[Sportsandrec] Audible Boxers

[Thornbury, Kelly]

I think I have already seen a similar comment, but I'll add my two cents on boxers wearing bells. 
First, you won't find a mugger wearing the bells, and if you are looking for a martial art you can use effectively to defend yourself in the streets, you need to train without this accommodation. 
Second, I wouldn't want to train with someone, or worse spar with someone, who was wearing metal "weapons" around their wrists or ankles...its not safe for either opponent to try punches or kicks and have metal objects like bells to imbed themselves in either sparring partner. 
I've also participated in Kendo and Fencing (in a college course) where the opponents would wear a bell. I didn't care for this in Kendo because of the aforementioned issues, but this works very well for someone in fencing, but of course the bells themselves don't typically come close to making contact with a partner before the foil. The bells are worn on the fencer's lead hand and foot, and with practice you can learn to judge positioning and movement on the audible signal (although my instructor quickly adapted to standing very still before a strike, making me a decent target for her and much harder to attack for classmates). 
As for boxing and kickboxing, learn to listen for the "tells" of your opponent, and almost everyone I've ever sparred with has them...be it a shuffle of a foot before a strike to a change in breathing...Things many sighted opponents don't pick up on because they don't rely on such signals. In class we even have a competition occasionally where two fighters stand in front of a punching bag with the lights off, and the first one to hit the bag once the lights are turned on wins...Sounds unfair for a blind participant until you consider listening for the light switch to be "flipped." I win more often than I lose, and I have no usable light perception. 
Believe it or not, but if you receive a visual stimulus and an audible one at the exact same time to your head, processing the audible signal is faster in the brain...The reason the humans  relies so much on visual stimuli is because the stimulus travels faster over longer distances, but in the brain the audible signal has a shorter distance, fewer neurons to travel through, and fewer "go or no go" decisions to be made to be processed. 
Use your sparring time to learn what tools you truly have and how to use them. Also, learn to take a hit (these lessons do come with a price), and learn to react quickly to follow a punch back to your sparring partner with a volley of strikes...