Use Proper Safety Gear

We as martial artists need to practice our techniques on resistance equipment. Instead of just punching in the air, or "dry land swimming" as Bruce Lee called it, we must make contact with different types of targets. And then there is sparring, when we make contact with each other. I don't know about you, but twenty years down the road I don't want to be hearing those bells that aren't really there. I want to make sure I use the best safety gear for the appropriate training. I practice full contact. I need gear that will protect my hands and wrists, shin and insteps, groin and kidneys, head, and mouth. You see, the human body can take punishment but it isn't designed to be hit. Lets begin with your hands and wrists. These are very fragile areas and just holding your wrist at a wrong angle during a punch can easily break any one of the eight bones located there. If you think that's sounds bad, consider the hand has twenty-seven bones. So, when practicing full contact against a heavy bag or a real opponent, you will want a good pair of hand wraps. If you have ever watched a boxer in the gym, you should know what these are. They are long bands of very strong and flexible gauze like material. You loop a strap around your thumb and follow a specific pattern around your hand until you reach the velcro strap on the other end. When you are done, it will essentially look as if you are wearing thick, wrist length gloves with no fingers. This will keep your hand semi insulated and fairly stable. MMA and kickboxing practitioners have jumped on the band wagon with boxers and have incorporated these into their essential fight gear. These are not mean to be used alone though. You need gloves also. Here is where things start getting tricky. For a very long time, martial artists didn't use gloves...of any sort. Bare knuckles where the normal fighting practice. But before you freak out, consider that the fighters of the day weren't actually allowed to make hard contact in competition. Unless you fought in certain specific states you would be required to pull your techniques short. This changed around 1972 when Master Jhoon Rhee innovated the idea of martial artists wearing safety gear (See "History of Martial Arts: History, Traditions, People" by John Corcoran). This allowed much more contact to be made. Unfortunately, the material used for the sparring gloves, and is still popularly in use today, was made of foam. Foam was never made for insulation or safety, it was made for flotation. This resulted in the safety gear being nearly as dangerous as bare knuckles. I remember sparring with one of my more advanced students who was much bigger than me and we were both using the foam safety gloves. I had helped him develop a mean right hand lead and one day he caught me square in the side of the head with it, right in the temple region. I shook it off at the time but I had some severe headaches for the next two weeks. It was partially because I was an idiot and not using head gear, but mostly it was because of the thin, insufficient insulation of the gloves we were using. I probably had a minor concussion. What my student and I should have been wearing were a good, 12-16 oz set of boxing gloves from a reliable company like Everlast or Top Gear. Many people think boxing gloves will hurt more, but they save you from a world of pain and injury. It provides good insulation for your hands and wrists. High quality boxing gloves will actually allow you to punch a brick wall without damaging your hands. And with all the newest technology being put into these gloves, they just keep getting safer and safer to use. They will also protect your head. That insulation and shock absorbing technology could save you from anything from a headache to severe brain damage. They also build very real confidence. From my first day studying boxing, theres nothing I love quite as much as putting on a good pair of boxing gloves. Now for the foot gear. Unfortunately, the exact same story entails here but without one important detail: there were no boxing gloves for your feet to replace the foam foot pads. What eventually came about was the use of shin guards. Martial arts like Muay Thai use protective shin and instep guards that are exceptionally safe for both the weapon and target. I highly recommend you pick up a pair of these and ditch your old foam foot gear. The great thing is now with all the major martial arts suppliers putting shin guards on the market, there are many different styles. Although people associate shine guards with hard and heavy kicking, there are also very light shin guards that will enable practitioners of Tae Kwon Do to keep there quick lead leg and spin kicks. Next, you need good mouth gear. Once again, technology steps into save the day. Not only will being hit in the mouth possibly damage or remove your teeth, but the shock may damage your brain. When people go down from a punch in the chin, it's not because we have any vital organs in our chin. It's because of the shock through the jaw bone into the brain. Originally, fighters used once piece mouth guards. These were better than nothing but still inadequate. Then came along the double sided mouth guard that could actually conform to your mouth structure if you dipped it in hot water first, much like making your own dentures. This helped protect the teeth, but the brain was still suffering. Shock waves travel through rubber too. Now days we have some really nice mouth guards by Shock Doctor. They are expensive but highly worth it. You would probably end up paying more for capped teeth or a CAT scan. Buy the mouth guard. If you have a school, you can usually purchase them in bulk for a major discount. Now for the groin and kidneys. You do not know the meaning of fear until your third degree black belt sparring partner side kicks you right next to the groin area by mistake. The best groin and kidney protection will again come from boxing suppliers. They have been making them for over half a century and they are getting pretty good at it. I won't go into detail but you can find what you need with Everlast, the oldest and best boxing company there is. Just be sure that you buy a product with proper insulation and don't be fooled by any cheap foam models from unreliable companies. Last but certainly not least, is the head. In fact, it is the most crucial area to protect. Your brain is the command and control center of the body. When it has a problem, your life changes forever. When it shuts down, your life ends. And in fighting you will be making lots of contact to your opponent's head and you will take contact to your own. It's crucial you choose good effective head gear. Once again, no cheap foam models most schools use. It may help against a backfist or ridge hand, but when you get caught with a spin hook kick or round house with the shin, you will wish you had made a better selection...if you can remember anything, that is. The more reliable the company name is with professional fighting organizations, the more expensive the product, and the newer the research, odds are, the better the head gear is. It's not cheap but was is cheap that's worth buying, especially when your health is on the line? Of course, some good advice will also help some. Such as, remember that when you are sparring, you aren't working on power. Your sparring sessions should be dedicated to practicing and perfecting distancing and timing along with strategic principles. You need power on the heavy bag. So it's important to know how to train and to know what safety gear you should use accordingly. Otherwise, you will have people looking at you funny when you are seventy and constantly shouting "Someone answer that phone!".