I broke my big toe sparing once when it hit my partner's kneecap. That was my worst injury to date. She said last time that happened with someone during sparin

I broke my big toe sparing once when it hit my partner's kneecap. That was my worst injury to date. She said last time that happened with someone during sparing it broke her kneecap instead, so I guess I was 50/50 on that one. People are shocked when I tell them that a sport where you try to hit other people in the head has a shockingly low rate of injury. > Some places require head protection too, but I'm not sure if that actually protects you vs just giving your opponent a false sense of "it's okay to hit you harder". Plenty of studies have come out showing that head gear increases the rate of injury, to the extent that head gear and padded gloves should just be banned in every gym. The safest way to spare is bare knuckle with a mouth guard. No one in their right mind punches full force when bare knuckle, at least not more than once. (Also, bare knuckle, still wrap up, and hit with the first two knuckles. Boxers in thick gloves learn to hit with the bottom two knuckles, which will shatter the shit out of any hand that tries to do that without gloves on...)