eli5: Why do combat sports rules disallow punches to the back of the head? Is it more sensitive as opposed to the forehead?
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Base of the spine connects to the brain stem. Blows to the back of the head carry a very real chance of death or severe brain damage.
Combat sports are already dangerous and inherently have various levels of real risk to permanent damage. (Think repeated concussion effects over time) but blows to the back of the head or neck compound that risk to an untenable order of magnitude to immediate, irreparable damage and/or death.
It might be partly because vision is controlled by the occipital lobe of the brain, which is on the dorsal/posterior side of the head. If you hurt that part of the brain badly enough, you could severely damage the quality of your vision or could even go blind. Source: had concussion which caused significant lapse in vision following back-of-head injury.
Would it not have something to do with the proximity of the brain to the rear of the skull? If you take a punch to the face, there’s a buffer between the impact and your grey matter in the form of your actual face (mouth, sinuses, eye sockets, etc). So a punch to the back of the skull would allow for much more of the energy of the impact to transferred directly to the brain, increasing the likelihood of permanent damage. No?
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