My boyfriend has, sigh, found us a new hobby. (We are too much alike in this regard - we’re professional dilettantes. We had to build a garage to hold our ex-projects.) His dad was Golden Gloves in the navy and used to teach him boxing when he was a kid, and he wants to get back into it (and of course he wants me to do it, too.) So I came home today to find a heavy bag in the garage and I don’t remember asking for a boxing lesson but it seems like I got one. Actually, it seems like a good workout to do with my running, and it would make him run with me like I’ve been trying to get him to do for ages.
But my question is, if he doesn’t just do it for fitness and he fights people (and isn’t somebody hitting back, like, half of boxing? Why would people do it and not get in the ring? I never understood that) is it dangerous? I assume amateurs wear head protection? (Why don’t pros?) Even ignoring brain damage, how often do you, say, get your nose broken? 'Cause I ain’t doing it if I gotta get my nose broken.
And what are the chances we live somewhere where a woman can get real boxing instruction and practice? If I get into it, I’m not going to want to just “do it for fitness” - there’s a lot of things you can do for fitness if you want, I don’t see the point of boxing if you don’t intend to fight. But in places like, say, Columbia South Carolina, how many women are serious enough about it to make it worthwhile? Is there a huge community of women boxers that I’m just unaware of? (Possible, of course.)
It’s a full contact sport. So, yeah, there’s some danger involved. For example it’s possible to break your wrist while working the heavy bag if you don’t do it properly. Then of course when you’re actually boxing another opponent there’s the possibility of contusions, and, though less likely, more serious injuries like broken noses, concussion, or bruised/broken ribs.
Go in there with the assumption that you’re going to get hurt if you box other people. Hopefully whatever organization you’re with will make sure that you are not paired off against someone that will mop the floor with you in a match. It’s pretty unsafe to go against someone that can overwhelm you without difficulty on their part.
But compare it to, I dunno, taking tae kwan do or judo or some other sport with sparring. More dangerous?
I mean, technically if you run, it’s dangerous to run. You can have a heart attack or get hit by a car. However, overall it improves your healthy life expectancy in the long run, even though the actual hours you spend on the road are more dangerous than equivalent time on your couch. Same thing?
Maybe it’s just me but it just seems like an unnecessary risk to take for a physical hobby. Anything else that requires head protection is there for the occassional/accidental blow to the head. Boxing is purposeful repeated blows to the head. And the whole jarring my brain inside my skull over and over is not very appealing.
IANA Sports Doctor, but I once dated a professional boxer.
Most martial artists will tell you that the’d never get into the ring with a boxer. Boxers hit too hard, and the majority of their hits are to the head. It’s a very dangerous sport, and differently dangerous.
The long term effects of a sprained ankle are, at worst, a limp for the rest of your life. And that’s only if you don’t follow the phys-therapists instructions. Most martial artists will eventually suffer a broken limb (so I’ve heard, it’s not my world) and several deep contusions ont heir arms and midsection.
The long term effects of a concussion: you may never be the same person again.
You can suffer mild effects for a long time without realizing it. The cumulative damage of those hits - without necessarily feeling a “concussion” - can be devastating. No one can trace the “one hit” that caused Mr. Ali’s shaking hands. It’s all those hits, even the “softer” ones that do you in.
There is also the fallacy of the padding. When people are practising, they wear head gear to soften the blows. This is useful only in that it protects the epidermis, and lowers the visual bruises and bumps. Your brain, however, is a soft organ, sloshing in liquid inside a very hard circle of bone. Every one of those hits sends a shock wave through that tissue, and sends it careening into the bone on the opposite side.
How many IQ points are you willing to give up for boxing? It’s not a sport for dilettantes, as you put it, it’s sport for those who absolutely love it and have no wish to do anything else with their lives.
If you just work out and hit the bags, you’re safe enough; when you start serious sparring and competing you can —and quite probably will— get hurt.
I boxed Silver Gloves (from 13-15) as a kid (and briefly Golden Gloves when I turned 16). We had to wear headgear and white stripe gloves, and I was fighting kids that were just as scrawny as myself. Now I’m 44; I have a hump in my nose from having it broken (twice!), and a couple of numb places on my face where the nerves were damaged. My neck was injured at one point, so my head sits at a slight, barely noticable, angle.
Most of the more dire concerns about boxing like pugilisic dementia and Parkinson’s come from the professional level (and they’re quite real at that level), but the difference between professional and amateur boxing is comparable to the difference between dragster racing and go karts. That’s not to say that it’s danger free, but there’s a great deal of concern for the safety of competitors and steps taken at the amateur level to minimize serious injury. Head gear is mandatory for amateurs, and while it can’t do away with injury altogether it does a pretty good job of minimizing concussive force. See, e.g., Effectiveness of Boxing Headgear at Limiting Injury.
One of my favorite sayings about football is from Vince Lombardi (or maybe Duffy Daugherty): “Football isn’t a contact sport; it’s a collision sport. Dancing is a contact sport.” High school football can be deadly: four kids died as a direct result of football injuries in 2007 and four more were seriously injured, but that’s out of over a million kids playing. My uncle has a lifelong crippling ankle injury from high school football 40 plus years ago, but most people wouldn’t refuse to let their kid play football because of the possibility of such an injury. If you play football you’ll probably get injured, but you’ll also probably recover and take more away from the experience than you had to sacrifice to it. Same with amateur boxing. If you have a long career as a professional there are some very serious risks to consider, but amateur boxing (although it’s not for everyone) can be a moderately safe sport.
Boxing is a collision sport in which the focus of the force is on the head and neck. A successful outcome is a clean hit on the head, and rendering the opponent unconscious is a bonus. It is extremely dangerous, as you only get one brain, and you cannot ice or otherwise “fix” the brain once it is injured. Concussions are common in boxing, and the cumulative effects of multiple sub-concussive blows is not yet known. Read Head Games by Chris Nowinski, which is about the effects of multiple concussions, and integrates a tremendous amount of concussion literature in words the general public can understand.
I saw a newspaper front page from the late 30’s at work a few weeks ago which proclaimed in huge letters “NO HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL FATALITIES IN NATION THIS YEAR”. Like, it was really a notable occurrence.
Back in the first half of the 20th century, it was! Football used to be much deadlier than it is now - in 1905, the Chicago Tribune said 73 players died that year: 18 college (with 154 more seriously injured), 46 high school and nine in semi pro. Reporting was spotty back then and the numbers may or may not be trustworthy, but enough colleges dropped their football programs that the sport would have disappeared if some major rule changes hadn’t taken place.
The danger level depends on what part of the sport you focus on and practice, how hard and competitively you practice, and how good your instruction is. You could get some proper instruction on hand wrapping and technique, and spend the next 30 years hitting bags and shadow boxing and never get a scratch. You’d be terrible if you then tried to box someone who actually does do serious sparring, but you could still get good exercise “boxing” alone.
The sport and the movements themselves aren’t dangerous, it’s the competition that gets you hurt. You can box someone you know/trust at a minimal level and suffer no more than mild embarassement and the odd bruise. Again, you won’t ever get very good at it, but you can still do all the moves and compete at a safe level.
If you want to start progressing and be able to beat other boxers, or even do some amateur fights, it’ll get rough and you’ll probably start accumulating some real injuries and become more familiar with your family doctor. That’s where most people make the choice and either take the injuries or tone their ambition back (or quit and find a new sport).
A lot of other martial arts are even more dangerous in terms of the techniques and movements they use. Judo for instance is basically throwing people to the ground and bending their limbs around. Getting tossed or swept and falling on your face or with your elbow locked is worse than taking a hook to the temple. Some of the striking arts that practice non-contact point sparring can get you busted up too. These arts will teach you how to hit hard, but due to the non-contact philosophy, you don’t really learn how to deal with getting hit and hence don’t devellop proper defensive timing/distance and recovery. I’ve seen several broken noses at non-contact point-sparring tournaments, all of them accidental but very real and embarrasing.
I’d rate boxing as medium to serious for injury potential if you actually get in the ring and try to beat various opponents you don’t know; low to medium if you just hit the bags and practice a few pitter-patter rounds with a decent coach or training partner. Go light, don’t try to convince yourself you’re a real boxer, and you should be OK.
Although I agree with the rest of what you post, I do not agree on that paragraph. I have practiced Judo and a couple of other non-full-contact combat sports, and there is a lot of difference between that and the full-contact ones, including boxing.
First, Judo is basically a defensive sport, and even competitions tend to be quite soft to the competitors. True, you can sprain an ankle, you can get your arm broken and things of the same sort, but you have to have a very strong and skilled opponent with no regard for the rules of the game… or very very bad luck. The very first thing, after all, that is taught in Judo is how to fall.
With the non-contact competitions, it is not a matter of not developing the proper defensive techniques, but a matter of trusting on the control and technique of your adversary for the competition. Of course accidents still happen, but in those accidents usually is the competitor that does give the accidental blow the one that gets a mark down. Non-contact martial arts usually teach you not just how to hit hard, but also how to keep control of that strength to avoid injuring your adversary. IMHO a much better lesson than just “hit it with everything you’ve got”.
Still, an accidental broken nose or a sprained ankle are arguably much less dangerous than a hook to the temple, because of all the reasons pointed out by other in the posts above.
Actually, it seems like a good workout to do with my running, and it would make him run with me like I’ve been trying to get him to do for ages.