A few weeks ago, I suffered a nasty concussion while sparring. I spoke to my doctor, and he STRONGLY advised me to give up training or risk suffering permanent brain damage.
My question, what can I do? I absolutely love boxing, and I enjoy sparring, but I don't want to risk brain damage. Should I just hit the bags? Is sparring only to the body a worthwhile endeavor? I don't know, looking for any sort of ideas here. Thanks.
A few weeks ago, I suffered a nasty concussion while sparring.
I spoke to my doctor, and he STRONGLY advised me to give up training or risk suffering permanent brain damage.
My question, what can I do?
I absolutely love boxing, and I enjoy sparring, but I don't want to risk brain damage.
Should I just hit the bags?
Is sparring only to the body a worthwhile endeavor?
I don't know, looking for any sort of ideas here.
Don't be foolish do what your doctor said.
I took what you said to mean that he told you not to spar for a few months.
Often when a fighter suffers a bad concussion he's usually advised to rest for a two or three months and to have no fights and that would include sparring too.
If you haven't already done so ask your doctor what you can and can't do as for training.
But obviously, sparring and taking punches you should not do.
Of course, if the medical community had their way boxing would have been banned a long time ago.
The medical community has long since been an anti boxing lobby.
If you question your doctor's advice get a second opinion and go see a different doctor.
But until you do, or if you do don't be foolish, do what your doctor advised you to do.
It may be that you'll only have to lay off training for a couple of months or few months is all.
And you'll want to see your doctor again also before you start back again.
JCC
__________________ "The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."
id get a second opinion because maybe the doctor thinks boxing is a bit taboo. concusions happen in boxing all the time as long as there is no lasting damage you should be ok to fight. but get checked by another doc first though.
Thanks everyone, I'm going to speak with my doctor again. See if we can work out something.
I've come to be curious about you. Tell me how long you been boxing? And also your age? And something about your height and weight? When? and why you came to have interest in boxing?
Also something about how you train? And how many fights you've had? (not talking about sparring, but in competition)
JJC
__________________ "The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."
This will be a long post, so I apologize in advance.
I'm 32, 5'11 and about 210 or so.
I stumbled onto boxing a couple of years ago through karate. I really enjoyed the practicality of boxing vs. the esoteric and non physical karate that I was training in. After I discovered my gym, I was hooked.
For the first year and a half, my boxing training was through my local park and rec center, and it was pretty much hitting the bags with supervision from the local trainer. I sparred once in awhile, but not very often at all, and when I did it was often strictly to the body. In addition, my gym closes down in the summertime, and during that time I take that opportunity to go back and train in other martial arts (usually judo, but sometimes I switch it up with karate).
This past fall, I decided to get a little more serious about my training and upgraded my gym. Alot more supervision was involved, but still limited to no sparring. After 3 months, I decided that I really wanted to have an amateur fight or two (you can probably see that in one of my earlier posts), so I started to spar. Shortly thereafter, I received this concussion.
Afterwards, getting nervous about what my doctor said and fearing losing my livelihood and not being able to support my family; I went back to judo full time. I figured it wasn't ideal, but it would be safer on my head. I still wanted to train in boxing, so I decided just to shadow box (again, you can find a question about shadow boxing from an earlier post).
But after a month and a half or so, I just really missed going to the gym. Hence, my last post about advice on training.
I don't plan on having any amateur fights, but I would like to hit the gym again and maybe spar in a very limited fashion. Once again, I need to speak with my physician prior to that.
I hope that answers any questions. Thanks again for your help JCC (on this thread and my others as well). I do appreciate it.
Logan, (if allowed by your doctor) I would recommend to you at this time to devote a full hour a day (I mean every day, daily) to a workout that consists of hard (intense) calisthenics, stretching and resistence (without use of weights) every day.
Tell me just exactly how this concussion came about in sparring?
Were you wearing protective head gear at the time it happened?
Were the larger training gloves used in sparring?
Was your sparring partner by far more experienced than you?
Concussions in sparring are rare. Sparring is sparring. Sparring is training, practicing, not fighting usually, not a contest.
Do your roadwork (running) in the mornings, and go for long walks in the evenings. And other than the calisthenics, stretching and resistence exercises earlier mentioned. This is all the training that I'd recommend to you bascially at this time. This is bascially just to strenghten your body, and to build your stamina.
I'd like to hear more about how you received this concussion sparring.
JJC
__________________ "The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."
When I started going to the new gym, I met up with another older gentleman like myself who was interested in sparring. Like me, he had sparred some before, but not alot.
We sparred under the supervision of the trainer for 3 - 2 minute rounds using headgear and I'm guessing 16 oz. gloves (mine were 16, I believe his were 16 as well)
Initially we were supposed to be going light, and I had asked we maybe just work the jab. I saw him start to throw some pretty hard rights, so I followed suit (probably not the smartest thing, but I can't change that now).
The first round went OK, but I think it may have been in the second or third where he really tagged me with a shot. I didn't get KO'd, but I did see stars. I thought nothing of it, and kept on going.
On the drive home, I had a nasty headache. The headache lasted all night even though I took some Tylenol. When I woke up in the morning, the headache was still there, and I also had this weird sensation like my brain was on fire (don't know how else to describe it). That lasted all day. After that went away, I was nauseous and really couldn't eat anything that night and the following morning. When I went to my doctor the following day, he explained to me that I had sustained a concussion and strongly advised me to find another interest.
Logan, for a guy to be in his thirties out there just getting started in boxing and to box in the amateur ranks in competition in the golden gloves or something like that is really kind of old getting started.
Boxing is a young man's sport, however. As for not to enter competition and just to workout and to learn how to box that's a diferent thing. I see nothing wrong with that at all. It will get you in shape and its a great confidence and fitness builder.
But it should be under the supervision of an experienced trainer (someone who has much experience in boxing and who had been a boxer).
As for sparring you don't want to be out there over matched and to spar with somebody that is stronger and is going to try to kill you.
Sparring is training, not fighting.
When I was boxing amateur I sparred with guys in the professional ranks that were by far better boxers and I never had one to ever try to hurt me and to turn it into a real fight.
Nor, did I have that happen in sparring with open-class (very experienced boxers) in the amateur ranks either. I had been an open-class fighter too.
Really it only happen by some of those just getting started boxing and are in the novice ranks that will get out there sparring and to treat it like to real fight.
Either that or some big bully type guy, who has little or no boxing experince at all to come to the gym to show off how tough he thinks he is by picking out some kid that don't know much to get out there and to spar and to beat the hell out of him.
I'd seen that happen a few times before. And whenever it did, usually a trainer would pick one of the more experienced boys and to put him in the ring to spar with him and to give him a royal butt-kick and that would usually be the end of that.
Take some months to heal and get out there and get yourself in really good shape before you start sparring again, and chose only guys that aren't going to get out there and to try to kill you sparring that may be too strong for you to handle.
Sparring is not dangerous if your in shape and not over matched and to be out the with somebody that's going to treat sparring as something other than what's it intended to be training, and not a real fight.
I think you just got the wrong kind of guy as sparring partner that day that hurt you is all.
I was in the open-class ranks in boxing and had won regional and state titles as a middleweight and later as a light heavyweight (there was only eight weight divisions when I boxed in the late 1960s and early 1970s) and I had won more than half my fights by knockouts. But I had never hurt any body serious sparring. I just use that as an example to just try to get my point across is all.
Take more months to heal, but just be more careful who you spar with next time. Maybe next time to spar with some more experienced guy who isn't going to treat sparring like a real fight that is going to try to hurt you.
Often at times even in a contest its only the guys in the amateur ranks that get serious hurt in the ring in fights in the when that has happened it was because he fought a by far less a opponent in many cases it was a mismatch.
In mismatches I had even known guys to get their jaws broke.
But in contests in which the fighters are more evenly matched its rare to ever see any serious injuries.
But I can understand your doctor telling you to find other intersts.
You just need to be in shape and not have the wrong kind of sparring partners that's all especially so until you gain more boxing experience.
Of course, I wasn't there and didn't see you sparring with the guy, but I tend to think it may had been the fault of the trainer. When he saw you were hurt if he saw it. He should have called time out! And stepped in when he saw the guy was getting serious and that you had been hurt.
It may had been the trainers fault!
JJC
__________________ "The more I sweated in the gym, the less I bleed in the ring."
I did realize that 32 was probably a little old, but after going to the gym for awhile I was eager to see how well I would do in a fight. Maybe it's an early mid life crisis too
My trainer from that gym is considered to be real good, so I'm hesitant to point a finger at him. He probably didn't see it. In hindsight, I should have just spoken up and asked to slow it down a bit when things were getting out of hand. I guess my ego got in the way
I think I'm just going to have to be content with just practicing on the bags and really focusing on form, and maybe in a month or two (with my physician's approval) move on to some light sparring.
Training after a bad concussion
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