Can soft sparring on a weekly basis give you some brain damage?

[WillieWild114]

Can soft sparring on a weekly basis harm you and still increase your chances of getting cte ? Does soft sparring become more dangerous without headgear ?

[BirdSong]

any smack on the head can do damage noone knows how much it takes for each person some get lucky some not lucky at all yeah obviously heavyweight sparring over years is at the top end of the scale for potential damage

[BirdSong]

they say headgear is not great for preventing damage your brain is still getting bounced around the place from shots

[MulaKO]

Can soft sparring on a weekly basis harm you and still increase your chances of getting cte ? Does soft sparring become more dangerous without headgear ?

Think about it ; some people never recover from bumping their heads innocently
In that case , I’d say the probability is yes

[JeBron Lamez]

Can soft sparring on a weekly basis harm you and still increase your chances of getting cte ?

Absolutely.

[CasperUK]

Can getting punched in the head be healthy for you?

[BirdSong]

do a test ba'ng your head off a wall not too hard 50 times a day 3 or 4 days a week and take monthly mri scans and watch carefulkly, do it

cant even say B A N G on this fanny site lol

but i can type fanny

[CubanGuyNYC]

I agree with all the sentiments so far. Having your brain knocked around inside your skull, which is what happens when you get punched in the head — headgear or not — simply isn’t healthy. I used to spar years ago. I’ve thought about doing some “light sparring” myself lately, but I’ve talked myself out of it for all the reasons listed. As someone already said, everyone is different. You don’t know which camp you fall into until it’s too late. If you’re young enough — say, under 40 —and you want to try it out, I’d say go ahead. But unless you have dreams of becoming a professional, I wouldn’t recommend doing much of it.

[ELPacman]

I think everyone is different and that is genetic. You wouldn't really know how well your head can take a punch until it's too late. There are guys that go to absolute war in sparring sessions, even in their actual fights and come out relatively fine after retiring. Then there are others that, if they didn't receive severe brain damage, they got slurred words and whatnot.

Look at Pacquiao. His sparring session footage was absolute wars. His actual fights themselves weren't much different. Yet if you watch him talk today in interviews, he doesn't seem much different at all than let's say 10-15 years ago.

Now look at Mosley. He had absolute wars, I'm not sure about his sparring, but I'd imagine it was probably crazy, and the dude slurs plenty while talking.

Then you wonder how they went through years of punishment and never had a brain bleed when another dude has like 10 fights and ends up leaving as a vegetable if they don't die following a particular bout early on in their career. It could be that either they never got hit hard enough in those first 10 fights, or the padding in the brain wasn't as durable as someone whose had let's say 65 fights (most of them wars) and was still fine (Barrera).

When I say padding, I really mean, there is like less travel space for your brain to move before crashing into the skull. I think the fighters who have less damage have a brain that is right up against the skeletal wall or whatever it is that would prevent it from moving around often. I'm no Dr. so I have no idea what the terminology is called, but I have an idea of what I'm trying to explain. Basically, less brain movements when being hit are better for you and you have to ask, what is it that would prevent the brain from moving around that much when being hit.

[crimsonfalcon07]

If you're doing technical sparring, like Thai sparring, and going to just taps with good control, its not particularly dangerous. Hard sparring with idiots is the big threat. If you have a good gym with people who have the skill to be controlled, you'll likely be ok. If you don't trust your sparring partner, sit the round out. There's a lot of high level MMA guys that won't do any sparring at all, particularly striking. That's much less common in boxing still, and far more common to find guys who go too hard because they let their ego get into it.

Ironically, gloves and head gear can lead to more brain damage than not because people think they're safer. But the point of the gloves is to protect your hands, not your opponent, and the head gear doesn't do much to mitigate your brain bashing against your skull.

I'd be very cautious with it. I still spar, but very carefully and without ego, Thai style. There's a lot fewer Muay Thai fighters with lots of brain damage compared to boxers, even though they're hitting each other with kicks, elbows, and knees, and many of them have hundreds of fights.

You'll also really help yourself by doing neck strengthening exercises. A strong neck and good vision for what you're getting hit by really helps. The really dangerous shots are the ones you didn't see coming.