No Sparring. No Ego. No Brain Damage: Why Our Boxing Gym Refuses to Play That Game.

I love boxing.
It changed my life.
It’s literally my family’s livelihood.

But loving a sport does not mean abandoning the people in front of me to protect the mythology around it.

When you strip away the hype, the science is brutal and simple:

• Boxing carries one of the highest concussion risks of any combat sport. 

• In amateur cohorts, most injuries are to the head, and concussion regularly tops the list. 

• Some analyses estimate up to a 13% chance of concussion every time an amateur steps through the ropes to compete. 

• Neurologists and seasoned boxing writers say the quiet part out loud: the majority of brain damage isn’t from fight night… it’s from routine sparring in the gym. 

Even here in Victoria, the combat sports board recognises the risk: if a contestant has a suspected concussion, they’re meant to stay out of competition for at least 37 days and away from contact sparring for 30 days, with medical clearance before they even think about getting hit again. 

That’s for fighters who have chosen that path.

Now zoom out and look at who actually walks through our doors:

Kids.
Teens.
Parents.
People with trauma histories.
People with mental health struggles, trying to get regulated and feel safe in their own bodies.

You’re not here to make a living getting punched in the head.
You’re here to get your life back.

I am not putting your brain...or your kid’s brain...on the line for anyone’s ego, nostalgia or Instagram clip.

“But real boxing includes sparring.”

Yep. For fighters who’ve consciously signed up for that reality.

And even they are starting to change.

Professional boxers and coaches are publicly reducing sparring rounds and head impacts between fights because the evidence on long term brain damage from even “light” repeated blows is getting harder to ignore. 

If elite fighters, with full medical teams and short competitive careers, are adjusting to protect their brains…

…why on earth would I recreate fight camp levels of risk for a 15-year old kid from Geelong who just needs somewhere safe to move their body and calm their nervous system?

Make it make sense.

“Isn’t it a bit dramatic? What about controlled, technical sparring?”

Here’s the thing: your brain doesn’t care what you call it.

“Technical”.
“Controlled”.
“Just touch sparring”.

If there are repeated impacts to the head, there is risk. We now know that sub concussive blows, the ones that don’t drop you, the ones you brush off can still contribute to brain changes over time. 

And kids and adolescents are even more vulnerable. There are growing concerns specifically about repetitive head impacts in youth boxing, and recommendations to pull kids out immediately and get medical care if concussion is suspected. 

So no, I’m not interested in “seeing how we go”.

We don’t experiment on nervous systems here.

Now let’s talk about the thing nobody wants to admit:

Most people asking for sparring in a community gym are not asking from a place of grounded self awareness.

They’re asking from:

• ego (“I want to know if I can take it”)

• internalised shame (“I’ll respect myself more if I get in there”)

• dysregulated nervous systems that only feel alive in chaos

• old trauma patterns (“if I survive this, maybe I finally count as tough enough”)

That’s not “testing yourself”. That’s re enacting your pain with gloves on.

I refuse to be the adult in the room who watches that play out for the sake of looking like a “proper” boxing gym.

I am not interested in feeding anyone’s need to be hurt to feel worthy.

Here’s what people get wrong:

They think if we remove sparring, we remove what’s special about boxing.

We don’t.

We remove the part that carries the most harm for the least necessary gain.

We keep:

• The insane cardio benefits

• The strength, power and coordination

• The improvements in blood pressure, heart health and metabolic markers 

• The stress relief, mood support and mental health benefits that non-contact boxing has been shown to offer across different populations 

There’s solid evidence that non contact boxing can improve mental health symptoms, confidence, and quality of life..it’s literally used in structured programs for people living with Parkinson’s and other conditions, with no serious adverse events when delivered safely. 

If boxing can help a nervous system ravaged by Parkinson’s stand taller, move better and feel more hopeful without anyone getting punched in the head…

…you do not need sparring to build resilience. You do not need sparring to earn your confidence.
The benefits you think sparring will give you..courage, discipline, self belief, regulation are built in how you train, how you show up, how you breathe through discomfort, not in whether you eat a jab to prove a point.

So this is where we land:

At Geelong Boxing Club, we are:

• all in on non contact, evidence based boxing

• all in on nervous system regulation and mental health

• all in on kids, teens and adults going home clearer, calmer and more connected to themselves than when they walked in

We are not:

• running head contact sparring for the general public

• romanticising getting hit as some mystical rite of passage

• trading your long term brain health for a brief ego hit

There are plenty of places that will give you what your ego wants.

We are here to give you what your life needs.

If you want to learn to box, to get strong, to feel safer in your body, to build real resilience and regulation without gambling with your brain…

You’re in the right gym.

And if the fact we don’t offer sparring is a deal breaker for you?

Then we are absolutely not your gym.

I’ll stand by that every single time...for your kids, for your nervous system, and for a future where “tough” doesn’t mean “slowly damaging your brain for fun.”

• Zazryn, T. R., McCrory, P. R., & Cameron, P. A. (2006). A prospective cohort study of injury in amateur and professional boxing. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 40(8), 670–674.

• Bernick, C., & Banks, S. (2013). What boxing tells us about repetitive head trauma and the brain. Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, 5(3), 23.

• Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (Victoria). (2024). Combat Sports – Contestant Safety Guidelines: Non-fight periods and return-to-fight strategy.

• Bozdarov, J., et al. (2022). Boxing as an intervention in mental health: A scoping review. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 23, 100457.

• Larson, D., et al. (2022). High satisfaction and improved quality of life with Rock Steady Boxing in Parkinson’s disease: Results of a large-scale survey. Disability and Rehabilitation, 44(24), 6034–6041.

• Regan, E. W., et al. (2024). Rock Steady Boxing: A qualitative evaluation of a community-based boxing programme for people with Parkinson’s disease. PLOS ONE, 19(9), e0309522.