I would guess that headgears for martial arts have been around a long time; Wikipedia only had so much to say about the topic. Wikipedia did not have an extensive history of the martial-arts headgear. Yet.

I am often surprised by how many people don’t wear headgear when training Jiu Jitsu. I would think that the threat of cauliflower ear – being virtually incurable – would inspire heavy use of them. This is not really the case. In my experience headgears are often the exception rather than the norm. Other schools may be different, of course.

I own a headgear but I rarely wear it. I have been somewhat hesitant too: my particular headgear is a rather bulky piece of equipment. My headgear has a “hard” cup around the ears: when I wear it feel self-conscious that it will bump into the face and head of my opponent, making them uncomfortable. It also seems to run a touch large for me: even at its smallest setting, it still could be tighter.

There is another reason I don’t wear it very often – I don’t (didn’t) think it would happen to me. A Relson Gracie Colorado brown belt who often teaches has barely any cauliflower ear – and when I asked him about it he said it was mostly luck.

I generally don’t consider myself a lucky person, so I think it’s about time I start wearing my headgear when sparring once again. Cauliflower ear isn’t in an issue for everyone – not everyone gets it, and not everyone cares if they do get it – but for me, I’m going to try a little harder to stave it off.

I just need to grab a new, “softer”, less bulkier one. Hopefully Google will show me the way.

pic credit(s): http://www.flickr.com/photos/buildscharacter/ / CC BY-SA 2.0