I've only really experienced anything related to my head last week, when I woke up and felt dizzy as hell the day after sparring, besides that it's just the normal bruises spread across the body.
I just love to fight, and wish I had more time to train actual MMA, and not just kickbox twice a week !

Talk to your coach to sign up for events coming up. Other than feeling good, getting involved in gym wars doesn't do any good on the long term.

I hear ya though, good hard sparring is great and gives a wonderful feeling, but if you're getting headaches thats not too good. You do have to remember you have a day job and a family, at the end of the day the coach can say "you're a warrior", but he/she continues on with their lives and if you regress they don't care unless they've been with you since childhood.

I'm the same way, a guy goes hard I return the favor, but communication is key. If he shames you, of course you fire back and make him/her remember, but they're your teammates, most of the time they'll be understanding. Tell them to chill, and work on improving certain things, if not. Well you get a gym war

 

[AshiharaFan]

@Mad Dollar what do you think about full contact karate?

 

[bobthebuilder]

I'm 24 with 2 kids and full time job, so I only have time to train 2 times a week, so I only go to classes in my MMA gym that I know involves hard kickboxing sparring! - Should I be concerned about my brain health and stop doing it? My wife certainly thinks so, but I just love fighting and only have time to train twice a week, and really feel like I "wasted" a training if I go light at sparring, or take a grappling class instead.
Any advice is much appreciated !

If you only train twice a week, it is not best to use both for sparring

 

[Mad Dollar]

If you only train twice a week, it is not best to use both for sparring

You're probably right, I just feel bored every time we practice technique, because I always get paired up with someone who have lesser skills than me, and I am a southpaw so they get confused and I have to explain everything to them, and barely get a sweat during the class !

 

[Mad Dollar]

@Mad Dollar what do you think about full contact karate?

I honestly have no idea what full contact karate is about, is similar to kickboxing ? - the only thing I've ever heard about is, that MVP from bellator got his stand up skills from that

 

[spacetime]

Hard kickboxing is fine. So much is devoted to midsection kicks, blocks, evasion. Boxing would be worse for you.

 

[MeanStreets]

I think there is a genetic factor. Some people can take alot of damage and not show serious side-effects long term. But why risk it?

Getting your brain rattled and it smashing against your skull cant be good for your heath. Prevention is severely underrated. If you're getting hit in the head, there is no doubt that your brain is getting damaged.

Can you enjoy sparring, and stay in-shape without head shots?

You only live once so I encourage you to do what you want but make a conscious decision, rather than one based on the assumption that you wont be the one with brain related issues (ie memory problems, issues with concentration, hormonal imbalances, etc.)

 

[Sano]

Yes.

Obviously, sparring hard is great fun and all, nothing more freeing than slugging it out. With that said, it's stupid to do the way you're doing it. Trust me, I know. It'll add up over the years.

You have to earn the right to spar hard and do it with the right people, when you are at both physically and mentally capable of protecting yourself. Do more technique work, more conditioning, more defensive drills, and more light sparring. It might seem boring, but you will become 10 times the fighter you would have otherwise AND you will save your head the troubles down the road. You should have zero symptoms of anything (obviously shit happens, but it should be once in a blue moon).

Then, sign up for a real fight or whatever when you're given the go, and do what the guys do in camp, but always be thoughtful. It doesn't matter how tough you think you are, I've seen guys who are as tough as nails have to quit because of too often, too hard sparring. Including myself.

 

[AshiharaFan]

I honestly have no idea what full contact karate is about, is similar to kickboxing ? - the only thing I've ever heard about is, that MVP from bellator got his stand up skills from that

I'm not talking about PKA Kickboxing. I'm talking about bare knuckle karate with no pads or protective gear save a groin cup and mouthpiece. Specifically what you see in the video below.



The reason I mention this is because in bare knuckle Karate (aka knockdown Karate) you can spar hard quite frequently and not have your brain cells even close to taking the damage that you do now with the way you presently spar because there are no punches to the head and face in our style of sparring. You can kick to the head/face but that doesn't occur nearly as much as being punched in the head as we have in muay Thai and mma sparring. The trade off is that your body will feel it a helluva lot more than how your body feels now.

Like throwing knees to the body and head? We got that. Like throwing leg kicks and f*cking up your opponent's sciatic nerve? We got that too. Depending on the specific school we also have leg sweeps and even Judo throws added to the mix when we spar.

 

[Foppa21]

I'm 24 with 2 kids and full time job, so I only have time to train 2 times a week, so I only go to classes in my MMA gym that I know involves hard kickboxing sparring! - Should I be concerned about my brain health and stop doing it? My wife certainly thinks so, but I just love fighting and only have time to train twice a week, and really feel like I "wasted" a training if I go light at sparring, or take a grappling class instead.
Any advice is much appreciated !

Yes, there are concerns. At the end of the day, what are you getting out of it and how does that affect your future.

IMO, hard sparring is something you do when you're preparing for competition and even still, used sparingly. I do think a gym should run once once every 6 odd months for everyone else because no matter what, it's still a form of self defence. But at the end of the day, no one wins in repeated gym wars.

I suggest you mix it up.