Olympic Boxing drops headguards and changes scoring system

[sensei8]

I boxed for a few years as a youth...headgear is of limited use.

For one the face is open...the 2nd worst shot to the head is the one that hits your squarely on the nose. White stars come out! The worst blow to the head is the hook to the jaw. That is a knockout blow and the helmet does very little to change that. The parts of the helmet where the padding is thickest just so happen to be the strongest parts of the skull. So?

Another bad thing about the helmets is the constant sweat in the eyes and lack of peripheral vision. The great fighters use peripheral vision...a lot.

Wow...is headgear going by the wayside for good? I think that it's dangerous for the amateur division, especially for children, imho. Head injuries are a serious thing, and they shouldn't be taken lightly by any governing body.

[DWx]

I boxed for a few years as a youth...headgear is of limited use.

For one the face is open...the 2nd worst shot to the head is the one that hits your squarely on the nose. White stars come out! The worst blow to the head is the hook to the jaw. That is a knockout blow and the helmet does very little to change that. The parts of the helmet where the padding is thickest just so happen to be the strongest parts of the skull. So?

Another bad thing about the helmets is the constant sweat in the eyes and lack of peripheral vision. The great fighters use peripheral vision...a lot.

Wow...is headgear going by the wayside for good? I think that it's dangerous for the amateur division, especially for children, imho. Head injuries are a serious thing, and they shouldn't be taken lightly by any governing body.

I'm in agreement with Adam. From personal experience I think the negatives far outweigh the positives on headguards. They dull your senses; you can't see as well, you can't hear as well. You feel hot and sweaty in them and it's all round a bit uncomfortable. They're also of limited use when the face isn't covered as a lot of hard shots come in to the jaw or full face. And the type that some people wear with the plastic face part just seems dangerous to me. One hard shot and you've got cracked plastic cm away from your eyes.

The only time we absolutely insist that kids wear them (and suggest that adults might want to) is if we are sparring on non-matted floor. In those situations they are of more use as they protect the head if you get knocked over.

[tallgeese]

I'm glad to see it as well. It's an example of the sport following where science is leading not just doing something because it's been done that way. Having had the opportunity to train with boxers in college I can say the points everyone make against headgear seem pretty valid.

I agree that it seems to me that they should have been pulled from the women's divisions as well. Perception should never be a reason to do or fail to do, safety protocol. Follow the science.

[bushido_man96]

I agree with the removal of the safety gear. If it isn't helping, then get it out of the way.

[DWx]

So the Commonwealth Games are on this week in Glasgow. Quite a bit of boxing already underway and they've opted to remove headguards from the rules. Anyone have any thoughts so far? Seeing any noticeable changes in style?

Interesting statistic I read on BBC today:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/commonwealth-games/28348644

...the amateur boxing board looked at 15,000 boxers, half of whom had competed with headgear and half without. They found that in the 7,352 rounds that took place with boxers wearing headgear, the rate of concussion was 0.38%, compared with 0.17% per boxer per round in the 7,545 rounds without headgear.

[bushido_man96]

Interesting fact. I think that wearing the headgear, although perhaps preventing a knockout, probably leads to concussions just because they get hit in the head more over a longer period of time.

[DWx]

Interesting fact. I think that wearing the headgear, although perhaps preventing a knockout, probably leads to concussions just because they get hit in the head more over a longer period of time.

I think that was the conclusion of the study I read to do with this. The fact that with head gear on it takes the edge off slightly so that you can end up taking more sub-concussion shots which have a cumulative effect which was worse that taking one shot and getting KO'd.

I will say from watching the boxing at the Glasgow games, there were a lot more faces getting cut up.

Interestingly enough, as with the IOC ruling, in the Commonwealth Games they still made women wear the head guards.

Looks like they're sticking with the no head guard rule: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11303273

[SteffiCurdy]

I boxed for a few years as a youth...headgear is of limited use.

For one the face is open...the 2nd worst shot to the head is the one that hits your squarely on the nose. White stars come out! The worst blow to the head is the hook to the jaw. That is a knockout blow and the helmet does very little to change that. The parts of the helmet where the padding is thickest just so happen to be the strongest parts of the skull. So?

Another bad thing about the helmets is the constant sweat in the eyes and lack of peripheral vision. The great fighters use peripheral vision...a lot.

ya i agree with you

[sensei8]

Imho...LEAVE THE HEADGEAR ON!!

Concussions and the like are nothing to sneeze at. Even the NFL is looking at improving the helmet to reduce the number of concussions that infect that sport.