STRIKING THREAD PART 2: Tips for avoiding permaneant brain damage?

So yesterday, I made a thread on explaining to your boss why you have bruises on your face if you do striking arts. Then someone brought up risks of permaneant brain damage with striking arts. So my question is this: WHEN DO YOU REALLY HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT PERMANEANT BRAIN DAMAGE? During hard sparring? If you do a smoker fight? If you go amateur? Or do you only have to worry about this if you go pro?

 

Any impact to the head has inherent risks, and even a single hard blow can be dangerous....but the overall consensus is that it is PROLONGED heavy blows that cause the biggest issues

Some interesting stats from 2015 (source: http://www.headcasecompany.com/concussion_info/stats_on_concussions_sports)

So even in "non contact" sports there are concussions

Sparring at a controlled pace should minimize this risk, but the odd heavy session or two won't do too much damage outside of a freak accident...but there is still a risk

 

Be Floyd Mayweather

 

They will let you do hard sparring at my place but I have yet to do it for fear of concussions. When are you ready for hard sparring?

 

Huh?

 

When you feel ready

Don't rush....some people never are

 

The effects of head trauma are very much in the news at the moment with lots of research going on and tentative things being found out. There aren't many definitive answers. Even in the last week the first deceased MMA fighter diagnosed with CTE has come to light (but even that is surrounded by controversy). There are clearly living MMA fighters with undiagnosed CTE (you can't diagnose it pre-mortum AFAIK).
As far as I understand lots of lower level (but still hard) head shots are worse than single big KO shots. So not even "concussion level" strikes can still be very bad for you. And hence why maybe the opinion that head trauma is caused in training rather than actual fights might be true.
There are quite a few MMA fighters that no longer really "spar" hard. They know they can fight already so they work conditioning, isolation drills, technical sparring, etc. And then others still swear by it.
Just this morning (Radio 4) I heard a scientist studying heading a football (a proper football) causes temporary brain chemistry changes after the fact. The changes reset but there's nothing long term studied to see how those temporary changes may accumulate.

 

I'm just about to start Muay Thai (assuming I like it from the trial lesson), and am glad I saw this & the prior thread.

I suppose not enough research has been done to know whether repeated (much) lighter blows to the head are dangerous too?

If I spar light most of the time (or even all of the time) I'm hoping it will protect me from CTE.

Would even drills where a pad holder is swinging a mitt or pad at your head and you cover block high (not sure if they do this in Muay Thai, but we do it in my JJJ class) have some negative impact on your brain? I assume so given that I feel the vibration/impact throughout both the arm that is covering and my head behind it.
But again, those are relatively light... if I train like that for the next 20 years, is it ok?

My guess is no one really knows (I could be wrong). But that harder almost certainly equates to more risk.
I'm also guessing there are no tell-tale signs to watch out for? E.g., if I get headaches after sparring, is that a bad sign, or we don't really know and I could just be prone to headaches?

 

As in many things the Thai's have a good take on it.
As I understand it the Thai's almost never spar heavy. They hit pads and bags very hard, their pad work is often very combative (with a lot of give and take between hitter and holder), they do lots of conditioning and technical sparring. They do lots of clinch sparring. They have to fight every few weeks (every week sometimes!) so keep the heavy contact for fight time.

 

Do you know if this attitude is typical in Muay Thai gyms outside of Thailand?
Or do gyms in US/UK/etc tend to spar hard more often than they do in Thailand?

 

I've been out of Thai for years now (and wasn't that in it to begin with) but it used to be true that the west didn't "get" Thai boxing. The training or the judging criteria or the intricacies of the clinch for example. I think it's much better because there's more exposure now but there's probably still some catching up to do.
There are more Thai's leaving Thailand to fight and train others and more people traveling to Thailand.
But still...there's probably more of an undercurrent of "harder is better" in non-Thai gyms. Although I've never trained in a Thai gym so make of that what you will. When Unreal Combat gets back from Thailand he'll be the man to talk to.

 

And although they may not spar hard every session Thai's compete crazily often!

 

I was really looking forward to hard sparring. However, I am now taking it much more lightly. Last time I did light sparring, I was backed into the corner of the ring. This made me panic and so I hit the other person hard in the face out of reflex to get out of there. This in turn put them into panic mode and I took a hard roundhouse to the face. Now I have huge mark on my face. Im like, "If this is light sparring I am nowhere near ready for hard sparring

 

this is important, you will never get good at a striking art (competition good) unless you get hit hard, get used to that and the adrenaline dump that goes with it and get used to controlling that dump and the fear, no amount of light sparring sessions will prepare you for that.

The Thais dont spar hard because they typically have something like 50 fights before they are 20 and fight every few months sometimes more frequently, they dont need to spar hard and they cant recover quickly enough to compete if they do and this is their job they dont fight they dont get paid.

 

You weren't light sparring if you hit the dude hard. Accidents can happen but generally you should touch gloves after it admit you went too hard (even by accident or panic) and go back to light sparring. A few months back I started sparring a dude for some "light" sparring. First side kick damn near folded me in two and the next head kick was a KO level that I managed to block. So I went hard too and snapped his head back with a crisp one-two (which he then complained about). "Light" contact is a two way street.

 

There is a difference between hard sparring, and fighting someone in a match.

Most damage happens in the ring when competing i suspect, because the other guys not looking to test you and help sharpen your skill set, he is looking to knock you out., there is a big difference between those two things.

Dont be too worried about hard sparring, be worried if you are going full contact and the guys actively trying to knock you out, that really should never happen in a class unless you are shark tanking for a fight

 

That isn't how they start you off in my muay thai gym. They first teach you the stance. Then you hit pads that people hold for you. They start you off hitting a pad with your left hand (jab) then right hand (cross). Then maybe some footwork.

Then they do this thing where you throw 5 attacks and the other person defends them. Then vice versa and they hit you pretty lightly. Sparring is when you really feel the pain

 

I'll see how they start me off since my free trial class is tonight.
I'm more concerned with down the road: the reason I'm giving Muay Thai a shot is because I want more aliveness in my striking training. I get some in JJJ--good pad drills with good movement, etc. But I want to spar.

If I hadn't read this & the other thread, I wouldn't really have a problem sparring hard (once I was ready for it). But I would really prefer to keep my brain intact...