I am terribly nearsighted. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was ten. I didn’t help that as a kid I spent entire afternoons devouring book after book in the library.
Right now, my eyesight is myopic 500 (or 5.00) each eye. And, I think I’m due to change my glasses with a higher grade.
Guess what.
I’m an MMA fighter. I’ve done pretty well in the cage in my own modest way. I’m also a collegiate Judo champion and I’ve had my own sharing of wrestling and grappling successes.
The grappling skills. No question about it. You can be an awesome grappler even if you wear glasses in everyday life. Just don’t wear glasses when you actually are grappling or sparring.
It gets a bit tricky once strikes are involved.
Can you actually fight an MMA fight wearing glasses?
Nope. Never.
No sane MMA promoter, coach, referee, athlete would allow it.
Don’t even spar with glasses.
I remember being in a self-defense situation where someone punched me while I was wearing glasses. The nose pad went right into one of my eyeballs and left a very distinct huge bruise shaped exactly like a nose pad. That bruise stayed there for weeks. I’m glad it didn’t puncture my eyeball, but it hurt like high hell.
I’ve seen other people wearing glasses punched in the face. The results are never good.
My dad told me that in the good old honorable times in Chinatown in old Manila, if their gang planned to beat up someone with glasses, they would have to assign someone to deftly pick off the glasses of the faces of their targets, only then could someone punch someone in the face.
Don’t even roll (spar grappling) with glasses. Too dangerous.
I don’t even recommend anyone spar with sports goggles, either. They just get too much in the way of you and your opponent.
I don’t let my teammates even do grappling drills with glasses.
Newsflash: You can still be an MMA fighter even if you are nearsighted.
First, you can wear contacts. I have a whole article on that here: Can MMA fighters Wear Contact Lenses?
It won’t be a perfect solution. But hey, if it’s good enough for professional MMA fighters, it should be good enough for you.
In any case, for a lot of the training you do, like weight training and conditioning, you can do perfectly well with glasses.
I do drills, bag and pad work with sports goggles, by the way. Check out your optometrist if he can make you a pair.
I get a headache from too much after an entire evening training without glasses.
Because of this, whenever I don’t have my sports goggles, I usually have my glasses or nearby so I can wear them during breaks.
However, let me write this in all bold font. Do not put your glasses where they can be stepped on sat on.
If you wear glasses while you do pad or drill work, your glasses could fly off at the wrong time.
Secondly, sharp eyesight isn’t as necessary in MMA as in other sports. MMA is after all a contact sport.
You have to be close enough to be in contact with your opponent.
For me, as long as you can see your opponent clear enough to make out the shape at half a meter away from arms length (or legs length for that matter) that should be sufficient.
That would be around max of having a grade of 400 nearsightedness.
If you are farsighted, this shouldn’t be a worry. You don’t need much detail when you’re up close with your opponent. You’ll just need to know what to grab or where to punch,
Once you’re grappling with someone, you will know where your opponent. You’ll just have the feel of where your opponent is.
Experienced grapplers can literally grapple around with their eyes closed.
I guess in a funny way, being nearsighted helped me. When I’m on the mat or in the cage, I don’t get to see the crowd. They’re all a blur. It makes me less nervous. Haha.
Good luck training, four-eyes!
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