[numbnuts]

Jeff, I'm glad you added that bit about women getting hit in the groin. Some women want to act like the groin hit is debilitating to men, but doesn’t faze women, and thus gives women some inherent superiority. I think these women are the ones who feel inferior, perhaps due to rejection from men, so they must compensate somehow. (I’m not saying the groin isn’t equally or even more vulnerable in men than women, I’m just saying that it’s not as lopsided as some women would like you to think.)

Anyway, males and females both have many nerve endings in the genitals, so it stands to reason that this area is especially vulnerable in everyone. Sure, the female groin is a hard target (at least harder than the male groin), but the shin is also a hard target with a plethora of nerve endings, and a hit there hurts like hell, even from a small child. Thus, I suppose that if a woman were hit in the groin with any significant force, she would double over and begin nursing the area, just as she would if she were hit in the shin. She won’t just stand there undaunted with a smug look on her face and say, ”Ha, ha, I can’t get hurt there because I don’t have any balls”. Now if only they’d start showing women getting hit in the groin on America’s Funniest Home Videos...

Feel free to comment on this, especially if you are a woman who’s been hit in the groin.

[jeff12]

I think its a good self defense technique to use on anyone, male or female. I have been told by women that a kick to the vulva hurts a lot.

[jeff12]

Hi, I am new here.

[numbnuts]

I have reached similar conclusions about jock straps, as you can read in some of my previous posts. I didn't think of Bowe's cup sliding out of place, but that does make sense. I can’t imagine any way for a man’s genitals to get hurt if his cup stays in place and intact; the idea just doesn’t make sense if you think about it.

I still say that if the kickboxer in Disillusioned's story were not wearing sufficient groin protection when he got hit the first time, then he'd just start wearing a cup (or a better one) and continue fighting, not just quit kickboxing altogether. (I mean, he may need recovery time for a really bad hit, but he'd at least come back for later training and matches.) That's why I doubt Disillusioned's story.

[demonlover]

Just some clarification here from an expert:

The only way Bowe could have been floored from a low blow would be either because he wasn't wearing a cup at all, or because his cup fit to loosely and came out of place, and I'm sure this is exactly what happened. The fact of the matter is that most of today's male athletes doing contact sports don't wear a cup because they think cups are for wimps and because they think it slows them down. The list of atheltes who go unprotected includes most football players, martial artists, basketball players and probably boxers as well. The result is that we're now seeing more and more serious groin injuries to athletes that we never would have seen even 15 years ago. Therefore, IMHO disillusioned was speaking truthfully. She was being very factual.

I speak from experience here. I was once repeatedly kneed in the groin cup full force by a 6' tall amazon women. She kneed me with amazing force but my cup absorbed the full inpact and I felt absolutely no pain. However, without the protection of the cup she would have definitely floored me and totally destroyed my groin. Nevertheless, it was a frightening display of her amazing kicking power. The women's kicks are absolutely lethal but totally harmless so long as I was wearing my cup.

The bottom line is that a secure and properly fitting groin cup will protect a guy from anything short of a gun shot blast to that aria. You can take that to the bank.

Personally, I think that venetia gets hot reading my posts. Why else would she achive everything that I've ever written here?

[numbnuts]

I have to *waltz back in* and add this. Ladies (and gentlemen), please read this for your own safety.

I watched America's Funniest Home Videos today, and one film was a of small child (about 4 years old) riding a dirtbike. He rode over some rough terrain that bounced him off of the seat, and when he fell back down onto the seat he landed on his testicles (with his whole body weight - OUCH). Despite his pain, he maintained perfect balance, came to a controlled stop, then dismounted and set down the bike carefully. After that, though, he fell to his knees holding his groin, then fell to his side.

Even though he was in such pain that he felt compelled to fall to the ground, he was still able to finish what he was doing, which in this case was riding his bike. Thus, if a man attacks a woman and she hits him in the groin, the man is likely to finish his attack on the woman, THEN double over in pain after the woman is sufficiently beaten.

The lesson here is that even though groin attacks are indisputably painful, they're not the panacea of self defense. If you must defend yourself, attack in ways that cause more than pain. Attack the eyes to impair vision, the nose to induce eye watering, the knees to impair standing/walking, etc. Stay safe, ladies (and gentlemen)!

*Waltzes back out like a masculine Waltzing Matilda*

[numbnuts]

Oh, I almost forgot...

*Waltzes out like a masculine Waltzing Matilda*

[numbnuts]

Well, I appreciate you people talking to me. It's nice to discuss things like these on the internet that would be embarrassing face to face. Although the hardest I was ever hit in the testicles was with a basketball in high school gym class (which didn't faze me, but it wasn't nearly as bad as a kick or something would be), I believe I've described enough experiences below to tell how bad it really is to get hit there. It is among the worst places to get hit, but I wanted to dispel the "one love tap and he's helpless" myth. As bad as it is, it simply isn't THAT bad. (A light hit is more startling than painful.)

By the way, Pepper, I’ve seen many kindergarten children in stores screaming and crying because they didn’t get the toy they wanted or something. Maybe your kid isn’t like that, but many are, so my response to your story was perfectly reasonable. Don’t talk to me like I don’t know anything. On a more positive note, I love your “Thinking of you while I masturbate” picture on your profile. It’s pretty funny.

[pepper]

he's a tough little kid, he only cries when it actually really hurts. crying takes away from play time so he doesn't do it alot. i can tell you don't have any kids, lolipop indeed.

that's the end for me, see ya somewhere else.

*loves the waltzing out*

[lucizoe]

*delurk*

I think pepper probably has a good idea about what makes a five year old cry, particularly her own, which is what she was talking about

*follows venetia*

[venetia]

Okay good we all agree in here. There's a complete consensus that yes it could hurt.

*waltzes out after Pepper*

[numbnuts]

Pepper, why are you bringing up a 5-year old getting hit in the groin? There are a lot of nerves in the genitals (in both males and females), so yes; a sturdy hit there will hurt a lot, especially for a male whose testicles get crushed. I’m not denying that. However, do you know what else makes a 5-year old kid cry? A hit in the face, a hit in the stomach, taking away his lollipop – Little kids are likely to cry about anything. The fact that it makes a small child cry doesn’t mean anything.

[numbnuts]

Venetia, I guess you're right about our speculation. From what you showed, Bowe was obviously injured, and that may or may not be why he left the ring. He may have used that as an excuse to go out on top, since he won by disqualification. (Although, as I pointed out before, he actually returned to boxing years later.)

Aside from groin injuries, I’ve seen examples of people who are horribly mangled in motorcycle accidents, car racing accidents, other traumatic sports injuries. Even the ones who face paralysis, comatose states, near death - you name it – often go back to doing what they love. I don’t remember any specific examples, but I’m sure you’ve seen these stories, too.

The point is that I find it hard to believe that the real reason a man would permanently walk away from his passion in life is because his balls got hurt. As bad as that would be, it still wouldn’t be as bad as some of these other fates people have stood up to. Then again, maybe some guys have different levels of commitment and passion. This is where the speculation that you mentioned comes in; there’s no way to know for sure.

Here are a couple more stories you might find interesting. When I was sparring in Tae Kwon Do, I accidentally landed a sturdy side kick on my opponent’s testicles, and he wasn't wearing ANY cup. Yes, he doubled over and was in pain for a while, but he was back in Tae Kwon Do, sparring just fine the next class - and that's with absolutely no protection.

Another time, I stepped into what was supposed to be a front kick to the stomach, and it ended up being a hard kick landing on my unprotected penis (not the testicles) and smashing it against my pelvic region. I know that sounds kind of vulgar, but that’s what happened. My sparring partner apologized profusely afterward. I did distinctly feel pain, both right after the incident and when I coaxed myself to get an erection that same night (yes, I could still get it up), but the pain wasn't even severe enough to make me lose composure. I will admit that if it landed on my testicles, with all of their sensitive nerve endings, I think I would have doubled over in agony just like any other guy, and I would have been really worried about long-term damage. However, this does prove that the softness of a body part doesn’t really tell us how easily it’s injured or how given it is to extreme pain. (Although I think we’re all in agreement that testicles are quite an effective pressure point.)

[pepper]

oh for heaven's sake. my five year old got knocked in the groin and he doubled over in a mess of screamy tears for a while. no one was hoofing him either. i suppose it's not unreasonable to imagine that it might hurt a lot.
have you ever had one land in your face? nothing hurts like a smack in the nose eh, it's truly incapacitating and that's nowhere near as sensitive as your bits.
can we drop it now?

thanks for the clarification ven. i'm all straightened out.

[venetia]

Sorry. To explain - Pepper pointed out to me that I was wrong about which poster started this thread and I agreed with her and apologised, adding that I was not in fact referring to the poster who started this thread.

The issue of reinforcement came up in the boxing commentary which I heard when I watched the match televised live. So obviously I am well aware of what happened in the match itself.

Given that moves in kickboxing have been known to be powerful enought to break a man's shin, and that neither you nor I was privy to the specific jockstrap arrangements of the fighter in question, much less watching the match, I think we're not in a position to say with any certainty whether Disillusioned's story was true or not. Without further details, it's baseless speculation on our parts.

[numbnuts]

Venetia, I'm not calling you a liar about the following:
"Numbnuts this thread was started by a poster who identified as male and who had ... issues. This was a sexual fetish of his."
I wasn't sure how the sex of the one writing the posts could be identified, but I'm not saying you're lying about the fact that he was identified. Anyway, that's not really important.

I'm glad you brought up that fight, though. I find it to be a good release to talk about things like this on the internet that I never mention in daily conversation. Since you read that web site with the picture, I guess you know it took hit after hit after hit to knock Bowe down, deliberately delivered by a powerful fighter, not just one stray strike like Disillusioned’s similar but unrelated story on this thread seems to describe. I read on http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=1683&more=1 that Bowe started fighting again later (lower level boxers this time) after doing time for kidnapping.

By the way, did you read somewhere that they reinforced his cup? I read about this on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jock_strap and there was only one type of cup, namely “Combined padded jock and cup”, that was made especially for boxing. It didn’t say anything about possible reinforcement (although it may exist).

I wasn't saying that it wasn't strong enough, though, I was just saying that it's not shaped exactly right to protect male genitalia (at least mine isn't). If the cup actually broke, that would make more sense, since the way it's designed it doesn't seem to allow dangerous or painful amounts of compression regardless of force, as long as it stays intact. Another possibility is that since the jock he was wearing was a different type from mine, the level of protection is different, or it wears down and distorts after repeated blows.

[venetia]

Well Numbnuts, if you ever do take a full force hit to the groin by a World ranked Heavyweight Boxer, be sure to drop by and tell us whether you felt any pain.

I'm not sure what you're not calling me a liar about, incidentally, so I can't address that.

Alligator - for the rematch I think they reinforced the thing, but it still wasn't that great heres an actual photo if you scroll down. I can't believe I'm still talking about this.

[numbnuts]

Venetia, to which poster are you referring? Also, I'm not calling you a liar, but how could the sex of the poster be identified? It seems that a guy could adopt a feminine-sounding secondary e-mail address, put a girl's picture on his profile, and nobody would be the wiser. Did they trace his e-mail address to his real identity or something?

Also, after reading your posts, I decided to do some experimenting, as well as some thinking back on past experiences. I've never taken a full-force hit to the testicles (thank God) and I'm not going to deliberately subject myself to that for fear of damaging my valuables.

During the experiment I did, I wore my jock strap and hit myself in the groin as hard as I could 5 or 6 times. Admittedly, due to the awkward angles, I couldn't hit myself as hard as someone else could hit me, but here it goes. I did feel a mild sensation, mostly going from my groin to by stomach, but it wasn't enough to really call pain.

Upon further analysis, the cup wasn't designed for optimal protection. The only way it fit properly was with my penis pointed downward, and in that position, my genitals held it slightly out away from my body. (This was most evident when I spread my legs.) Thus, during an impact, the cup compresses my genitals slightly until the outer edge of the cup reaches the surrounding area and actually yields protection. It seems to put an upper limit on the compression of the valuables as it is. A bigger cup with the outer edge always touching the surrounding area and plenty of space between the cup and the genitals would seem to work better, and I can't help but wonder why they didn't make it that way in the first place.

Another experiment I did during my younger years, which was really stupid in retrospect, involved sand weights. They were plastic discs filled with sand instead of traditional iron weights, which explains the weird numbers of pounds they weigh. I put a 12.5 lb. weight and a 6 lb. weight on one end of a barbell and slowly rested it on my testicles (with the edge of the 12.5 lb. weight on them) while I lay on my back. The weight pushed my testicles down the area behind/below my genitals, pressing them against the bottom of my scrotum. I let go of the weight briefly to show myself that it was all on my jewels, and then I promptly removed it. I didn’t feel any pain, and I actually became aroused afterwards. However, if the angles were different and had my testicles between the weights and my pelvic bone, it may have caused real pain and damage; I don’t know. It was a dumb enough idea the first time, I luckily suffered no damage, and I’m now going to stay away from such foolish experiments.

One final observation: When I masturbate, I tend to play with my testicles (and penis) kind of roughly, rubbing and pressing them with my fingers, and I never get hurt; I only feel pleasure. Although I’ve never actually taken a full-force hit to the testicles, and I am afraid to get hit there hard, I don’t think they’re actually as delicate and vulnerable as everyone seems to think.

[alligator]

To paraphrase the Simpsons...

"The jockstrap... it does nothing!"

Trust me. A strap and cup can (and does) prevent the damage from being too bad, but a hard shot to the manberries will still turn off the lights.

[venetia]

Oops you're right Pepper, it seems he didn't actually start this thread. In fact it seems this thread was in LTAS by accident or something. Sorry everyone!

The guy I was talking about is all over the place. He features in this archive for example. Yes, you said it, Alligator.

Hmm, way off topic but Riddick Bowe vs Andrew Golota (and the rematch, which ended Bowe's career) made it pretty clear to me that a jockstrap will not necessarily save you against a professional strength blow to the groin.