Head guards in boxing — the podcast

Dr. Mike Loosemore, lead author of new CJSM boxing study

We open 2017 with a new podcast on the new (non)-intervention in Olympic-style boxing:  head guards, or the lack thereof.

Our guest is Dr. Mike Loosemore MBBS MSc PhD FFSEM(UK), a consultant in sport and exercise medicine at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health, University College London.  Dr. Loosemore is currently the doctor to the British Olympic Boxing team, and a well known figure in the boxing medicine world.

He is, as well, the lead author of a highlighted study in our January 2017 issue: The Use of Head Guards in AIBA Boxing Tournaments — A Cross-Sectional Observational Study.  The team of researchers included Julian Bailes, whose name will be familiar to most people who study and treat sport-related concussions [or familiar to those who watched the movie Concussion in 2016].

Rio 2016 was the first Olympic competition since the 1984 games in Los Angeles where male boxers did not wear head guards , a rules change which generated a lot of controversy. Research like Dr. Loosemore’s was instrumental in making the determination to stop 52 years of practice.

Just before Christmas, we chatted with Dr. Loosemore, and he shared what he and his team found in their study and the back story behind the use, and now discontinuation, of headguards in Olympic-style boxing.

Be sure to listen to the podcast here and read the study (free access currently) here…..and, as ever, let us know what you think, or give Dr. Loosemore a shout out on Twitter @doctorloosemore