Love hard sparring - braindamage concerns?

You're probably right, I just feel bored every time we practice technique, because I always get paired up with someone who have lesser skills than me, and I am a southpaw so they get confused and I have to explain everything to them, and barely get a sweat during the class !

what about: spar twice a week, one day lighter, then have an hour of private coaching every few weeks for direction. If you get any concussion symptoms, rest according to medical guidelines.
 
Yeah I'm fairly new to the sport, I've only been training for 2 years, mostly kickboxing. I've only really experienced anything related to my head last week, when I woke up and felt dizzy as hell the day after sparring, besides that it's just the normal bruises spread across the body.
I just love to fight, and wish I had more time to train actual MMA, and not just kickbox twice a week !
lmao I was going to say that even if you weren't concussed or took big hits, those small shots will slowly creep up on you. But it looks like it's creeping up on you already. Watch the movie concussion by Will Smith. It's about football concussion but it's the same thing.

I think you're sparring too hard and too much. I do technical sparring. I see guys sparring at 110% but no technique whatsoever. Or whatever little technique they have goes out the door once the heat is on. Those guys are learning nothing. I see them week after week and it's the same thing.



^That's how you suppose to spar. Speed but light. They're having so much fun. All speed and technique and they can actually control their attacks. If they know they about to land a shot, they pull it just before so it does minimal to no damage. Notice how they're not even wearing any equipment. They're improving much more than hard sparring.

Do your head a favor and leave AKA. You can have fun without going 110%. Those who punch each other hard are people with no control. I go 100% until I land that shot. If you can't control it, don't throw it.
 
Talk to your coach to sign up for events coming up. Other than feeling good, getting involved in gym wars doesn't do any good on the long term.

I hear ya though, good hard sparring is great and gives a wonderful feeling, but if you're getting headaches thats not too good. You do have to remember you have a day job and a family, at the end of the day the coach can say "you're a warrior", but he/she continues on with their lives and if you regress they don't care unless they've been with you since childhood.

I'm the same way, a guy goes hard I return the favor, but communication is key. If he shames you, of course you fire back and make him/her remember, but they're your teammates, most of the time they'll be understanding. Tell them to chill, and work on improving certain things, if not. Well you get a gym war
I really appreciate when you guys write a detailed response like this.! I will talk with my coach about if there are any upcoming events I can sign up for, and try to chill out about the hard sparring. - There is one Russian guy at my gym, who has knocked me down several times, and I always tell him to chill before the round starts, but the sparring with him always escalates towards the end of the round
 
Yes, there are concerns. At the end of the day, what are you getting out of it and how does that affect your future.

IMO, hard sparring is something you do when you're preparing for competition and even still, used sparingly. I do think a gym should run once once every 6 odd months for everyone else because no matter what, it's still a form of self defence. But at the end of the day, no one wins in repeated gym wars.

I suggest you mix it up.
I'm definitely going to chill more out during sparring from now on, and when my daughter gets a little older and I have some more time, I'll start grappling again, and spare some of those braincells I have left lol
 
I'm not talking about PKA Kickboxing. I'm talking about bare knuckle karate with no pads or protective gear save a groin cup and mouthpiece. Specifically what you see in the video below.



The reason I mention this is because in bare knuckle Karate (aka knockdown Karate) you can spar hard quite frequently and not have your brain cells even close to taking the damage that you do now with the way you presently spar because there are no punches to the head and face in our style of sparring. You can kick to the head/face but that doesn't occur nearly as much as being punched in the head as we have in muay Thai and mma sparring. The trade off is that your body will feel it a helluva lot more than how your body feels now.

Like throwing knees to the body and head? We got that. Like throwing leg kicks and f*cking up your opponent's sciatic nerve? We got that too. Depending on the specific school we also have leg sweeps and even Judo throws added to the mix when we spar.

That looks like a lot of fun, but I doubt that we have any bare knuckle karate community in Denmark, but I will definitely talk to some of the guys at my gym about and see if there are events or schools who teach it in Copenhagen
 
That looks like a lot of fun, but I doubt that we have any bare knuckle karate community in Denmark, but I will definitely talk to some of the guys at my gym about and see if there are events or schools who teach it in Copenhagen

You will need to know the names of the many different organizations which practice this style of sparring. Here's one in Copenhagen to start your search:

http://www.ashihara-frederiksberg.dk/

Names you will want to look out for include the following:

Kyokushin Karate or Kyokushinkaikan

KyokushinKan Karate

Shinkyokushin Karate

Seidokaikan Karate (also goes by the spelling Shodokaikan)

Ashihara Karate Kaikan

Enshin Karate

World Oyama Karate

Kyokushin Budokai

Shidokan Karate

Rengokai

Sato Juku

The above named styles/organizations are derived from the late Sosai Oyama's Kyokushin Karate. There is another style which comes from Kyokushin that is called Seido Juku (not to be confused with Seidokaikan already listed). From what I understand this style practices point style sparring for the lower belts and only allow full contact fighting for the higher belts.

There are other styles that are either derivatives or derivatives OF the derivatives but these tend to be smaller localized styles and organizations.

A few styles that do not come directly from Kyokushin but are influenced by it (and thus practice full contact style sparring) are Mumokan Karate (I hope I spelled that correctly), Ryukyukan Karate, Byakuren Karate and Kenshinkan Karate. I'm sure that there are many, many others I fail to list here but thanks to the growing popularity of full contact sparring in Karate new full contact styles crop up on an almost regular basis.
 
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I have to echo what's already been said about sparring lighter. I'm a fan of sparring as frequently as possible, but most of it should be playful and relatively light for whoever is involved. Full power on the pads and bags, light on your team mates and friends :)
 
I'm definitely going to chill more out during sparring from now on, and when my daughter gets a little older and I have some more time, I'll start grappling again, and spare some of those braincells I have left lol


I love hard sparring too. Ive had to cut back on my training the last 2 months, so just go and spar a couple of times a week.

Sometimes we go 60/70% and sometimes full on.

You can drill techniques all you want, but if you have multiple sparring partners, you learn more sparring than in any other situation.

I learn more and improve after every hard sparring session that you dont get by drilling techniques.

Stick to the sparring, just drop the power to 60/70% for some sessions.

Why do boxers/mma fighters train for years but only start to see big improvements after actual full on fights.. its because in fighting (boxing,thai or mma etc) you learn far more by actually being in the situation rather than drilling the techniques.

Most people who discourage you from hard sparring are just pussies who don't like getting hit. You would be suprised how many people like to train until it comes to the time to spar.

I like hard sparring i like getting hit. Do what works for you.
 
Is it affecting you? Typically hard are these sessions? If its intense, fast its fine. But if you feel headaches all the time, have memory issues a week down, then thats a problem.

Everyone handles concussions differently, some can shake it off and continue, others have to hang up the gloves. I'm lucky so far to not have had any despite competing, but a 2 of my teammates have and had to quit the sport for good.

You sound somewhat new to the sport. The way it works is that sparring is where you practice stuff you've been practicing and drilling all week in a live environment; Be it techniques, tactics, etc. The actual fights are saved for well.. the fights themselves. You're going to get brain trauma regardless so its best to have it chipped away where its supposed to be. Whether you're a rocket scientist, or laborer, when upstairs is ruined, you're done. Its like dipping your electronics into water.

Keep the sparring intense, don't drop the speed, but do drop the power. This goes for your partners as well. Real hard sparring has its place, I recommend at most 2-4x in a camp.

I myself HAD these problems of headaches after hard sparring sessions, don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I consider myself a pretty intelligent guy, I have a big head and I'm heavy into literature. I write for a living so I'm pretty much a "nerd", and not necessarily a natural born "jock".

That being said, I managed to continue doing my sport because I've developed a pretty defensive style, and I don't really like leaving myself open to eating hard shots.

I also feel like perhaps this is the best way to train because in a self-defense scenario, the last thing you want to do is eat hard shots.

So I forced myself to become very technical and to learn the sport very well. All in the name of receiving the least amount of shots possible. Also since you're doing kickboxing/Muay Thai, you shouldn't be eating too many shots to the head. I understand that in boxing there's really no way of escaping shots to the head unless of course you're very defensive, and even so you'll still get plenty sneaking in. But in sports like Muay Thai the body gets attacked so much more that it really lessens the amount or headshots being traded by a significant excess.

I come from a boxing background originally, and switched to Muay Thai for that reason.

Also, this is an advantage that grappling does have. That you can do it at 100% and the chances of serious injury (at least brain related) are a lot lower.
 
Also, this is an advantage that grappling does have. That you can do it at 100% and the chances of serious injury (at least brain related) are a lot lower.

I agree that there are far less brain related injuries in grappling than striking. But overall I've been injured way more from grappling than I ever have from striking. But I do get your point.
 
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