I have been training Muay Thai for about a year now, and am concerned about the risks I'm taking with regards to brain damage. I spar about once a week, and I really don't get hit that often or hard as I have a style that incorporates a lot of movement and have good training partners. However, there are some individuals in my gym who have a large size advantage on me and are more skilled, and many times they clip me on the chin with punches. From time to time (I can count on one hand how many times it's happened in the past year), these punches "rock" me in the lightest sense of the word (I've never "seen stars" or been unable to hold my balance, only a bit rattled and stunned). We don't really wear head gear at my gym when we are doing Muay Thai sparring (the boxers always do), and I've noticed that when people wear headgear they think they can punch harder thus nullifying the benefit to a great degree. That being said, I own some head gear, and it is in my best interest to wear it so I am going to start. I plan on doing 1 amateur fight at some point in my life for the experience, but that's it. With all this taken to account, am I really posing a threat to my long term mental health and cognitive functioning?