My thaughts on sparring gear.

[Whitebelt]

I've done quite alot of sparring in my martial arts career (but im sure hardly any on the scale of some of the people on this forum), from hour long, light tae kwon do sessions when I was 12 to 15, to quarter of an hour to a half of more laboured sparring in Nampaichuan kungfu between 15 and my present age. The most padding i usually use is a gumshield and a box, but recently I've been having to wear more for gradings and in special sparring classes as exercise for a competition.

My point is, having tried both, I've found that you get more hurt when wearing the ponderous and clumsy body pads and helmets, than when you are only wearing gumshield and box. My thaughs are that A) the body pad resticts your arm movement so you cant block to your center properly pr something, B) the feeling of protection makes people more agressive either thinking that you cant hurt your opponent or simply because it feels more professional, and C) the helmets create a closed in feeling from the lack of peripheral vision they allow so that you get more panicky and its harder to see your opponents movements.


Does sparring in these dreadnaught like constructions get easyer with practice or does it remain a horrificly graceless affair?
Does anyone share my beleif that pads make sparring more dangerous (the added protection inviting added agression)?
Am I just a wussy crybaby who is scared of the big scary men in armour?


Thanks in advance for your replies
Fire at will!

 

[Andrew Green]

Does anyone share my beleif that pads make sparring more dangerous (the added protection inviting added agression)?

Depends on the pads, they can. Padding should protect you from serious injury, but not try to prevent you from realizing a simple fact, getting hit sucks.

I think the real danger is when people go from no contact fighting to full contact fighting without any real training in full contact training. They are very different games, and playing the game as if it where no contact fighting, except landing things hard is a dangerous practice.

Personally I prefer the tried and tested sparring equipment that goes back 100+ years: Boxing gloves

 

[MJS]

I've done quite alot of sparring in my martial arts career (but im sure hardly any on the scale of some of the people on this forum), from hour long, light tae kwon do sessions when I was 12 to 15, to quarter of an hour to a half of more laboured sparring in Nampaichuan kungfu between 15 and my present age. The most padding i usually use is a gumshield and a box, but recently I've been having to wear more for gradings and in special sparring classes as exercise for a competition.

My point is, having tried both, I've found that you get more hurt when wearing the ponderous and clumsy body pads and helmets, than when you are only wearing gumshield and box. My thaughs are that A) the body pad resticts your arm movement so you cant block to your center properly pr something, B) the feeling of protection makes people more agressive either thinking that you cant hurt your opponent or simply because it feels more professional, and C) the helmets create a closed in feeling from the lack of peripheral vision they allow so that you get more panicky and its harder to see your opponents movements.


Does sparring in these dreadnaught like constructions get easyer with practice or does it remain a horrificly graceless affair?
Does anyone share my beleif that pads make sparring more dangerous (the added protection inviting added agression)?
Am I just a wussy crybaby who is scared of the big scary men in armour?


Thanks in advance for your replies
Fire at will!

Depending on the training session, different gear can be used. For example, if you're training MMA, then the gloves that they wear, along with a mouthpiece and groin protection should be all you need, due to the fact that wearing anything else will probably interfere with what you're doing.

I've had sessions where one person is in a redman suit. Again, I'm training something specific, so wearing that extra padding, allows me to bang harder, and do things such as an elbow to the head, that normal headgear wouldn't allow.

My typical sparring gear consists of gloves (not the typical foam dipped sparring gloves), mouthpiece and a full face headgear. This allows a bit more contact to the head/face area without the risk of injury. And yes, some will say that you may get lazy in your defense of your head. However, just because your face is fully covered doesn't mean you should be lax on your defense. I'm still very aware of guarding my head. I've also used an open face headgear.

And I've also had some sessions where no gear was used at all. Light to med. contact to the body with punches and kicks. The head shots were more slaps than closed fist punches. Doing this though, there really needs to be a mutual understanding between the 2 parties. We are working something specific and agree prior what will/will not be done.

 

[Twin Fist]

I hate chest protectors and encourage my students not to wear them.

But then again, i also tell them only fools dont wear shin gaurds.....

gloves, boots and head gear is required by my insurance carrier, so those are mandatory.

 

[JadeDragon3]

What in the heck is a gum shield and a box? Do you mean a mouth guard and a cup (groin protector)?

At my school we wore hand pads, foot pads, and mouth guard. Groin cup was optional. And we went hard contact. No head gear was required nor was shin guards. Although you could wear them if you wanted.

 

[Andrew Green]

What in the heck is a gum shield and a box? Do you mean a mouth guard and a cup (groin protector)?

That is what is meant, those crazy Europeans and there funky terminology

 

[JadeDragon3]

Yeah those crazy Europeans and their terminology. The one that gets me is the term pissed meaning drunk.

 

[bowser666]

I personally think you only need a few things, shin guards, cup , and a good defense. This is all your really need. Other sparring gear I find too cumbersome.

 

[Whitebelt]

Yeah those crazy Europeans and their terminology. The one that gets me is the term pissed meaning drunk.

Aye boyo, but for me its you who's talking funky, just count yourself lucky I dont use LOL or TXT speak. But as we say in Wales, there is more than one way to shear a sheep.


It is interesting to see how many people share my view on chest protectors, and still they are used widely in the (striking) MA world.

I have gethered from some of the posts that I may only notice the protection a chest protector gives if I were to spar two identical rounds with the guard on and with the guard off, but i still maintain that it is probably best to learn to spar without such protection so as not to become too reliant, gradually easing up the contact level throughout ones career so as to avoid the traumatic transition that Andrew mentioned. But hey, maybe I'm wrong.

 

[JadeDragon3]

you know, I have never used a chest protector nor have I seen any of my classmates use them while we sparred. Actually I take that back.....we had one girl that used one to protect her boobs but she was the only one. Come to think of it she had a pretty nice rack on her. I'd protect them to if I were her.....LOL.

 

[Jade Tigress]

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[Hyper_Shadow]

Can't speak for womens gear, but when I spar the only thing I wear is my mitts (I wear my box as a standard as should any sensible male!). I don't use a head guard it stifles my periphery and makes my head to hot. I don't wear a gum shield mainly cuz I like to give out pointers to my students when I spar them. Plus I don't like dribbling all over the mats since I clean em up.