In your analogy you are deciding whether the shell of an egg would crack on contact; that would be like asking if the skull is cracked by a punch. The correct question to ask is whether on impact the yoke inside the egg slams up against the side of the shell, then you would have a proper analogy.BoxBuzz wrote:Kalan wrote:You're misquoting me APerno... I never said anything about Duran being a great absorber.. or Chavez.. Neither got hit as much as Bowe and that's part of the reason they didn't fare that badly.. I also think the crap about headgrear is nonsense..APerno wrote:
I would go with JC Chevaz as well as Duran in that category.
There is of late a (medical) argument that the use of headgear and big training gloves, by allowing fighters to absorb many lesser blows over a long period of time (decades), has done more damage to fighters' brains than the limited numbers of big blows suffered in real fights, (with small gloves and no headgear.)
Whereas everyone today (finally) agrees that big blows (concussions) cause damage by tearing neurons, there is a new argument that claims even the smallest of blows to the head cause these neurons, not to tear, but instead stretch. This constant stretching (over decades) causes damage deep inside the brain, and eventually leads to permanent damage. This has caused a new anti-sparing (not ant-fighting) argument to rise.
Ironically (if this is true) the thing we used to keep us safe (headgear and big gloves) was just the right thing to insure a fighter could realistically absorb, over the course of a sparing day, two hundred punches, and not feel the impact for a decade. - It's almost a surprise the head gear wasn't also made of asbestos.
What really saves a boxer's brain is defense.. I never let a kid spar unless he had at least 2 months in the gym and unless he's learned how to block, parry, slip, duck, and roll punches with a fair amount of expertise, and could fire counters on the mitts sharply, accurately, smoothly, with decent power and leverage. The first time a kid spars he should look like he's been boxing for a while because real punches are coming at him. Right after sparring you go right to shadow boxing and the mitts to make corrections.. Defense isn't stressed enough in boxing.. Boxing is the art of self defense more than it's anything else.
On one hand I agree with you......defense defense defense and safety first! If that's the way you train your fellas, then I'm here to take back half of the bad things I have ever said about you.
On the other hand....you don't know the difference between your dork and a tube of toothpaste when it comes to head injury, (though it's easy to see that you often work at exploring and perhaps grasping the understanding.) Head gear DOES help, and it should be used at all times.....and they should be fashioning it more and more out of Temperpedic material. You can throw an egg as hard as you can into temperpedic material, and you can't break the egg.....works the same on the noggin. If your boxing.....get it today....fashion it yourself if you have to. Easy on the hands as well, I'm hoping that they start using it on heavy bags.....maybe even sparring gloves. Although the gloves could be a problem if you panic or flinch at the difference in the feel vs a real fight/real glove situation...it would need to be managed well.
This video is not directly related to boxing but the argument carries. It is entitled Why helmets don't protect against concussions. You really should take a look, so we don't have to carry your archaic ass into the 21st century, you can walk in on your own. (I threw that in for the toothpaste remark.)
Headgear and big gloves allow you take many more punches you wouldn't have taken without the protective gear; in the end the sheer number of punches alone is hurting fighters - they don't have to be big punches - headgear is done; kaput - obsolete - in the long term not good for fighters.
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_camaril ... what_might
