Sorry, I was boarding a plane yesterday as I was writing, so I couldn't continue. Regarding head trauma and sparring, it really is a serious issue. I was always scared of bleeding on the brain, and I wasn't really one who enjoyed sparring, despite travelling around and sparring everywhere. But when you're young and impulsive, it's easier to banish from the mind.
Even at my relatively young age, I doubt I would ever spar to the head again. I wince these days when I see the damage people take in the gym. In some hypothetical scenario where I was being paid to fight, I may be tempted to do that, but I'm too conscious of the risks, and I find myself barely even watching the sport nowadays due the culture it now represents. Nonetheless, I owe a lot to it. It gave me so much discipline and passion as a teenager, and winning amateur competitions came with a lot of prestige back then.
I'm of the opinion now that we could perhaps get rid of full-contact sparring altogether and be better off for it although that view would get you laughed out of many gyms. However, to my mind, you either have that drive or you don't. If I were coaching young kids, it would involve lots of speed, agility, quickness drills, hard sprints, pad work, and technical sparring/body sparring. Get the mechanics down, get super fit, and then build that experience in competitions. I believe it was Joe Calzaghe who lost his first 4 amateur bouts. Sparring does not replicate a fight perfectly, and you often take more hits by not having the benefit of adrenaline flowing. Take the hits in competitions, and learn your craft there. If it's for you, you'll stick with it. That's my view of it now.
Edit: I should clarify, this obviously wouldn't work for the pros, where timing and speed need to be at an elite level, and fighters aren't competing often like in the amateurs. They need the sparring, and damage is just an accepted consequence of the profession.
