I've trained different kinds of martial arts and self defenses through the years, but i had a long break from it from like 2017 till may 2022, when i started Kyokushin.
Now i've been there since may till now, so like 5 months. I've tried sparring with people from mma, boxing etc and trained with them sometimes over the years. From my experience, kyokushin is actually the toughest art so far, specially because we wear 0 gear besides a mouthpiece, BUT there are no punches to the head, only kicks.
I trained krav maga for 3 years in the past, and we used to have heavy contact sparring and did seminars where we tried fighting multiple opponents etc, and we got punched so damn much in the face that it felt like the brain was swolling. I've also tried entering a boxing gym, but one of the guys there tried to knock me out like 30 sec. into sparring, i got really angry and i packed myself until i got my chance and i knocked him out. Afterwards i felt like it was a shit experience and i never returned to that boxing gym.
Now, when we train Kyokushin, we have really hard contact on the body, but no punches to the head, but as i said before, kicking in head is allowed, though it does not happen so often. I enjoy this so much more, because we can have hard contact sparring, without worrying about brain damage.
Does anyone else share my concern about blows to the head? Or do you think it's just pussying out of real martial arts?
From what i've read, studies have shown that gloves and protective headgear is actually making it alot worse for the brain, because your head now takes even more punches, without the attacker breaks his hand or you get cuts that stops the fight.
This post was edited by JesterIsBack on Oct 15 2022 04:33am