# Nothin' but a dobok



## andyjeffries (Mar 17, 2011)

Just wondering this morning how strict your classes are on just wearing a normal/standard dobok?

At our club, the master is very fussy about people not rolling their sleeves up.  I know in the states you can buy short sleeved doboks, I don't think he'd be happy about that either.  Are they common in the states/other countries?

Our doboks can be as embroidered as we like (some prefer plain, some prefer logos/stripes/badges/brand names).  Our belts can also have embroidery to our tastes, providing the colour is correct (having a pink belt with 1st Dan embroidered on it would get us kicked out of class I'm sure ;-) )

We can wear a white T-shirt/rashguard under our doboks if we like, as long as it's plain (i.e. doesn't show through the dobok).

We sometimes wear lightweight coats/tracksuit tops to warm up in - only if it's a "warm yourselves up" type of warm up.  If we're in normal lines and warming up as a class, it's doboks only.  And those extra tops come off before the "class proper" starts.

Taekwondo shoes (no regular trainers) are optional.  Personally I prefer to have bare feet.  My master prefers to wear shoes.  Everyone else is a mixture.

So, how is it in your club?


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## jthomas1600 (Mar 17, 2011)

In the summer when it's hot and the A/C won't keep up school t-shirts are allowed instead of the dobok top. Other than that it's pretty much doboks only. Students can buy and wear the cheap (I think$20) uniform through the school or can up grade as long as it's a plain white dobok. Black belts can wear a black color if they want. T-shirts are fine under the dobok. TKD shoes are fine but only 1 or 2 people wear them.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 17, 2011)

jthomas1600 said:


> In the summer when it's hot and the A/C won't keep up school t-shirts are allowed instead of the dobok top. Other than that it's pretty much doboks only. Students can buy and wear the cheap (I think$20) uniform through the school or can up grade as long as it's a plain white dobok. Black belts can wear a black color if they want. T-shirts are fine under the dobok. TKD shoes are fine but only 1 or 2 people wear them.



Whereabouts do you live/train and what area/building do you train in?  I live just north of London, England (so the weather is rarely that hot) and we train in a Leisure Centre so it's got decent A/C.

We've certainly never been allowed to wear a T-Shirt (even a club one) nor a black dobok, so that's cool.


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## terryl965 (Mar 17, 2011)

Well I am in Arlington Texas and we are a dobook school, now with that being said we do allow color ones as long as they are V-necks. I also have allowed a t-shirt in the summer time when the A/C just cannot keep up with the summer heat. I only allow a white t-shirt under any type of dobook. As far as shoe's nobody wears them, I do not even mention them to anybody.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 17, 2011)

terryl965 said:


> Well I am in Arlington Texas and we are a dobook school, now with that being said we do allow color ones as long as they are V-necks.



When you say color ones, do you mean a limited set of colours or is it open season?  I've seen red and blue ones and I have to say that I'm not a fan.  But as long as you, that's all that matters.

Out of interest, what uniforms do you wear?



terryl965 said:


> I also have allowed a t-shirt in the summer time when the A/C just cannot keep up with the summer heat.



I can imagine your summer heat being considerable more than ours ;-)



terryl965 said:


> I only allow a white t-shirt under any type of dobook. As far as shoe's nobody wears them, I do not even mention them to anybody.



What would your reaction be if someone did wear them?  Would you ask them outright to remove them?  Drop hints?  How do you feel about them?


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## dancingalone (Mar 17, 2011)

A bit OT, but I was curious if TKD shoes damage to puzzle mats.  Anyone know?  I know the regular wrestling type mats do fine with MA or wrestling shoes.


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## jthomas1600 (Mar 17, 2011)

I live south of Houston Texas. It's more a combination of heat and humidity. With all the traffic in and out of the school (so there door is open all the time) it's pretty warm for the afternoon classes July through September. I don't personally find it necessary to go with just a t-shirt, but it's an option and maybe 15-20% of the students will go with only a t shirt for those months. Always around the end of Sept. they will start reminding everybody that summer is winding down and full uniforms are expected.


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## StudentCarl (Mar 17, 2011)

dancingalone said:


> A bit OT, but I was curious if TKD shoes damage to puzzle mats. Anyone know? I know the regular wrestling type mats do fine with MA or wrestling shoes.


 
On topic first: We're dobok only in class unless you are a guest or are at team practice. At practice anything goes as long as it's functional workout clothing and covers what should be covered. T-shirts and shorts rule, and most people bring a change of shirt.

OT to shoes--I haven't seen damage but I know they grip more than bare feet. I particularly don't like them for spin kicks and will only wear them if assisting with instruction. With six nights a week on the foam floor for 2-3 hours, sometimes the shoes are nice to give my feet a break--usually to let the skin recover a little (gets dry and cracked).


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## SahBumNimRush (Mar 17, 2011)

We are a dobok only class.  No shoes, no rolling of sleeves, no colored doboks, all traditional.  We have some leeway with the brand of uniform as long as it's a traditional wrap around uniform (no V-necks).  Patches are limited to our school patches, U.S. and Korean Flags, USTW, and recently "demo team" (not sure how I feel about that one yet.. .)

Yudanja may have embroidered belts with your name and stripes on one side (right side) and our KJN's name on the other side.


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## sfs982000 (Mar 17, 2011)

Our school we wear our uniforms all the time, we do have the option to wear t-shirts during our sparring class, but the t-shirts have to be either plain white or an ATA shirt.  Our instructors also do not allow us to roll our sleeves up for classes either. We've had a couple of folks wear Tae Kwon Do shoes during class, but that was only because they were dealing with foot injuries, every one else is bare foot.


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## Manny (Mar 17, 2011)

My sambonim is very stricted about this, the only uniform you can wear is a white dobok with the v collar in the same color of the belt, he does not like the sleves rolled, the sleeves must cover the wrist, he allow us to wear a white t shirt only below the dobok, forget about colored t shirts or stamped t shirts only plain white tshirts, doing examination you can't use the white t shirt , about TKD shoes you can wear them on class but not in examination.

You can wear any brand of dobok aproved by sambonim but it has to have the dojang's patch and the dojang's trade mark in the back this means one must buy directly to the sambonim/dojang's org the doboks or give the new dobok to sambonim so he can send it to the person who put the patch and the trade mark.

About belts, colored belts sambonim give us the brand he buy (asiana) about the black belts he bought adidas send them to embroid and it's part of the black belt examination, in on side the name of the person in the other side in korean the name of the dojang's organization.

When someone has no dobok he/her can wear sport white sport clothes.

Manny


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## auxiliary (Mar 17, 2011)

Students wear a white uniform.  We allow white shirts underneath.  We supply them with a uniform when they first join as a part of their trial program.  Most students will have the same uniform for a while until they out grow it or it just gets dirty/old.  After that they just get another one from us.  $29 for the uniform. 

I don't allow to roll the sleeves up.  Maybe a little if the uniform is just a little to big.  I don't allow watches, silly bands, bracelets, and the only jewelry is a wedding ring.  And no shoes. 

I don't tell anyone about them or mention them.  I do have one black belt adult who wears mat shoes but it's because of a physical condition.  However, he's the only one in the school.


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## auxiliary (Mar 17, 2011)

Oh ya! T-shirts.  We allow t-shirts on Saturdays and then also during the summer.  We're in the south and it gets hot fast.  

They must wear a "karate" shirt, something they got at a tournament, through century, or at the school.  This is to make sure that any questionable material isn't on it.  It has to be tucked in while they wear it.


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## Earl Weiss (Mar 17, 2011)

dancingalone said:


> A bit OT, but I was curious if TKD shoes damage to puzzle mats. Anyone know? I know the regular wrestling type mats do fine with MA or wrestling shoes.


 
No issues with damage. Issue is with pivoting. Soles seem to make this difficult.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 17, 2011)

auxiliary said:


> I don't allow to roll the sleeves up.  Maybe a little if the uniform is just a little to big.



We allow the sleeves to be rolled up in that case, but that applies more to the children than adults (adults are expected to buy the right size uniform or have it adjusted).



auxiliary said:


> I don't allow watches, silly bands, bracelets, and the only jewelry is a wedding ring.  And no shoes.



Whoah, you allow people to wear wedding rings?  For us, that's a no-no.  Any jewellery comes off.  If people have an issue with it (oh, I never take my wedding ring off, it's as good as being unfaithful) they don't train with us.

Occasionally if people have just had an earring put in, they MAY get away with a plaster covering a simple stud (during the initial healing), but that's it.


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## chrispillertkd (Mar 17, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> Just wondering this morning how strict your classes are on just wearing a normal/standard dobok?


 
Doboks are worn, standard ITF uniform. The black belts get the embroidered variety (silk screening for color belts because of the cost unless they specially ask for embroidery) with the piping, ITF logo, school patch, ITF "tree" and piping all sewn on. No one gets to "customize" their uniform. They get the standard for their rank (gup, I-III dan, IV dan and up). Same with belts. Only thing on a black belt is your name in Korean and English and your rank. My instructors have also recently started getting their school insignia embroidered on black belts. It looks good, but I prefer just the name and rank look, personally. Nothing on a color belt except a rank stripe (when it's applicable). 

For a while my instructors would allow students to wear club t-shirts instead of uniform tops in the summer but none of the black belts ever did. It's been so long since I've seen anyone do it I'd almost forgotten about it, in fact.

No rolling up sleeves in class and no short sleeved doboks. Truth be told, I've never seen any short sleeved doboks. My instructor had a few back in the day when he started training but I was under the impression that this was something adopted from karate back in the day (sleeves and pant legs didn't reach all the way down) but that got changed by the early 1970s or so. Maybe some of the "korean karate" guys still use such uniforms.

T-shirts can be worn under the dobok if they're plain white. Mostly this is done by women, not men. No one wears track suits or anything like that to warm up since once they get into the training room for class they need to be in uniform. 

Kicking shoes are sometimes worn, but that's usually by people who have foot and/or knee problems and want a little extra support. I've seen some people train in athletic shoes but the kicking shoes are more common (and are still out of the ordinary). 

Pax,

Chris


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## SahBumNimRush (Mar 17, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> We allow the sleeves to be rolled up in that case, but that applies more to the children than adults (adults are expected to buy the right size uniform or have it adjusted).
> 
> 
> 
> ...




We always put it this way, "what's more important to you?  Losing your finger or your ring if that finger gets injured in class, or taking it off for a couple of hours a week?"  It's purely a safety issue with us.  If the finger gets caught in a dobok, or gets stoved or broken, then you risk the ring cutting off circulation, which may lead to A). losing a finger or B). having an EMT cut your ring off to restore adequate circulation.  

Most people don't have a problem with that.


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## Earl Weiss (Mar 17, 2011)

FWIW if you consider the Dobok to be a "uniform" then the word is self evident as to any "customization" being allowed. 

As far as short or rolled up sleeves go, in the olden days and in someopen tournaments today, grabbing was / is allowed. You'd grab a guys sleeve to keep him from backing up while you "Scored".


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## ralphmcpherson (Mar 17, 2011)

We must wear a white wrap around style dobok, strictly no v-neck, if a shirt is worn underneath it must be white. We cannot roll our sleeves up, shoes can be worn but very very rarely have I seen someone actually wear them. Wedding rings are allowed, but no other jewellery. When we train black belt class on an oval we are allowed to wear a black uniform to avoid grass stains, dirt etc wrecking the uniform. My instructor lets his black belts wear black uniforms in class (not gradings), but he is the exception to the rule on this.


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## puunui (Mar 17, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> Just wondering this morning how strict your classes are on just wearing a normal/standard dobok?




We wear plain dobok with no patches on them, other than the ones that are already on there. We only wear white dobok, top and bottom. I do not allow students to roll up their sleeves. You cannot roll up your sleeves at a tournament and you should train how you fight. Also in Hapkido we need the sleeves to do certain self defense techniques. People can wear monogrammed belts, but generally they wear the ones I make for them, which I give them for free. The only thing on the belt is their name on one side and the school name/organization (in two rows) on the other. The monogram is totally in hangul. No stripes on the belts to denote dan rank. I think that looks tacky and none of my teachers ever had any stripes on their belt. Oh, and no training in t shirt or warm ups. Again, you should train in what you have to wear when you fight, which is a white dobok with the sleeves rolled down. And no shoes on the mat. Shoes are bad because again, you cannot wear them at a tournament and it takes away the ability to feel and grip the mat with your feet and toes, which is very important to me.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 18, 2011)

Earl Weiss said:


> FWIW if you consider the Dobok to be a "uniform" then the word is self evident as to any "customization" being allowed.


 
That's a good point.  Does anyone know what &#46020;&#48373; is literally translated to?  Is it simply "Clothes for wearing during training in The Way" or something similar?  We tend to use the word uniform, because even customised versions still have more in common than they do apart, but maybe "outfit" would be a better term.



Earl Weiss said:


> As far as short or rolled up sleeves go, in the olden days and in someopen tournaments today, grabbing was / is allowed. You'd grab a guys sleeve to keep him from backing up while you "Scored".



Very interesting, thanks for that Earl.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 18, 2011)

puunui said:


> We wear plain dobok with no patches on them, other than the ones that are already on there. We only wear white dobok, top and bottom. I do not allow students to roll up their sleeves. You cannot roll up your sleeves at a tournament and you should train how you fight.



That's a fair point.  We don't compete much at our club (we used to but not so much over the past 10 years) so don't tend to think in those terms.  I think our ruling is more along the traditional lines (we never rolled our sleeves up, so you shouldn't do it now).



puunui said:


> Also in Hapkido we need the sleeves to do certain self defense techniques.



That's a good point, I was forgetting about the Hapkido thoughts when I posted the questions.



puunui said:


> People can wear monogrammed belts, but generally they wear the ones I make for them, which I give them for free. The only thing on the belt is their name on one side and the school name/organization (in two rows) on the other. The monogram is totally in hangul. No stripes on the belts to denote dan rank. I think that looks tacky and none of my teachers ever had any stripes on their belt.



None of my teachers ever did in the past either.  Recently my master started doing it and now we all have.  I don't have much of a feeling about it either way (but I do like tasteful customisation), it's helpful when other people come to train with the club so they know where to line up (we line up in grade order, most senior front right, working across to the left, then starting on the next line).



puunui said:


> Oh, and no training in t shirt or warm ups. Again, you should train in what you have to wear when you fight, which is a white dobok with the sleeves rolled down. And no shoes on the mat. Shoes are bad because again, you cannot wear them at a tournament and it takes away the ability to feel and grip the mat with your feet and toes, which is very important to me.



That's another good point.  We train on wooden floors rather than matting, so I tend to naturally think in those terms.  If we were using mats, I'd guess we'd do "no shoes" all the time...more for concerns over wearing them out than worries of grip/feel though.


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## puunui (Mar 18, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> it's helpful when other people come to train with the club so they know where to line up (we line up in grade order, most senior front right, working across to the left, then starting on the next line).



I think it is interesting to see how people line up when you don't know who is senior and who isn't. Some people fight for the senior position, whether in class or even in something like a group photo. 




andyjeffries said:


> TIf we were using mats, I'd guess we'd do "no shoes" all the time...more for concerns over wearing them out than worries of grip/feel though.



Grip and feel of the mat is very important to me. It's something that I emphasize heavily, using the mat to add speed and power to your moves.


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## Kylz (Mar 20, 2011)

My club has doboks with the clubs name embroided on the lower back of the top. However those who have come to our club from others are still welcome to wear other doboks they may have. I am unsure if this changes with gradings however.
We're allowed a plain white t-shirt underneith if we're cold and I haven't seen anyone wear any kind of shoes, it's all bare feet. White belts aren't required to get a dobok until after their first grading which I think is fair. Can't say I've noticed anything about sleeves however I did shorten the sleeves of a couple of mates uniforms a litle while who do ninjutsu that wanted to have half - 3/4 length sleeves.


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## ETinCYQX (Mar 20, 2011)

We do prefer students wear dobaks but quite often I leave my top off and wear a t shirt if I'm not teaching. I also usually wear black t shirts because I like the Adidas Adifit ones, the climate control fabric, and I haven't found any in white.

Uniforms are secondary to us but when we are visiting or we have visitors, it's show up dressed properly or don't bother. (For our students. I don't care what visitors wear.) I teach in shoes sometimes. Gradings, seminars, etc. I wear shoes but I don't train TKD in them, so mainly just if I'm teaching forms, holding boards, or standing around and trying to look professional.



dancingalone said:


> A bit OT, but I was curious if TKD shoes damage to puzzle mats.  Anyone know?  I know the regular wrestling type mats do fine with MA or wrestling shoes.



I use puzzle mats in my home gym and I work out in TaeKwonDo shoes. Had them since December and they hold up just fine. I even use my running shoes on them sometimes and I've had no problems. My TKD shoes don't hurt my straw Tatami mats either.


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## Balrog (Mar 20, 2011)

We wear the dobok during the week, but Saturday is t-shirt day.


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## Daniel Sullivan (Mar 21, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> Whoah, you allow people to wear wedding rings? For us, that's a no-no. Any jewellery comes off. If people have an issue with it (oh, I never take my wedding ring off, it's as good as being unfaithful) they don't train with us.


If you don't mind my asking, what about those who's rings have been on long enough that removal = cutting the band?  

Not disagreeing with your policy (I instruct my student to remove all jewelry and it has not been an issue), but I actually know someone who tried to remove her band after a divorce and the only way that she could get it off was to have the ring cut.  Probably the exception, and she is the only person that I personally know who went through this.  

Anyway, just curious how you would handle it.

Daniel


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## Daniel Sullivan (Mar 21, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> Just wondering this morning how strict your classes are on just wearing a normal/standard dobok?
> 
> At our club, the master is very fussy about people not rolling their sleeves up. I know in the states you can buy short sleeved doboks, I don't think he'd be happy about that either. Are they common in the states/other countries?
> 
> ...


Where I have trained for the past several years (Korean Martial Arts, Inc.), all students are issued a plain white vee neck dobok for taekwondo or a black crossover for hapkido.  

TKD has the school logo printed on the back and black belts may wear either a white vee with a black collar or an all black vee neck at their option. 

HKD has the federation logo printed on the back.  Until this month, mudanja wore a white crossover with a black diamond pattern and yudanja wore a black dobok with a white diamond pattern.  Now, all students and staff wear the black; no pattern.  

Kumdo students wear an indigo dobok (uwagi and hakama) with nothing printed on it; yudanja may wear a white dobok at their option).

No shoes are allowed and a tee is allowed in the summer so long as it is a KMA tee.  

There is no policy regarding dobok customization and aside from mixing and matching.  (white top, black bottom), the issue rarely comes up.   Students who practice both HKD and TKD may wear their HKD doboks to TKD class.  The reverse is not officially banned, but it is discouraged, as the HKD dobok is more durable and more appropriate to practicing HKD.

With my own students, there is no tee shirt option, as I do not have a 'Daniel Sullivan's' garage tee shirt.  That, and I will not allow tee shirts.  Tee shirts get soaked with sweat and are actually more uncomfortable in the heat than the dobok due to being tighter fitting, much, much thinner, and being of a weave that does not breath particularly well.  

Daniel


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## IcemanSK (Mar 21, 2011)

For us it's v-neck white doboks (black collar for BB's). Women wear a t-shirt that coresponds to their belt. I say "no rings" on the floor because I've seen enough problems with the damage the can do to the wearer & the target.

No shoes.But I have been wearing them lately due to a foot problem

My org. requires a screened org. patch on the back of the uniform & several patches. There are black pants, & other items on the doboks for instructors. I wear this dobok only for official events (student belt tests, conferences, etc) although some instructors wear them for every class. When BB's/instructors test, we wear white doboks. In my home dojang I wear all white dobok with a belt embroidered with my name & Taekwondo Chung Do Kwan all in Korean. (No rank stripes)

The official org. black belt has rank stripes & embroidery on it.


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## Earl Weiss (Mar 21, 2011)

Daniel Sullivan said:


> If you don't mind my asking, what about those who's rings have been on long enough that removal = cutting the band?
> 
> 
> Daniel


 

These should be covered with a circle of adhesive cloth bandage tabe so the circles the ring and extends over both sides.


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## andyjeffries (Mar 21, 2011)

Daniel Sullivan said:


> If you don't mind my asking, what about those who's rings have been on long enough that removal = cutting the band?
> 
> Not disagreeing with your policy (I instruct my student to remove all jewelry and it has not been an issue), but I actually know someone who tried to remove her band after a divorce and the only way that she could get it off was to have the ring cut.  Probably the exception, and she is the only person that I personally know who went through this.
> 
> Anyway, just curious how you would handle it.



Hasn't happened yet, so this is hypothetical.  I would imagine we would say it had to be covered with X layers of micropore (surgical) tape where X is probably 3+.  We wouldn't be that harsh to say you had to destroy your property, but they would really have to prove that a little oil/etc wouldn't get it off.


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## zDom (Mar 22, 2011)

Skipped most of this conversation, but what little I did read brings up a story I'm very fond of.

Seems once upon a time, there was a new guy in our hapkido class (I was working out at a different branch at the time).

After a few classes wearing the hapkido dobak (judo gi) he asked,

"So when (as in which month) do we go to wearing just T-shirts?" Everybody just laughed and laughed. 


We wear regular thick judo tops year round, with no air conditioning, in Missouri heat and humidity and do our regular workouts  except on the very hottest day of the year.

On that day, we do an especially hard workout


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## ETinCYQX (Mar 22, 2011)

andyjeffries said:


> Hasn't happened yet, so this is hypothetical.  I would imagine we would say it had to be covered with X layers of micropore (surgical) tape where X is probably 3+.  We wouldn't be that harsh to say you had to destroy your property, but they would really have to prove that a little oil/etc wouldn't get it off.



One lady in our Judo class always wears her wedding ring and that's what she does. I've never asked why she leaves it on, but even she admits it's far from ideal. She's a real sweetheart too, actually


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