I know a kickboxing with a good reputation. Now I think I will try it out in a couple of months but some things I read got my thinking. Brain damage. I study & read a lot and am planning to keep doing this. Now my fear is that with kickboxing studying abilities might get worse due to brain damage/loss of braincells. Any ideas? Basically I want a striking MA (I did aikido but was quite bored) and I am rather doing it for self defense than competition (and yes I know there's no BEST "street fighter" MA)
Unless you plan on becoming a world champion with a couple of hundred fights I wouldn't worry about it. Training in kickboxing should do you no harm, fighting may be more dangerous but so can crossing the road, driving, rugby even sex can kill. Life is for living.
Then I guess the route for you is to not use your head to stop punches and kicks with eh? Seriously... you're going into kickboxing knowing that it's inevitable that you're going to end getting hit a certain amount. It's part of the sport. I think making the connection between kickboxing and the ability to read and study is rather dramatic and rather unfounded.
I've been kickboxing a couple of years and I'm applying to do Maths at Cambridge so can't be that bad
you can take alot of hard hits and still be fine you might find it difficult though with akido as you probably never been hit before, just try and keep your eyes open
you'll probably find you won't do any hard sparring for a long time, even hard in class isn't that hard. If you do full contact competitions, lots of them, like said, to world champion level, then there is a risk. but thats because full in comp is all out, you want to ko the other guy. sparring in class, you want to learn, and koing lots in class isn't the best learning tool.
ive have done mt mma or boxing for aout ten years now....and im an MD...no real problems. but here is some advice. 1. dont bite off more than you can chew...i.e. avoid going full out with the real heavy hitters. 2. get a good head gear.....not the dipped foam ones but a real headgear...i like the mexican ones 3. alway work on defense...slip dip and kep your hands up 4. and this is a biggie....dont be a tough guy....dont let people goat you into being a tough guy since you intend to do this as a hobbie and not aliving ...you dont have to tough it out. examples.....yesterday i sparred with a pretty good pro fighter 6-0 record. we had plannned on going 4 rounds ...in round two he caught me pretty good and i saw some stars...well im done for the day.....sparring session ended. other example....if you get a headache from sparring the day before...take a few days off from the full contact. if you get drilled one day and are still dizzy the next day....take some time off.... if your in a comp and you get knocked down a few times...just stay down.....your a hobbiest and make aliving on how tough you are in the ring to make it short baby your head 3.
QFT If you see stars, stop immediately. Don't care about what others say about you being a wimp or something. In sparring, it's not a competition so winning is not your goal but learning. Also if you get hit pretty hard and decide to carry on, chances are you're going to be buggered, make alot of mistakes and get hit hard again and again, thus increasing the damage.
