Brain damage from sparring?

[soulkiller]

Hi,

I am currently just worried about possible brain damage, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy risks with doing light to moderate sparring with 16-20 oz gloves. I have been training MMA and kickboxing for the last 2 years, and have been hit in the head moderately hard many times, however I am confident that I have never been concussed.

 

[Stuart0502]

There are risks that need to be considered but there are a lot of myths perpetuated by clickbait media headlines and scumbags on here keeping their fingers crossed fighters will develop permanent punch drunk syndrome.

One of the biggest myths is that concussion automatically kill brain cells. As the Doctor explains here most concussion are actually a temporary ion disregulation in the brain. E.g. imagine thumping a pillow and some of the inner stuffing comes out, except in the case of the brain it will have mechanisms of restoring the inner stuffing to it's correct location in the days or weeks after a concussion;



As far as CTE goes, contrary to popular belief there isn't a consensus amongst specialist brain scientists that it actually causes any symptoms;

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is not a real disease - PubMed

There was a long-lasting debate during the first half of the 1900s about whether boxers suffered from a condition called "dementia pugilistica". This included arguments as to whether there was such a distinct clinical condition, whether it was static or progressive, and whether boxers were...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Chances are unless you are a professional boxer/kickboxer who regularly engages in hard sparring and competition you won't develop any issues unless you were genetically predisposed and were going to develop issues anyway.

 

[Boomb]

I read an interview with Ernesto Hoost and he said that he's able to have such a long career, because he never sparred and if he did, they went very light.

I find it hard to believe it though since he's Dutch.

 

[JohnPJones]

Light sparring? The risk is almost 0
Moderate sparring? That’s a various nebulous term that will mean very different things to different people. At the higher end, yeah it’s fairly good possibility at the middle, probably not that large of a risk, at the lower end it’ll still be pretty low risk.

 

[WDSTK]

Late teens and early 20s, got knocked out 3 times in hard sparring at 2 free Indy inner city gyms for City kids. Sparring was always 100%. Two knockouts were by 2 different Indy Golden Glove Champs who wanted to show off to buddies. First one was on my first day ever in a boxing gym. The guy used 12 oz gloves as just him, me and his buddies present. . I just thought it was an opportunity to learn and did not want to appear chicken. 3rd time I had it coming by pushing hard against an Olympic class fighter I was told to go easy with. My early boxing knowledge was from watching Rocky. For the remaining 40 years, sparred mostly light and a few moderate to heavy sessions. Finally got a good instructor. No concussions ever that I know of. Fast forward, to age 65 and have undergone brain scans, some other medical brain tests I cannot remember and several extensive memory test. Told I am Ok. Became a professional engineer and still practice with Engineers without borders. I think for me, a good thing was the hard sparring sessions were few, short in time and far between. However, I wished I learned the boxing fundamentals well before I ever sparred hard. Life is hard, harder when you are stupid (John Wayne)

 

[ROcknrollracing]

I mean it's definitely possible. I have sparred countless times in my life and the most ive received is a few bloody noses. The only concussion ive ever had was unrelated to martial arts.

 

[SandisLL]

Yes. Sparring might even deliver you in morgue and I'm not joking here about this.
While you can't be taught for SD or as a fighter in striking arts without real practice to have at least sparring sessions under belt so...
Gyms should have perssonel capable to calibrate sparring sessions and supervise sparrings etc stuff. Also they should know fighters they are assigning for sparring sessions and their character.

More than this:it isn't advisable to arrange sparring session between two guys who had recent conflict and you see that there ... shit might happen...

 

[Adamant]

Hi,

I am currently just worried about possible brain damage, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy risks with doing light to moderate sparring with 16-20 oz gloves. I have been training MMA and kickboxing for the last 2 years, and have been hit in the head moderately hard many times, however I am confident that I have never been concussed.

This is why Joe Rogan quit kickboxing and started BJJ.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Hi,

I am currently just worried about possible brain damage, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy risks with doing light to moderate sparring with 16-20 oz gloves. I have been training MMA and kickboxing for the last 2 years, and have been hit in the head moderately hard many times, however I am confident that I have never been concussed.

20 Onz? Lol that enormous.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Yes

 

[Trabaho]

we all been there, weather you love it enough to come back or quit. And intelegently select how you train and spar and with who. It gives you purpose or not. Yes we all got brain damage. Proudly.

 

[WDSTK]

we all been there, weather you love it enough to come back or quit. And intelegently select how you train and spar and with who. It gives you purpose or not. Yes we all got brain damage. Proudly.

You must be married. According to my wife, I have many brain ailments.

 

[Trabaho]

You must be married. According to my wife, I have many brain ailments.

Nah I don´t got significant brain damage from fighting. More from like being crazy a few times. And getting punched. But it´s not significant as I pussied out of compeition as in not stepping up. Besides like once. And sparring is ok, if you´re chill like me. If you´re like some other guys I used to train with, I feel sorry for their brains. Hard sparring and 30 boxing matches. Losing half. But a little bit brain damage is cool. You don´t just rot and die.