MMA, Krav Maga, Traditional Martial Arts And My Philosophy Of Martial Arts

Well speaking about actual impact MMA gloves are much better than boxing gloves. The difference in the amount of force transmitted by both is essentially negligible. Padding provides protection against lacerations and fractures of the face which increases the amount of hits you can take before a fight is stopped. (If someone can find the research on this whose source I have forgotten I would be immensely grateful)

This leads to another key difference. A boxing match is stopped when a participant is unconscious due to strikes (which take less time) or chokes (with little to no affect on the brain 99% of the time), tap out due to submission, or inability to intelligently defend oneself. The last one is of paramount importance as a fighter being struck may not be unconscious but recieve more damage for that. The ability to end a contest based on observed positional and striking superiority is a key factor to me in the reduction of brain injuries. It may lead to some bad calls but better fihgter safety overall. Add in those other methods of victory and you have the makings of less people with brain damage.

 

You can't get good without getting hit - pressure doesn't mean sparring and getting walloped; it means consequences to failure

 

also fighting till you're bouncing a limp body/skull and no further kind of makes sense if you were to translate it to "T3H 5TR33TZ" and all that mythically dangerous sharp ground

 

i always got the impression that when it came to head trauma the progression in severity was along the lines of rugby<mma<kickboxing<boxing<pro wrestling<american football

 

Pro wrestling is right up there and in terms of overall injury beats everything else without even trying

 

Yeah, particularly with their schedule, i read somewhere at the highest levels they are on the mat 200-300 nights a year, injury be damned.

 

i honestly think that american football might be skewed from the very well studied genetic factors resulting in excess clotting, sickle cell and other issues in black americans with west african heritage.

 

Yup. Plus the match finishes and the show must go unless you are literally insensible or incapable

 

To be honest, i think the worst part for american football is all the padding, and worst still the helmets, i mean, looking at rugby, it's a rough sport, but no one is covered in hardened shell, using their head as a point of contact in a tackle.

 

Zaad, the difficult thing about your comment re ethnic background is whether or not there is any connection between the factors you mention and the injuries sustained. I know that , as previously mentioned , that tao protein formation and related chemical changes in the brain may have nothing to do with vascular issues. If this is more of a poor reaction of the brain to impact then what needs to be found out is how to screen for this type of susceptibility.

Interestingly enough I have a patient who used to work for the National Institute of Health In Bethesday Maryland who is involved in this sort of research here in the UK. And we were discussing some of the research in this area only last week!! :' )

Another interesting but unrelated point : I found it interesting last year when they found a compound that changed how the brain systemically reacted to Parkinsons. Dementia and Alzheimer's .... in that the compound stopped the brain's over reaction to whatever initiated these conditions rather than the conditions themselves. Unfortunately at this time the compund, although effective, was also toxic :' P

LFD

 

Here is a pretty good article I found.

"A mixed martial arts fighter suffers a traumatic brain injury in almost a third of professional bouts - far more than the rate of such injuries in hockey, football or even boxing, suggests a new Canadian study.

It is among the first scientific reviews of MMA's concussionrelated dangers, as other contact sports increasingly focus on the head-trauma issue.

The University of Toronto researchers analyzed seven years of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) scorecards - which detail when a fight ends with a knockout or technical knockout - as well as watching videotape of bouts. They concluded the damage done to MMA fighters is likely exacerbated by the "surprising," repeated blows to the head delivered after they have already been put out cold.

The researchers suggest banning the growing sport among young people, and instituting rules at the pro level that limit action after a competitor is downed, much like the 10-second count in boxing.

Concussions have become a hot topic in hockey and football, as evidence mounts of their potentially debilitating long-term impact, but received relatively little attention in MMA, note the authors of the paper, published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

"This draws attention to the fact that relevant questions need to be asked of a sport for which the objective at some level is to knock them out," said Michael Hutchison, a U of T kinesiology professor and lead author. "The [knocked out] person is rendered unable to defend themselves, and then they're getting multiple strikes to their head. That's probably not good for one's health."

The UFC - the sport's dominant promotional company - is still reviewing the "technical medical document" and is not ready to comment on it yet, said spokesman Steve Keogh.

In barely a couple of decades, MMA has won a wide following in numerous countries, with one marketing company last year estimating its worldwide audience to be 300 million people.

Fighters are allowed to kick and punch, as well as employ wrestling-like techniques on the ground in bouts often conducted inside a chainlink-fence "octagon." Some events pay cash rewards for the "knockout of the night."

Despite its popularity, the sport has long faced criticism, with several medical associations calling for its banning, and some provinces and states doing so.

There is little empirical data, though, on its relative safety. The study conducted by Mr. Hutchison and doctors at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto did not involve actual medical diagnosis of MMA fighters.

Instead, they analyzed the available scorecards from professional UFC matches, which indicate whether a fight ended in a knockout or TKO. While not definitive evidence, it is probable that a knockout, where the fighter loses consciousness, involves a concussion or more severe brain injury, Mr. Hutchison said.

The researchers also analyzed video to find technical knockouts that involved multiple strikes to the head, which they also suggest likely represent a traumatic brain injury.

They detected an average of 6.4 knockouts per athlete for every 100 fights, or "athlete exposures." When the multiplestrike TKOs were added, the total of suspected brain injuries climbed to 15.9 per athlete per 100 bouts, or one concussionlike injury in 32% of matches.

That compares with rates, found in other studies, of 4.9 concussions per 100 athlete exposures in boxing, 2.2 per 100 in hockey and 8.08 per 100 in football, the paper said.

Analysis of the fight video suggested that 90% of the TKOs were a result of repetitive strikes. "The 30 seconds before match stoppage was characterized by the losing competitor sustaining a flurry of multiple strikes to the head," said the study.

Half of the knockouts occurred because of blows to the mandible, or lower jaw.

And the researchers found an average of 2.6 head strikes after a knockout, inflicted on unconscious fighters.

Evidence that such injuries can result in structural damage to the brain and "chronic traumatic encephalopathy" - sometimes known as boxer's dementia - makes a strong argument that MMA should be banned for youth, and made safer for professionals, the researchers say.

UFC should consider a rule that would halt the bout at least temporarily after a competitor is knocked down, and require mandatory imaging scans of fighters who suffer knockouts or TKOs, they say.

 

Supporters of mixed martial arts like to tell us that MMA is a legitimate sport, just like, and no more dangerous than, other contact sports, including boxing, football and hockey.

Such comments are usually advanced in an effort to show MMA receives a disproportionate amount of scrutiny from city and provincial officials, who have thus far refused to sanction MMA events.

Now it may be true that MMA has been unfairly singled out, but our response should not be to ignore the dangers associated with the sport. Rather, it should prompt us to have a serious discussion about a serious issue that has for far too long been almost ignored: The very real risks of injury, particularly brain injury, in all contact sports, including football and hockey.

Until recently, sports-related brain injury was associated almost exclusively with boxing. Physicians and others noticed a collection of symptoms, including tremors, slowed movement, confusion, depression, impulsive behaviours and speech problems in many former boxers, and came to describe the condition as being "punch drunk." (This is what I was talking about)

By the 1920s, the condition, which according to some estimates affects up to 20 per cent of boxers, had received a more medical sounding name -- "dementia pugilistica," or boxer's dementia -- and was described in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In subsequent decades, many medical organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, called for a ban on boxing given the significant risk of significant brain damage.

But interestingly, little attention was paid to the role of other contact sports in contributing to this condition. Little attention, that is, until a Harvard-educated professional wrestler named Chris Nowinski retired from World Wrestling Entertainment in 2003 at the age of 24, as a result of post-concussion syndrome.

Nowinski, who had suffered concussions while playing football at Harvard, as well as in the WWE, decided to research the effects of multiple sports-related concussions. Out of that research came his book, Head Games: Football's Concussion Crisis, which was released in October 2006.

Just one month later, former NFL defensive back Andre Waters, who had been suffering from depression, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at the age of 44. Nowinski asked members of Waters' family for samples of his brain tissue, and then had it examined by University of Pittsburgh neuropathologist and epidemiologist Bennet Omalu.

Omalu concluded that Waters' brain tissue was similar to that of an 85-year-old man with Alzheimer's disease, and that brain trauma, likely from the numerous concussions Waters suffered while playing football, was a contributing factor.

Shortly thereafter, the University of North Carolina's Center for the Study of Retired Athletes released a study revealing a correlation between the number of concussions retired football players had suffered and the incidence of depression.

Nowinski then received a phone call from Julian Bailes, chairman of the department of neurosurgery at the University of Western Virginia, and a former neurosurgeon for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Bailes suggested that the case of former Steelers lineman Justin Strzelczyk -- who died in a fiery crash after leading police on a high-speed chase -- bore similarities to Waters' case.

Nowinski contacted Strzelczyk's mother, and received permission to have her son's brain examined. Neuropathologist Omalu concluded that Strzelczyk, like Waters, had been suffering from "chronic traumatic encephalopathy," or CTE, the modern term for dementia pugilistica.

These cases, which were significant in that they were the first confirmed cases of CTE in non-boxers, led Nowinski and Robert Cantu, the chief of neurosurgery at Massachusetts's Emerson Hospital, to incorporate the Sports Legacy Institute, which is dedicated to studying the effects of concussions and other sports-related brain injuries.

Shortly after incorporation, a very dark case presented itself to the Institute. Canadian professional wrestler Chris Benoit killed his wife and son and then himself in 2007, and the media were quick to blame Benoit's use of steroids.

But Nowinski, who thought otherwise, contacted Benoit's father and received permission to examine the wrestler's brain. Upon examination, neuropathologist Omalu and neurosurgeon Bailes concluded that the 40-year-old Benoit suffered from CTE and had the brain of a man in his 80s with dementia. They further concluded that Benoit's CTE was the result of "multiple traumatic injuries" -- that is the multiple concussions he suffered from, among other things, getting hit over the head with chairs.

Now none of this is proof that Benoit's homicidal actions were caused by his concussions, just as we can never be sure if Waters' suicidal behaviour, and Sytrzelczyk's near suicidal behaviour, were similarly caused by brain injuries.

But what we do know is that CTE is associated with concussions and depression and impulsive behaviour. According to the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE), a partnership between the Sports Legacy Institute and Boston University, CTE is "a progressive degenerative disease" seen in athletes "who have a history of head trauma ... which includes multiple concussions."

The trauma "triggers progressive degeneration of the brain tissue," and "is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, paranoia, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia."

Benoit, Waters and Strzelczyk all displayed many of these symptoms, as did former NFL lineman Mike Webster, who died of a heart attack at the age of 50, but had been suffering from severe dementia, and former NFL lineman Terry Long, who committed suicide at the age of 45 by drinking anti-freeze.

Both Webster and Long were diagnosed with CTE after their deaths, which, unfortunately, is the only time its existence can be confirmed. In fact, out of seven cases investigated by CSTE scientists, six were suffering from CTE, the most recent being an 18-year-old high school athlete.

This ought to act as a wake-up call to football organizations everywhere, from high school to the NFL. And it has, to an extent, as the NFL has implemented some minor rule changes, though it remains skeptical of CTE, and is quick to remind us that many former players are not experiencing any problems.

The NFL's position relies on the fact that CTE research is in its infancy. But of course the NFL also has economic reasons to dispute the findings, because dramatic rule changes may be necessary to prevent the development of CTE in players. Indeed, since brain damage can occur even if a player is not hit in the head -- a bodily collision can be enough, as the brain can hit the side of the skull when a player is suddenly stopped after running at high speed -- this calls into question the advisability of any contact at all.

This has implications for hockey, obviously, given the speed at which the game is played. Many players have suffered repeated concussions -- notably, 37-year-old former Philadelphia Flyer Keith Primeau, who believes he may be developing CTE and who has bequeathed his brain to the CSTE through its living brain donation program.

More than 100 athletes have similarly agreed to donate their brains upon their deaths, which is particularly important given the limited research on CTE. The lack of research makes it hard to identify risk factors -- why, for example, some athletes develop CTE while others, as the NFL keeps reminding us, do just fine -- as well as methods of prevention.

The lack of research is even more problematic in the case of mixed martial arts since it is itself such a young sport. But the preliminary evidence suggests that CTE might prove to be a big problem.

Certainly, MMA is not what it once was, or what many people think it still is. In contrast to unsanctioned "toughman" contests -- fights that involved virtually no rules and led to at least a dozen deaths, just in the U.S. -- MMA fights sanctioned by reputable organizations and athletic commissions do have many rules, and involve highly skilled fighters, many of whom have backgrounds in amateur wrestling.

That said, the research suggests that fighters are at significant risk of brain injury. Although very few studies exist, supporters of MMA like to point to a 2006 study in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine, which states that "the lower knockout rates in MMA compared to boxing may help prevent brain injury."

This study, which assessed 171 matches in Nevada between 2001 and 2004, did find that the MMA knockout rate (6.4 per cent) was little more than half that of boxing. However, nearly 40 per cent of matches ended with a technical knockout -- and TKOs may involve concussions or be the result of subconcussive blows that can still cause brain injury.

Further, a 2006 article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine assessed 642 matches between 1993 and 2003 and found that head impact was the most common reason for stoppage of the match. Of the 642 matches, 62 ended by knockout and 120 by technical knockout; all knocked-out fighters showed physical signs of concussion.

This suggests that many MMA fighters may suffer brain injuries which, down the road, could lead to CTE. That doesn't necessarily mean that MMA fights shouldn't be sanctioned, of course -- and, indeed, things were much worse when they weren't.

In fact, that reasoning would lead us to ban all contact sports, because all can lead to brain injuries. That would be unfortunate, since there are many benefits that flow from participation in sports, including contact sports. But thanks to the work of Nowinski and the neuroscientists, we can no longer bury our heads in the sand and assume that CTE only happens to other athletes -- to boxers.

No, the evidence, as tenuous as it is, suggests that all contact sports athletes are at risk. Given the risk, we must take whatever steps necessary to reduce the risk of brain injury -- for the sake of our current and future athletes, and their loved ones.

pmcknight@vancouversun.com

 

So my question is: If we take these doctors seriously with their predictions of brain injury then what should we practice as self defence?

 

If you listen to Doctors you wouldnt practice self defense at all anyway

Train hard fight easy....train easy and it is difficult if not impossible to actually fight

Or do a non impact system, but then your joints get cracked and your ears cauliflowered

 

can you tldr this?

 

I'd like to see the full article you mentioned as well as who funded the study. About 5-6 years ago Ontario's sport commissioner was trying very hard to make sure MMA stayed illegal as it conflicted with his interests in the Ontario boxing/kickboxing circuit. I can't shake the feeling the two are connected.

 

I'm also getting the idea that they are focusing on statistics with a really obvious bias, i mean, they talk about the number of tko's and ko's being comparable with the number of ko's in boxing, then further extrapolating that most tko's involve multiple punches, without offering a statistic.

They're also strictly analysing the highest level of the sport alone, as far as i can gather.

 

I agree, we have to draw a line in the sand somewhere. That's basically what my first post was about.

 

I'm assuming you mean provide links. Well, I used my universities search engine to retrieve these so you if I provide the links you still won't have access. Sorry.