Safety Glasses/Goggles vs Punch question

[SpyderEdgeForever]

I have a question regarding proper or the best eye protection from punches. Obviously, I do not go looking for a fight, but, I was discussing this issue with a friend, and I would appreciate any advice from you all on the forum:

If you want your eyes protected if someone punches you in the eyes or face, what is the best gear to wear, aside from being able to block the attack?

I was looking at these high quality safety goggles:

http://www.esseyepro.com/Crossbow-Gaske ... #_overview

Would those tough and durable 3M-made and other workman's glasses that use shatter proof carbonate lenses and things work?

The basic desire is: 1 make sure the person does not damage the eyeball and eyesocket with a punch to the face, and make sure the eye protection material will not shatter and send splinters or shards into the eye, and,

2 Make sure there is as little shock as possible transmitted to the eyes and face.

Would those face goggles like in the link I posted absorb both the kinetic shock force and any other damage the attacker would try to inflict?

[The Deacon]

Best gear would be a full face motorcycle helmet with a high quality face shield. Not very practical, but provides the best protection against damage to the face and neck. Those goggles will protect you from the first punch, but are far more likely to be dislodged by a blow from a fist than by the kind of projectiles they're designed to handle.

[ChrisinHove]

Anything rigid would break your nose. My experience in 20 years of rugby football is that your brow and cheekbone protect the eye from brawling punches. I had plenty of black eyes and my nose broken many times, but nothing more serious. If you're up against a proper fighter, running shoes would be more useful.

[Evil D]

Yeah I would much rather just lean into it and take it bare face than have any sort of eyewear on my face. Like the saying goes "you wouldn't hit a guy with glasses on would ya?" That's because it's likely to do more damage than no glasses. Like Paul said, the only realistic face protection would be some sort of full face shield or helmet.

[Skaaphaas]

I've taken a punch or two. Your reflexes are to protect the eyes anyway, so you normally close your eyes tightly anyway just as the punch lands. Then the cheekbones, nose and eyebrows do a lot to prevent a large, flat object like a fist from doing much damage.

They might assist against an eye-gouge attempt, but really, they're not going to be on your face by the time someone tries to gouge your eyes.

Fights are horrifically fast with a lot going on in very violent moves. Unless they're glued to your face, they're going to come off in a the first second or two.

If you want protection, get trained in full-contact self defence classes (I'm rather partial to the Kelly McCann combatives), but reading stuff on the net doesn't give you any real answers.

[awa54]

This might help:

http://www.galls.com/3m-iiia-helmet-wit ... oCWJnw_wcB

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Thank you all for your feedback on this.

[Bloke]

I think a weight advantage, longer reach and better footwork over someone throwing punches at you should help to protect your eyes.

Good reflexes are also advantageous but, I don't know much about glasses! :)

[The Mastiff]

I agree only a helmet and shield helps. Any glasses or goggles are a danger to your face and eyes. My experience in a career of dealing with dangerous people is they will go for the glasses first. The helmet has both upside and downside though. Not being hit is always best but that isn't always possible.

Joe

[Studey]

Glasses will do zero to protect you from impact.

This is what is known as looking for a hardware solution to a software problem.

Seek out professional training. Janich, McCann, Shivworks, Fry, Sharp, Burch, Ellifritz, and many others have outstanding material. 3-6 months in a boxing or MMA gym or in Judo or BJJ classes will give you a better filter for questions like this.

[The Deacon]

On second thought, the goggles might help, but only because, like walking around talking to "somebody that nobody else could see" use to before cell phones became ubiquitous, they may cause a potential attacker to think you're crazy enough to be unpredictably dangerous.

[Evil D]

Yeah for that matter if you walk around with a helmet or full face shield on and you don't even ride a motorcycle people probably won't start anything with you so maybe we really underestimate the effectiveness of these things lol.

[Doc Dan]

I used to have a set of safety glasses that had thick padding around the brow and on the nose. They were made to protect from impacts at work. I am sorry that I do not remember the name but they are out there and do work, at least for the initial blow. You would have to replace these every couple of years as sweat and other substances can undermine the padding (just as they will do to the padding in a helmet over time).

Edit: come to think of it, they might have been shooting glasses designed to protect your face from heavy recoiling guns and that is the reason I had them (a 470 Nitro in the face is not fun).

[OldHoosier62]

LOL....Maybe it was the crowd I ran with but a full face helmet was usually looked on as an improvised melee weapon more than a protective device.

[paladin]

Not meaning to hijack your thread SEF, but I was thinking of something very closely related to this myself :)

This thread reminds me of a similar discussion I was having with an elderly friend of mine... he was a underwater demolition specialist for the Polish Navy during WWII...we were discussing the recent World Series win by the Chicago Cubs and the convo. turned to a general discussion of hindcatcher's equipment. Eventually we found ourselves discussing the feasibility of developing a protective cup for primary school, myopic, introverted boys who are one or two standard deviations below their growth milestones and are at a risk of being bullied at recess.

It seems this demographic subset is quite important to our national interests since a lot of these boys grow up to be engineers, not to mention the offspring they may sire would have a high incidence to also "follow in dad's footsteps"-- so it is vitally important to protect the "little genius generators" of these prepubescent prodigies, of our nation. You see where I'm going with this?!?

My friend suggested something low cost and simple such as an aluminum cup with foam padding along the edge and some sort of truss citing that it's lower entry cost $$$ level would promote more widespread compliance and, therefore, wider benefit. To further enhance compliance the cups could be painted with Pokemon characters to be more attractive to the target demographic group. A valid argument, IMHO.

My suggestion was engineering a more robust device made of this stuff...

https://youtu.be/AUVnNk0aJBE

Provides the ultimate in defense and at the same time will atomize the bully who dares to kick the little guy in the family jewels.

My friend and I, after much deliberation, decided the point of the device may be moot since some of the boys who would be most at risk for groin kicks and knees to the nutz may not have descended testes to begin with...but then I thought, if that were the case, the blast recoil from the reactive armor of the cup may make his little nerd nads drop sooner, which would, in turn launch the little prodigy into puberty quicker fastracking his entry into secondary education, university, and ultimately R&D!!!! :cool:

Vaporize a bully, and and the same time kickstart <literally> the development of nano-bots or trans-species vocalization translation devices simultaneously....it's a huge WIN / WIN! It could speed up some of these developments by a year or two which, in turn may geometrically lead to even quicker technological breakthroughs and future developments.

Heck who knows where it could end??? :confused: ...we may be able to colonize Alpha Centauri by the end of the century! :D

So to bring it full circle to SEF's topic, if the material is unsuitable for protective cups, perhaps it could be crafted into eyeglass / goggle frames to address SEF's question...

What do you guys think?

[Doc Dan]

I think a cup worn all day would be a problem when puberty arrived (uncomfortable and embarrassing).

[ChrisinHove]

Lol!