Without Headgear

[MMA Forever]

Im pretty new to striking and i was wondering if any of you do hard sparring often without headgear or is headgear always needed?

 

[thirteen]

If you're sparring hard enough to get rocked, wear headgear.
If you're not wearing headgear, just take things back a notch and you'll be fine.
(Talking about boxing btw)

 

[dtravis92]

^ What he said. For hard sparring put headgear on, for light sparring you don't need to have it on.

 

[fightscience19]

^ What he said. For hard sparring put headgear on, for light sparring you don't need to have it on.

That sums it up.
Just remember, headgear does nothing to keep you from being rocked. Headgear is design specifically to prevent cuts on your head, mainly from the opponent's head. It is very easy to to clash heads in the clinch and cause a cut, even in light sparring.

 

[SunNovaGun]

Since you're new to striking wear the head gear all the time.

It'll teach you the minimum you need to move your head to slip punches. If you're slipping and feeling a bit of contact (but not getting stunned or rocked) with the headgear on you're moving just enough that without it the punches will miss.

A lot of being a smooth striker is about economy of movement, both on offense and defense. Wearing the headgear is a really good tool to learn this.

The less you have to move to evade strikes the sooner you can return fire.

 

[vjvj]

Headgear is mainly to prevent cuts and bruises. When you've been doing this for a while (and I really mean a while, like you have some fights under your belt), you can make a decision about headgear on that basis.

But since you're new...

Since you're new to striking wear the head gear all the time.

It'll teach you the minimum you need to move your head to slip punches. If you're slipping and feeling a bit of contact (but not getting stunned or rocked) with the headgear on you're moving just enough that without it the punches will miss.

A lot of being a smooth striker is about economy of movement, both on offense and defense. Wearing the headgear is a really good tool to learn this.

The less you have to move to evade strikes the sooner you can return fire.

This is all good advice

 

[bfmv300]

I would recommend wearing head gear at all times when you're just starting out. I like to not wear headgear every once in a while simply because I have a very elusive styule (meaning little to no contact to my head) and it's a good thing for me to make sure I don't get complacent with my head movement, defense and footwork.

 

[TwoFour Lowkick]

I hardly ever wear it.. It stifles my head movement and reduces my peripheral vision, which leads to more shots being landed on my head. Also seems as if people use you having head gear as a license to throw harder punches.

 

[Jaxx]

Comes in handy if you work full time or looking for a job and getting black eyes, cuts etc could impact on your future employment/getting fired.

Personally i get fed up explaining the same black eye 1000's of times to everyone, family, friends and colleagues...

 

[TwoFour Lowkick]

Comes in handy if you work full time or looking for a job and getting black eyes, cuts etc could impact on your future employment/getting fired.

Personally i get fed up explaining the same black eye 1000's of times to everyone, family, friends and colleagues...

I vaseline my face before sparring if I have a meeting coming up. Seems to help

 

[vjvj]

I vaseline my face before sparring if I have a meeting coming up. Seems to help

Oh yeah, this is a good point and I recommend this for heavier sparring, as well. In fact, I generally use both headgear and vaseline.

I don't really have a problem with headgear obscuring my peripheral, but I think my peripheral vision might be a bit higher than average. That's what my doctor tells me, at least.

 

[thirteen]

Get headgear that fits properly and you'll be right.

 

[Da Speeit]

Headgear's for pussies.

That said, dont be stupid. If youre sparring guys much bigger/better or have a fight coming up, protect yourself appropriately.

 

[thirteen]

Headgear's for pussies.

meow...lol.

It is a pain in the ass here in Australia during summer and it's 35 degrees Celsius.

 

[MMA Forever]

Thanks for the replies guys. i'll definitely look into wearing headgear, my sparring partner is more of a kicker so we try to limit head kicks since i almost ate a right high kick from him last session. We wear shin guards though.

 

[xilliun]

meow...lol.

It is a pain in the ass here in Australia during summer and it's 35 degrees Celsius.

It's a pain in the ass, period. I find that it moves around too much unless you're bald and you need to keep stopping to readjust it.

Just go without it and keep your hands up!