Should You Do BJJ Sparring With Headgear? Pros And Cons

The decision whether to wear the headgear or not during the sparring in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu cannot be the one that applies to every practitioner. Instead, it is based on the goals and preferences of the BJJ athlete. Moreover, headgear comes in different types, so you can wear it in most cases after selecting the type according to your preferences. So whether you should wear the headgear or not is not a straightforward question. So its answer will be yes in most cases, but no in only limited situations. Let’s dive into this in detail.

The headgear is training equipment that is used in many martial arts, particularly in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to protect the practitioner from many injuries, such as bruises and cuts. They can get these types of injuries from the attacks of their opponent or from contact with the mat. Headgear can also protect from common injuries to the ears in BJJ, which is known as cauliflower ears. It is worn around your head and face.

There are different types of headgear that you can use depending on the part they cover or protect. The following are some common headgear types used in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

The first type is the open face headguards. As the name indicates, this is the headguard that does not cover the face. It covers the top, back, and side of your head. Therefore, it provides protection to your head against your opponent’s punches. The main purpose of using this headguard is that you can clearly look for the shots of your opponent. If it is even slightly covering your face, then your vision gets obstructed, and therefore, the ability to look for and counter the punches of your opponent gets restricted. It also has one downside, that your face is completely open and vulnerable to injuries.

It is the exact opposite of the open face headguards. As the open face headguards protect your head, the full face headguards have a prime focus on protecting your face against your opponent’s punches. They cover your chin, both cheeks, and the front of your head, therefore ensuring complete face protection against all sorts of cuts, bruises, and injuries.

The cheek protector headguards are the most popular type of headguards used by Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners. The reason is that they provide a large amount of protection to both your head and face due to their large padding. Your ears, back, and side of your head, cheeks, and eyes are clearly protected. Also, it does not block too much of your eyes. So you have great protection while looking for the shots of your opponent clearly. This is the reason they have become so popular.

The bar face headguards are the fourth type, which is not very common compared to the other headguards. As the name indicates, these have a bar that covers your face horizontally. The bar moves over the nose. So it protects your nose, cheeks, eyes, and forehead. The big downside of using this headguard, which is why it is not very common, is that it obstructs your vision to a major extent. This is the major downside of using this type of headguard. That is why people don’t prefer it very much. Only people who want to provide a lot of protection to their nose can use this headguard, as it covers the nose of the practitioners. But its other features are the same as the other headguards, such as protection of the ears against cauliflower ears.

Now is the time to discuss the real question. The question is what the pros and benefits of wearing the headguards are during BJJ sparring. Let's discuss its benefits. The following are some of the benefits that the BJJ practitioners can get during the sparring:

• The most prominent benefit and the major purpose for which many BJJ practitioners wear it during sparring is the ability of the headguard to protect them from injuries. When practitioners learn and practice any technique, they are vulnerable to a lot of injuries. These injuries can be due to the attacks of their opponent or the mat, by getting thrown over it. These injuries, although in most cases are not serious they can be severe sometimes. So you all have to keep yourselves cautious about it.

• These injuries can damage your face, ears, eyes, head, or any other part of the body, depending on the attack of your opponent. Moreover, even if the injury is not so serious, it will restrict you from doing the training for some days, depending on the damage caused by it. So it is always advisable for you to protect yourself from injuries and do something for its prevention. The best way to prevent injuries is to wear a headguard. You should wear it depending on the part of your body that you want to protect the most. So choose the type accordingly and wear it during the BJJ sparring.

• One of the most important things you need to have during the game is focus. With this quality during the sparring, you can execute all the techniques correctly, defend yourself effectively against your opponent’s moves, and this will lead you to both effective learning of the techniques and moves during the BJJ sparring. So you should work on improving your focus during the sparring or grappling in a professional match.

• The easiest way to improve your focus is to wear the headguard. The reason is that you get your mind free from all the tensions related to getting hurt or injured. You avoid all the distractions due to it. Previously, without the headguard, you used to be worried about getting hurt. But now you can grapple and spar freely, and all you need to do is focus on your game. When you have nothing else to get your mind on, your focus on your game increases to a major extent. You can concentrate more on the execution of the techniques and defending yourself against the moves.

• Another thing that the headguard does for you is that it boosts your confidence to the next level. The reason behind this is multifactorial. When you know that the risk for getting injuries has been reduced to a major extent, then you will execute all the techniques you want, defend any move without having any fear, and make any move you can. So it all gives you a boost in your confidence, and that boost is enough to improve your game to the next level.

• Your confidence impacts a lot on everything you do. If you do everything while staying nervous all the time, then you can do nothing good at it. On the other hand, if you know what you want to do and how you are going to do it without any fear of injuries, then it can easily increase your confidence.

• The fourth benefit the BJJ headguard provides you is that it prevents you from head clashes. These kinds of clashes are very common in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. If the clash is severe, then you will get really hurt, and you might not be able to continue grappling or sparring. So you should prevent it at all costs.

• The best way to prevent and protect yourself from head clashes with your opponent is to wear a BJJ headguard during sparring. With this guard or protection layer, your head will be covered, and if it gets clashed with the head of your opponent, then you will not feel anything. It is also possible that your opponent might get a little bit of damage due to this, but you won't feel anything at all. Now, for this purpose, you can get any type of headguard for yourself because all types cover your head and protect it from any damage during sparring.

Until now, you have only known the benefits of wearing the headguard during sparring, but we all know that nothing is perfect, and neither is the headguard. There are also some cons or downsides of a headguard, which are given as follows:

• The first and most common problem that all BJJ practitioners face during sparring while wearing a headguard is a decrease in vision. This decrease in vision has a lot of negative impacts on your game. When you cannot even see your opponent properly, how can you even defend against them, their moves, techniques, and attacks? Vision is very important. It should be very clear during sparring or grappling. You have to not only see but also anticipate all their incoming moves and techniques according to their movements. So this is not a small con. It is a major problem.

• But this does have a simple solution, and that is you should use such headguards which are not block your vision entirely. One example of such a headguard is the open face headguard. You can use this. It will protect your head, but your eyes will not have any protection. So you will have the protection and the vision at the same time. But obviously, you cannot do both things at the same time for your eyes. The more you protect your eyes, the more your vision will be blocked.

• Another prominent downside of wearing the BJJ headguard everyone faces during sparring is that the target size for your opponent increases. The greater the target size for you, the easier it is to hit that target and attack it. The smaller it is, the more difficult it is for you to hit. So the same case applies here. When you wear a BJJ hearguard, the size of your head increases to a great extent, depending on the type of guard you are wearing.

• So when the size of your head increases, the target size increases for your opponent. Now it becomes easy for them to attack and hit your head or grab it and go for a choke. But it does have a solution, and that is you should wear only such headguards that are not so thick and are of a better brand and not of loose or inferior quality. But after doing all of this, the size will be larger compared to the naked head.

• The more you wear heavy equipment during your BJJ sparring, the more weight you will have to lift. When you have increased weight or burden to carry, the more your movement will be restricted. You will find it difficult to execute the moves and techniques during the sparring. And this will have a lot of negative effects on your game.

• You can minimize this thing too by choosing the premium quality headguards for your sparring so that you can execute your moves and techniques easily.

So now you might have the answer to the question of whether you should wear a headguard or not during BJJ sparring. It has a lot of benefits, but these pros come with some cons too. You can minimize these downsides by choosing the right type and right brand for your headguard. By following this advice, you can effectively improve your sparring while protecting yourself from the injuries caused by your opponent’s attacks or the mat.

The headgear is training equipment that is used in many martial arts, particularly in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to protect the practitioner from many injuries, such as bruises and cuts. They can get these types of injuries from the attacks of their opponent or from contact with the mat. Headgear can also protect from common injuries to the ears in BJJ, which is known as cauliflower ears. It is worn around your head and face.

• Open Face Headguards

• Full Face Headguards

• Cheek Protector Headguards

• Bar Face Headguards

• Protection From Injuries

• Increased Focus During the Game

• Boosts Your Confidence

• Prevents the Head Clashes

• Reduction in Visibility During Sparring

• Target Size For Your Opponent Increases

• Increase Weight

BJJ headguard has a lot of benefits, but these pros come with some cons too. You can minimize these downsides by choosing the right type and right brand for your headguard. By following this advice, you can effectively improve your sparring while protecting yourself from the injuries caused by your opponent’s attacks or the mat.