We Removed Head Strikes From Sparring. Watch What Happens.

Most striking gyms treat head contact as the price of admission. We don't. This is an MMA sparring game we run at the Accélérateur Martial in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec. First you'll see the explanation of a game played at the beginning of class. Then, you'll watch that same game played live for about twenty minutes, using shoulders and body as targets. The idea isn't to make fighting safe. It isn't. The idea is to keep the part that actually teaches (distance, timing, deception, reading a resisting opponent, etc.) while removing blows to the head. A game, in the CLA, does one job: it gives each athlete clear intentions and constraints, and lets those constraints push them to explore a particular dynamic, without a coach dictating a single movement. Here the two roles are deliberately asymmetric. One fighter works in straight lines, closing distance to connect on the upper body, while the other works in arcs, hunting angles to strike and reach the legs. Two intentions, one shared problem. One coupled system. Watch the distance, the timing, the hesitation, the feints, the failed attempts and the adjustments. Then ask yourself one question: does this look like fighting? I make the full case in the video: the medical reasoning, the trade-offs every practice already makes, and why removing routine head strikes can mean more live fighting, not less. This was filmed during an MMA edition of the Accélérateur Martial with Joey Morency of KLIQ MMA. The approach draws on the work of Scott Sievewright (Primal MKE, Milwaukee) and the ecological-dynamics framework for MMA. Chapters: 00:00 Why I removed head strikes from sparring 04:10 The game, explained 07:18 The game, live Sources cited in this video: 1. Yearby, Myszka, Grahn, Sievewright, Singer & Davids (2024). Applying an ecological dynamics framework to mixed martial arts training. Sports Coaching Review. https://doi.org/10.1080/21640629.2024.... 2. Neidecker et al. (2019). Concussion management in combat sports: consensus statement from the Association of Ringside Physicians. BJSM 53(6), 328–333. 3. Di Virgilio et al. (2019). Repetitive subconcussive head impacts in sport… after boxing practice. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 13, 294. 4. Le Flao et al. (2026). Acute symptom changes and repetitive head impacts in boxing sparring. J Sci Med Sport 29(8), 843–854. 5. Head Trauma Exposure in Mixed Martial Arts (2022). IJERPH 19(20), 13050 — analysis of 2,488 UFC fights. 6. Predictors of two consecutive knockout losses in UFC athletes (2026). PMID 41674479. ▶ Subscribe to The Brinkmanship Lab for more on ecological dynamics, representative practice and combat-sports skill design. #MMA #Sparring #EcologicalDynamics #CombatSports #Coaching #BrainHealth #ConstraintsLedApproach