Right, so for the 4th of 5th time in 3 years I have ruptured/torn my eardrum in sparring and it's becoming a real ball ache. This seems to happen to me easily, I had many ear infections when I was little so I know I have quite sensitive ears. Basically, each time it has happened, I have worn headguard and I dont think my opponent's punch necessarily has been that hard. I think it happens because of the pressure that is created when the ear is covered and uncovered quickly form the punch, if you understand what I mean. Once it happened outside of sparring when someone slapped me over the ear, I remember now. Anyway, it doesn't really hurt. It's more like a weird sensation, similar to a blocked ear, but I know the eardrum has been perforated cause when I hold my nose and close my mouth and clear my ears from pressure I can hear the air going through my eardrum and out. Ok so it's not painful and it hasn't effected my balance at all so far. I'm gonna go to the doctor so I'm not here to get medical advice, that would be silly, I just wanted to hear if someone else have experienced these problems? I don't think it's that uncommon, does anyone have any tips on how to prevent this from happening? Someone told me in a gym I sparred in once that I can use an earplug in the ear that this usually happens to (I think it's been my right ear every single time), has anyone tried this? I also thought about using ear protection like wrestlers do, can I have these under my headguard or are they too big? Any help, advice, suggestions are welcome because I don't want to cancel any fights because of this, especially when it's not painful and is not really affecting my boxing ability. It's just really annoying!!! Cheers
I never had a fully ruptured ear drum, but had my ears popped several times in one year (punched squarely causing me to lose partial hearing for a few days). I figured enough is enough, u can only take so much until the damage becomes permanent. So i bought a head guard with a strap that runs across the ear hole. My previous one just had a donut around the ear, which does absolutely NOTHING to protect the ear - I have no idea why these types of head gear exist. Since then, been using my current headgear for about 10 months, and haven't had a single occurence. I use a rival RHG 2. One of their lower end, more affordable head gear and it's 100% better. I think the types that actually have a raised/padded bar across the ear (rather than a flat strip) might be even better for this problem - but I have no experience with those. I thought about using an ear plug before, but I don't think that will help - because it can still force a burst of air pressure with a punch. Again, I have no experience with this, but I seriously doubt this would help. In fact, it could make it worse, because it TRAPS the air in the ear, creating a constant air-pocket to be present 100% of the time - exactly what you are trying to avoid in the first place. I also thought about the wrestling guard idea. Again, never actually tried it. Honestly, the best solution IMO is just to invest in a pair of headgear that has a bar or strap across the ear.
Cheers for this mate, yeah well I'm kind of feeling the same, enough is enough and this can't be good for the ear. When you say "popped", do you mean you might have had a little hole in the eardrum? In that case it's basically the same thing as me, I know it has been perforated but the hole is probably only small. Yeah a new headguard is probably what I need. I use rival gloves now and I'm very happy with them and the headgear seems to have received rave reviews as well. And I'm not very keen omn the idea of putting stuff inside my ear such as ear plugs, they are sensitive as it is and I can't even use plug in earphones without feeling I might get an ear infection. I think every time it has happened I have either worn no headgear or a **** one that they have in the gym. I'm sparring twice a week so it's kind of silly not investing in decent headgear for myself now that I think of it! Many thanks for taking your time to reply!
