I was sparring with a guy a few nights back who claimed that headguards don't protect your head, they're only used by pros in training to avoid cuts. Is he correct? personally I think he's wrong.
Head guards mainly protect from cuts yeah, They somewhat protect your head but not that much. If you get hit with a headguard and without one the impact will be pretty much the same
well your more likely to cut nose,mouth,eyebrows than your temple and forehead, and those helmets dont protect these, unless hes talking about full face guards,then they must protect you from cuts.
He's right. Imagine a pickle in a jar. shake it ,the pickle moves. wrap a cloth around it , shake it...the pickle still moves. Now imagine that's your brain. The cloth around it may stop the jar from breaking....but that damn pickle (brain) is still getting shaken about and damaged.
I'd say a small pillow is a better fit for the metaphorical pickle jar, since the padding can sometimes dissipate the impact of a blow, but you're right; ultimately the force of the head moving is what's going to rattle your brain and stun you.
Why do we have bumpers on cars that crumple? because it increases the length of an impact causing less damage to the people inside. Same principle with headguards. They arent meant to completely protect your head but they do as much as possible (not all that much) without greatly afffecting your ability to fight.
BS. Headguards and more importantly good gloves protect your head. Scientifically proven! :deal Keep in mind though... Boxing STILL damages your brain! Headguard or not. Box enough? Amateurs are JUST as likely as pros to get brain damage. :deal
as far as i read it, its a combination of statements stating the obivious. like i read it more so as: box enough to get brain damage? then amatures or pros brain damage is just as likely. obiviously if you box enough to get brain damage then your going to have brain damage reguradless if your a pro or an amature. but in the sense that if you compare a pro with 100 matches with an amature with 100 matches the pros chances of having brain damage is absurdly higher.
Iv heard this a few times! Defo feels better without a head guard to me. And it makes sense to me. Also to the person that said gloves , they are designed to protect your hands not your opponents head. Few if any died in bare knuckle era! A bigger surface area and target means get hit more often and more force can be exerted on it. However i dont think the argument either way is proven.
Saw a similar thing with motorcycle helmets once, yes they save your head because they stop it getting completely smashed to bits however the brain injuries are huge as a helmet effectively makes your head alot larger and therefore more force can be acted upon it. Someone did invent a way to significantly reduce they force exerted but putting a secondary silcone skin around the helmet much like the skin around the skull which "slides" and dilutes the amount of force
