Amateur Boxing and Brain Damage?

Most damage is done in the Gym,the main culprit are Headgaurds.

 

Asking whether you'll get brain damage from boxing is like asking whether you'll get brain damage from drinking alcohol or whether you'll get cancer from smoking cigarettes.

It depends on how much, how hard and how long you're doing it.

People have this wrong image of boxing being extremely dangerous because they only see top stars like Ali and Tyson and think you'll end up like that. It's like thinking that drinking alcohol on few parties here and there will make you into a degenerate drunkard. Boxing is not as risky for your health as many people think but there's still a risk obviously and you have to accept it.

It's obviously not exactly healthy for your brain so it's wise to have clear goals and limit the risks.

Ask yourself what exactly you want to achieve in amateur boxing and how long do you want to do it. Do you just want to test yourself or do you like competing long-term? You're not going to become new Golovkin or new Lomachenko so you won't exactly make money from it. Is it worth it just for the sake of competing? This is something that each one has to answer for himself, if it fulfills your life and makes you happy, then go for it. Humans are mortal beings, your health won't last forever and people can get dementia even though they've never boxed. But obviously if your priority is to become as good as you can in your history studies than boxing should be limited. Especially if you want to be a researcher or a professor and have an active academic career when your aged 50+.

As for limiting the risks it's good to limit the hard sparring to a minimum. Obviously sparring makes you better but since you're not exactly looking to become the new Mayweather you don't need to push yourself for the sake of your health. Just like you won't leave your job/uni to train 2 times a day even though that would make you a better boxer too. Don't train like a pro if you're not one. Set yourself a maximum limit of how many rounds a week/month you allow yourself to spar and don't go over it. That will prevent you from going into "one more round" gym wars.

Also, work on your neck muscles, head movement, evasive footwork, distance, rolling with punches etc. so you don't box like a human punching bag. Don't go into fights unprepared.

Everyone needs to decide what his priorities are in life, make a firm decision and stand by it so there are no regrets.

 

Yes, most definitely. I've heard and read that Ali's sparring sessions were worse than the fights themselves because he used them to get used to taking punishment rather than skills which may have led to his parkinson's but that's another topic altogether.

 

I bet you could ask 99.9% of ex boxers about the most punishment they've taken and they'd agree it was on the gym.
Mine definitely was, 2 body punchers that nearly cut me in half and a left hook to the head off my mate that I'll never forget that had my legs all over the place.
I also got knocked down for the only time in sparring, lost a tooth and had concussion a couple of times
In actual fights I got one tiny cut in my eyebrow in 37 contests.
I've heard lots of pros say they don't/didn't like using head guards in sparring because of heightened risks of cuts in fights.
I also think the wearing of head guards in amateur boxing bouts has got the boxers relying on their head gear and not picking up defensive skills ie head movement and parrying the jab.
The latter seems to be rarely used these days

 

i think you got it wrong, cuts are problems because they are stopping fight then..

 

And smaller framed guys sparring with guys considerably heavier than themselves

 

Thats down to the coaches protection in the gym. Theres a certain way of doing things and warning them. I used a foolproof method .

 

So you're agreeing with me

 

I'm interested to hear your method. :think

 

Simply, I explained to them, anybody taking liberties in sparring, I explained, pointing to them, the 2 guys over there would be their next sparring partner. Them being the Heavy and Cruiser euro champs, seemed to work .

 

Ok Tai chi, adybrady, s**** where's the evidence to your proposterous conclusions?

 

People don't realize that most people can't take punches without suffering some sort of damage, the boxing world and trainers especially don't tell you that. Sometimes it's too late before you realize that something is going on in your brain and you say to yourself " I only had a few amateur/pro fights and sparring, how did this happen? "

 

Conclusion of what.

 

So no one ever called you out on it? :!:
If you really let a cruiser/heavy intentionally beat the **** out of a way lighter guy, to 'punish' them, that's pretty low. :blood

You are there to protect your fighters, if you don't like what you see then stop the sparring and throw the guy out the door.
Ban him from sparring for a few weeks or whatever...many things you can do. Use your head. :hi:

 

So you havent a sense of humor.