Headgear was essentially the worst innovation in boxing history, PERIOD.
Never designed to lessen the impact of blows, it was designed to prevent cuts and swelling.
The superficial damage may decrease, but that doesnt stop the inertia of a punch and the effects it causes.
IMHO, I hate to wear the shit whenever I spar around with friends or the blue moon days when I go to a gym. Especially the "cheek" headgear, which just further limits your overall vision. You simply cannot see hooks coming at you. Jabs and straight punches you can, but not power blows. And it is the punches you dont see that hurt the worst, cus your guard is down and you ain't expecting it.
I mean ffs, look at the last Olympics. Can you really call the majority of those guys elite amateurs? They were getting tagged left and right and ending up wrestling in the clinches. Why? Cus of the damn headgear (that and the current amateur system rules is a complete effing joke). It's pretty bad when world class athletes look like drunken brawlers on a Toughman circuit.
Another thing about headgear---- it gives a false sense of security---- maybe that is why elite amateurs these days look like drunken pub brawlers, because they think they can some how absorb a punch better with the headgear on and just go for broke. That's just senseless. When you got a left or right hook coming at you at 75mph, its common sense 1" of padded foam around your head isnt going to make a damn bit of difference---- besides isnt this a sport where the object is to hit without getting hit yourself? Take some pride in your skills, and put down the headgear and learn to slip.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: ABC said the sport is doomed cus of the rules, etc. I'm here to say that MAYBE if the USA BOXING organisation and others weren't so money hungry needing thousands of dollars to make a club, get amateurs licensed, and no one is making any money off the shit but the ABC and other organisations---- just maybe---- amateur boxing would thrive, if it was made more readily available to the public. Cut the costs and the paperwork in half, and you will have a thriving enterprise. Otherwise, the sport just is an elitist business where only the rich can participate. Long gone are the days of Marciano and Louis and Dempsey where every man, woman and child could be in boxing.
Dangerous statement from AIBA?
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HomicideHenry
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 18722
- Joined: 08 Sep 2005, 00:43
Re: Dangerous statement from AIBA?
Abc boxingscallum wrote:No headgear is gonna lead to more punch drunk fighters imo. Would u rather be hit in head with baseball bat with or without headgear?
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Boxerrealdeal
- Super Middleweight
- Posts: 8
- Joined: 28 Mar 2013, 23:08
Re: Dangerous statement from AIBA?
Another blog post of interest on the subject
http://mddirect.org/2014/07/28/boxing-concussion/
Boxing and Concussion
Monday, July 28, 2014
For most of the amateur boxers at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games this week, something was missing. As they eyed their opponent across the ring, the only protective gear seen was on their fists. The helmets presumably worn to protect their brain were gone, a decision made by the sport’s ruling body, the International Boxing Association. It seems that their unpublished research found that concussion rates go down when boxers do not wear protective head gear. Presumably, wearing head gear allowed fighters to lean into their opponent and take more blows to the head. There is controversy in this decision, with Dr. Charles Butler the chairman of the IBA medical commission and the president of USA Boxing supporting his unpublished research, while others in the medical community believing that the IBA has made an error in removing head gear from the boxers.
The purpose of helmets in sport has been blurred somewhat and understanding anatomy may help explain some of the controversy that boxing has invited upon itself. The brain sits within the skull, but it is not a tight fit. When the head is hit, there is a slight delay between skull and brain acceleration, allowing the brain to move within the skull and bounce back and forth against the inner bony walls of the skull. A direct blow to the head is not necessary to cause damage; the head being shaken is enough to rattle the brain. The helmet is meant to prevent skull fractures, facial fractures and lacerations. These injuries can be associated with intracranial bleeding (bleeding within the skull) like subdural and epidural hematomas. The helmet however, does not prevent the concussion type injuries where the brain is shaken and there is no obvious outward damage. Even CT scanning of a concussed brain may be structurally normal. It may take imaging with special MRI or PET scan to show brain damage on a function level. For that reason concussion is a clinical diagnosis.
Loss of consciousness is not required to make the diagnosis of a concussion and the initial symptoms may be very short lived. The longer term consequences may take hours or longer to show themselves and headache, concentration and balance problems may take weeks or more to resolve. On the football field, there are teammates and coaches who can assess the mental status of a potentially concussed player, but in the boxing ring, there may be a delay in recognizing the injury. In football, soccer, basketball and other team sports, a concussion assessment takes many minutes on the sideline before the decision is made to return to play. When a boxer is knocked down, there may be only a few seconds taken by the referee.
In boxing, the head is the target for most blows. As in football and baseball, the helmet is meant to prevent broken bones (fractures), but present technology does not prevent the brain from being shaken within the skull. The removal of headgear may make boxers more wary and change the style of the sport, but the goal for winning remains the same, to inflict a concussion upon your opponent. It seems difficult to understand the position of the IBA medical commission that boxing’s goal will be altered by removing protective gear. The sport has given us the term dementia pugilistica, being punch drunk, likely the equivalent brain injury of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football due to repeated blows to the head.
Perhaps after these Commonwealth Games and the Rio Olympics, the IBA will have more data to show that arbitrarily removing a piece of safety equipment was the way to go. While head gear may not prevent concussions, they will decrease the risk of facial fractures and lacerations, especially around the eye. It might have been wiser to have the IBA and Dr. Butler’s research and data published and allow the scientific community the opportunity to make its own recommendations, but it seems unreasonable that amateur boxers be used as guinea pigs while the answer is yet unknown.
http://mddirect.org/2014/07/28/boxing-concussion/
Boxing and Concussion
Monday, July 28, 2014
For most of the amateur boxers at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games this week, something was missing. As they eyed their opponent across the ring, the only protective gear seen was on their fists. The helmets presumably worn to protect their brain were gone, a decision made by the sport’s ruling body, the International Boxing Association. It seems that their unpublished research found that concussion rates go down when boxers do not wear protective head gear. Presumably, wearing head gear allowed fighters to lean into their opponent and take more blows to the head. There is controversy in this decision, with Dr. Charles Butler the chairman of the IBA medical commission and the president of USA Boxing supporting his unpublished research, while others in the medical community believing that the IBA has made an error in removing head gear from the boxers.
The purpose of helmets in sport has been blurred somewhat and understanding anatomy may help explain some of the controversy that boxing has invited upon itself. The brain sits within the skull, but it is not a tight fit. When the head is hit, there is a slight delay between skull and brain acceleration, allowing the brain to move within the skull and bounce back and forth against the inner bony walls of the skull. A direct blow to the head is not necessary to cause damage; the head being shaken is enough to rattle the brain. The helmet is meant to prevent skull fractures, facial fractures and lacerations. These injuries can be associated with intracranial bleeding (bleeding within the skull) like subdural and epidural hematomas. The helmet however, does not prevent the concussion type injuries where the brain is shaken and there is no obvious outward damage. Even CT scanning of a concussed brain may be structurally normal. It may take imaging with special MRI or PET scan to show brain damage on a function level. For that reason concussion is a clinical diagnosis.
Loss of consciousness is not required to make the diagnosis of a concussion and the initial symptoms may be very short lived. The longer term consequences may take hours or longer to show themselves and headache, concentration and balance problems may take weeks or more to resolve. On the football field, there are teammates and coaches who can assess the mental status of a potentially concussed player, but in the boxing ring, there may be a delay in recognizing the injury. In football, soccer, basketball and other team sports, a concussion assessment takes many minutes on the sideline before the decision is made to return to play. When a boxer is knocked down, there may be only a few seconds taken by the referee.
In boxing, the head is the target for most blows. As in football and baseball, the helmet is meant to prevent broken bones (fractures), but present technology does not prevent the brain from being shaken within the skull. The removal of headgear may make boxers more wary and change the style of the sport, but the goal for winning remains the same, to inflict a concussion upon your opponent. It seems difficult to understand the position of the IBA medical commission that boxing’s goal will be altered by removing protective gear. The sport has given us the term dementia pugilistica, being punch drunk, likely the equivalent brain injury of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in football due to repeated blows to the head.
Perhaps after these Commonwealth Games and the Rio Olympics, the IBA will have more data to show that arbitrarily removing a piece of safety equipment was the way to go. While head gear may not prevent concussions, they will decrease the risk of facial fractures and lacerations, especially around the eye. It might have been wiser to have the IBA and Dr. Butler’s research and data published and allow the scientific community the opportunity to make its own recommendations, but it seems unreasonable that amateur boxers be used as guinea pigs while the answer is yet unknown.
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Boxerrealdeal
- Super Middleweight
- Posts: 8
- Joined: 28 Mar 2013, 23:08
Re: Dangerous statement from AIBA?
A coach in Canada put up a online survey on use of headgear. Gives information on Charles Butler's report commissioned by AIBA. Excellent points by point analysis.
http://goo.gl/forms/BvDWBBXWi5
http://www.centrechatbleu.com/competiti ... alysis.pdf
http://goo.gl/forms/BvDWBBXWi5
http://www.centrechatbleu.com/competiti ... alysis.pdf