Went boxing sparring yesterday with a mate. Now he's in the hospital with a concussion :\

[Young Calf Kick]

The only thing more you maybe could have done is shut it down after the 5 minute knockdown. A knockdown in our gym is almost always the signal to call it a night for whoever got put on their ass. But don't feel guilty, this is NOT your doing. You acted like a conscientious training partner would, he only reaped what he sowed. Essentially he's as dumb as you think he is and that's on him.

If the guy was a total beginner and simply couldn't control themselves it'd be better to just work on defense and throw the odd jab to keep em honest, you wouldn't get hurt anyway and they're not doing it out of some shit-placed ego but out of fear. Clearly it's not the case here.

I agree Sherbro!

 

[danny23]

So obviously I feel like trash, just wanted to write this out.

I'm 6"4/193cm and about 210 lbs/96kgs, he's 6"5/196cm and about 180 lbs/82 kgs. Now obviously I'm very well aware of the fact that it only takes one good punch to put someone out. I try to never go 100% as plenty of times I've knocked sparring partners down even when we agreed on a medium level of intensity.

This time that was a little different. He's a proud motherfucker and if I'm very honest pretty damn stupid aswell. He went 100% almost right from the start. I knocked him down with a clean right hook. He was sitting down for about 5 minutes and pushed me to continue even though I didn't feel like that was a good idea.

Our coach told us we could spar light so we continued, but of course the guy tried to throw the kitchen sink at me. I'm just a little better than him so after hitting him with another clean 3 punch combination which clearly rocked him I asked him "is this what you want cause I don't like this". Of course the fucking idiot kept continuing so I just dodged him the remaining 30 seconds. When the round was over I was completely done. He was still full of adrenaline and went on to hit the bag for half an hour, he just wouldn't get tired.

Anyway, coach and I started to get a little worried when he kept asking the same questions every 2 minutes. Finally convinced him to let me drive him to the hospital after stopping by his house and walking his dog. Motor skills were all good but his short term memory was completely gone. The doctor checked his motor skills and literally while we were still in the same room, 2 minutes later he had forgotten he was checked. Brain scan was all good and there appeared to be no further physical injury there, just a completely vanished short term memory. He had to stay for the night. It got a little better today but his memory still is far from what it should be.

Anyway thanks for reading if you made it this far. Couple questions for guys that train:

• How do you deal with sparring partners like this? Do you walk away or whatever do you do?
• Is short term memory loss something that can take a while to recover?

Something similar happened to me yesterday. I feel like absolute shit. Feel like a piece of shit.
We were sparring in kickboxing and I hit this guy way too hard in the head. He was going berserk like your partner so I lost track of keeping at it low intensity and lost control.
I started with a leg kick, then push kick and then a lead kick to the body. This dropped his hands and then I whacked him with a clean overhand right, with my swing momentum and weight behind the shot. It’s one of those sweet shots where your opponent’s head vibrates into your hand and wrist.

He fell down flat. He then got up slowly and continued to fight concussed but I just threw low strikes and became defensive for remainder of the time.

One could call our gym “tough”. We have many pro and amateur fighters from all combat sports. I’d now call them stupid.
They made him continue the round even after the knock down and then another round with another opponent after me, when he should’ve stopped after dropping once. If it’s up to me, if you’re dropped then you’re done for the day at that moment itself and maybe a week till your next sparring session. It’s not a real fight and you need to fight for another day.

I didn’t get the chance to apologise to him properly as he left soon but I’ll try again next time. After reading your post I feel like I should’ve done more. This guy was quite bigger in height and weight than me and in good physical shape. But his technique and defense was poor to say the least and he stiff was with all that muscle. My physique isn’t muscular, resembles fighters and I'm way more experienced and skilled to hold my own against bigger guys like him. I now think I should’ve called it off or not gone hard at all, but he was like your friend driven by his rush of adrenaline and excitement. I should’ve known better though.

 

[Young Calf Kick]

Something similar happened to me yesterday. I feel like absolute shit. Feel like a piece of shit.
We were sparring in kickboxing and I hit this guy way too hard in the head. He was going berserk like your partner so I lost track of keeping at it low intensity and lost control.
I started with a leg kick, then push kick and then a lead kick to the body. This dropped his hands and then I whacked him with a clean overhand right, with my swing momentum and weight behind the shot. It’s one of those sweet shots where your opponent’s head vibrates into your hand and wrist.

He fell down flat. He then got up slowly and continued to fight concussed but I just threw low strikes and became defensive for remainder of the time.

One could call our gym “tough”. We have many pro and amateur fighters from all combat sports. I’d now call them stupid.
They made him continue the round even after the knock down and then another round with another opponent after me, when he should’ve stopped after dropping once. If it’s up to me, if you’re dropped then you’re done for the day at that moment itself and maybe a week till your next sparring session. It’s not a real fight and you need to fight for another day.

I didn’t get the chance to apologise to him properly as he left soon but I’ll try again next time. After reading your post I feel like I should’ve done more. This guy was quite bigger in height and weight than me and in good physical shape. But his technique and defense was poor to say the least and he stiff was with all that muscle. My physique isn’t muscular, resembles fighters and I'm way more experienced and skilled to hold my own against bigger guys like him. I now think I should’ve called it off or not gone hard at all, but he was like your friend driven by his rush of adrenaline and excitement. I should’ve known better though.

It happens Sherbro! Just like for me and the guy in my situation and you/the guy you dropped it can be a learning experience. For him to not get baited into fights and for you to stay composed under pressure and not get carried away. But it sometimes just happens. Just try and clear the air next time you see him and don’t worry about it

 

[Fedorgasm]

Going light is not an exact science, so sometimes you both agree to go 50%, but what "feels" like 50% to you might "feel" like 80% to him, so then he starts going 90%, which makes you want to go 100%... And before you know it you're having a full blown fight.

This escalation is why it's so much nicer to spar with people you know and trust, and why nobody likes to spar with noobs.

 

[Minnja]

I accidentally gave someone a concussion from pretty medium-light sparring. He is a good guy and technical when sparring but he is much taller than me and so when we sparred I threw an overhand (not 100% but not slow as molasses either) and it clipped him iirc he said it was around his eye. No signs of anything wrong, he did not wobble or fall or anything so we just kept sparring I didn't realize it even hit him that hard. Weeks later after not seeing him spar in that time he mentioned to me that he had a mild concussion from our sparring. I felt really bad.

 

[Romulas]

So obviously I feel like trash, just wanted to write this out.

I'm 6"4/193cm and about 210 lbs/96kgs, he's 6"5/196cm and about 180 lbs/82 kgs. Now obviously I'm very well aware of the fact that it only takes one good punch to put someone out. I try to never go 100% as plenty of times I've knocked sparring partners down even when we agreed on a medium level of intensity.

This time that was a little different. He's a proud motherfucker and if I'm very honest pretty damn stupid aswell. He went 100% almost right from the start. I knocked him down with a clean right hook. He was sitting down for about 5 minutes and pushed me to continue even though I didn't feel like that was a good idea.

Our coach told us we could spar light so we continued, but of course the guy tried to throw the kitchen sink at me. I'm just a little better than him so after hitting him with another clean 3 punch combination which clearly rocked him I asked him "is this what you want cause I don't like this". Of course the fucking idiot kept continuing so I just dodged him the remaining 30 seconds. When the round was over I was completely done. He was still full of adrenaline and went on to hit the bag for half an hour, he just wouldn't get tired.

Anyway, coach and I started to get a little worried when he kept asking the same questions every 2 minutes. Finally convinced him to let me drive him to the hospital after stopping by his house and walking his dog. Motor skills were all good but his short term memory was completely gone. The doctor checked his motor skills and literally while we were still in the same room, 2 minutes later he had forgotten he was checked. Brain scan was all good and there appeared to be no further physical injury there, just a completely vanished short term memory. He had to stay for the night. It got a little better today but his memory still is far from what it should be.

Anyway thanks for reading if you made it this far. Couple questions for guys that train:

• How do you deal with sparring partners like this? Do you walk away or whatever do you do?
• Is short term memory loss something that can take a while to recover?

It's difficult when the person you've agreed to mild/light sparring with is also similar to you skill level wise.

On one hand if you turn it up it's going to be a normal spar/fight but on the other hand if you don't increase the intensity you are going to be the one with the concussion..

Add in the fact that he's a gym mate and things get more complicated.

In the past I've called them out mid round and say "Ok, we're doing this?" and see how they respond.

A couple of times actually walked on very good friends of mine that started getting too intense a few days out from their or my fights when it's just not worth risking injury.

 

[CinemaKingdom]

I sparred with a friend and now he is dead.