Thread: Contact lenses and contact sports?

haha, yeah probably!

So does anyone actually fight with their contacts in? What would you do if it popped out?

Are there any medical guidelines like in Boxing that say you cannot fight without having a certain level of eyesight??

I have always trained and fought in my soft contacts, I used to be an enforcer for bracknell ice Hockey team and had at least one scrap every game lol a few times I had a finger in the eye but you just crack on or be cracked lol

Soft lenses dont tend to pop out as they stick like jelly unless you get poked ;-)

Yeah soft lenses are fine for most sports but in boxing you're screwed under ABA rules, they have a minimum eyesight requirement without lenses in and if you fail then that's it, I think for short sighted it's something like -3 in each eye as I remember. Also if you have corrective surgery they won't let you fight. No rulings as far as I am aware in TMA or MMA so far.

There definately is no ruling in this country for MMA as this is not a sanctioned sport as there is no governing body (oooops worms, can) lol

I dont think it should be an issue to fight in soft lenses as they cannot damage your eye even if they move above the eyeball, its uncomfortable yes but not injury threatening, whats the longest you have to go with it in MMA?

Say you get poked in the eye straight after beginning of the round, its a fould so gets stopped, you can remove the lense and carry on til the round break and put a new one in.

If you get it dislodged straight after the start of the round by a legal blow the max you will have to wait is 5 minutes to change it or take it out.

So to be fair there really should not be an issue, not even in Boxing IMO with soft lenses for sure, hard lenses yes I agree totally banned.

Rich

It is a stupid ruling that the ABA went with and as I understand it it was introduced before soft lenses were prevalent and before laser surgery was as common as it is now (lets face it in the early days it was a bit risky). Strangely professional boxing has different rules, I hear that Hatton is blind as a bat.

Originally Posted by SanshouMatt

It is a stupid ruling that the ABA went with and as I understand it it was introduced before soft lenses were prevalent and before laser surgery was as common as it is now (lets face it in the early days it was a bit risky). Strangely professional boxing has different rules, I hear that Hatton is blind as a bat.

Really? Now that is interesting, anyone confirm hattons blindness??

Originally Posted by Robbie

What would you do if it popped out?

Keep fighting :P
If you're training obviously stop and sort it out and then go back to whatever you were doing, but otherwise just keep with one lens in and hope for the best eheh
(I tried a couple of times though and I couldn't do it. But then you can pull a Karate Kid: close your eyes and try to submit your oponent by relying on your opponent's body movements rather than in your deceptive eyes eheh I think you can [successfully] pull this in BJJ though)

Originally Posted by SanshouMatt

lso if you have corrective surgery they won't let you fight.

uh? Why not? That seems kind of silly, I understand about wearing contacts but if you have corrective surgery you'll have as much advantage as the next guy. In fact, you'll be the 'next guy'. meh

Yeah the corrective surgery thing is ridiculous but them's the rules!

Originally Posted by SanshouMatt

Yeah the corrective surgery thing is ridiculous but them's the rules!

Do you have 'declare' these things? They can always pull a tax evasion and convenientely forget to mention past surgeries :P