What is the minimum gear that should be worn for light-contact striking sparring?

[drop bear]

The question is what are you light sparring for?

That will determine the gear.

 

[drop bear]

By the way my MMA gloves look like this. That is because I am not a garbage person.

 

[skribs]

Traction on what? You "stick" to the chest?

Kick someone with a sweaty shirt, and then you slip on the ground.

It's happened more than once in 6 months of Muay Thai. Never happened in 13 years of TKD.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

At the minimum, you're gonna want to rock a mouthguard, some hand wraps, and boxing gloves. A lot of folks also opt for headgear, especially if you're still learning the ropes. If you're getting kicks involved, don't sleep on shin guards.

I don’t think handwraps are at all necessary for light sparring. Nor are boxing gloves (though I do love them for strikes-only sparring).

 

[Gerry Seymour]

By the way my MMA gloves look like this. That is because I am not a garbage person.

Are those basically boxing padding with finger accessibility?

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Kick someone with a sweaty shirt, and then you slip on the ground.

It's happened more than once in 6 months of Muay Thai. Never happened in 13 years of TKD.

I hadn’t thought of that. Most of my students opted for judo gi, which probably avoids that. I could see it with thinner ones, for sure.

 

[drop bear]

Are those basically boxing padding with finger accessibility?

About as close as you can functionally get.

 

[Tigerwarrior]

I'm just curious what others think. The absolute minimum gear for light contact striking sparring. None? Groin cup? Mouthguard? What type of gloves, if any? Any other pads?

I'm leaving the ruleset open. If you want to answer for something fairly restrictive (i.e. how TKD often has only kicks to the body) then please specify that. Or if the gear is conditional on ruleset, what conditions and how does that change the required gear?

Atleast 16 ounce gloves,mouthguard, maybe a cup. That's the minimum but I'd also recommend shin pads and headgear. I've trained with less before like one school I went to when younger we just warmed up and put gloves on, no mouthguard or anything it was supposed to be just touch sparring but occasionally someone would get the better of someone and it would turn into light or medium contact. I actually believe I got a concussion from that one time. My mom told me I need to wear atleast a mouthguard hoping it would lower the occurrences of flash concussion. But yeah I've literally trained with just gloves before. I've did 1 steps and situational sparring without any gear at all before too but you got to be careful caught a friend with a light elbow once doing situational sparring it wasn't much but he was a noob and his threshold for stuff like that was low. I hate to say it but how often you get punched in the face usually you can handle it better. But don't take that as me saying to just eat head shots, but someone who never has been punched in the face or someone who hasn't in years has a wide awakening to it. I'm one of the ones who hasn't been punched full speed and power in years, but now that I'm getting older full contact full power isn't worth the risk. I'll only spar touch or light. And in tournaments medium contact or less. My training as a teen ager training 3 times a day and sparring everyday full contact has caught up to me some. But to be honest if you were me I'd say you'd need 16oz gloves, a mouth guard, headgear or headgear with a face shield that's the minimum I'd spar with now a days.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

About as close as you can functionally get.

Sweet. I have a pair of "kenpo gloves" (that's what they were called - don't know if they're actually related to kenpo in any way) that are the same idea, but implemented differently. They have actual individual fingers, but thick padding (almost as thick as my boxing gloves) over the hand and fingers. I love sparring with them, because they open enough to include open-hand attacks and some grabbing. They're far too thick for practicing any grip fighting (since you can't really use each other's hands), but are a nice compromise.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

Atleast 16 ounce gloves,mouthguard, maybe a cup. That's the minimum but I'd also recommend shin pads and headgear. I've trained with less before like one school I went to when younger we just warmed up and put gloves on, no mouthguard or anything it was supposed to be just touch sparring but occasionally someone would get the better of someone and it would turn into light or medium contact. I actually believe I got a concussion from that one time. My mom told me I need to wear atleast a mouthguard hoping it would lower the occurrences of flash concussion. But yeah I've literally trained with just gloves before. I've did 1 steps and situational sparring without any gear at all before too but you got to be careful caught a friend with a light elbow once doing situational sparring it wasn't much but he was a noob and his threshold for stuff like that was low. I hate to say it but how often you get punched in the face usually you can handle it better. But don't take that as me saying to just eat head shots, but someone who never has been punched in the face or someone who hasn't in years has a wide awakening to it. I'm one of the ones who hasn't been punched full speed and power in years, but now that I'm getting older full contact full power isn't worth the risk. I'll only spar touch or light. And in tournaments medium contact or less. My training as a teen ager training 3 times a day and sparring everyday full contact has caught up to me some. But to be honest if you were me I'd say you'd need 16oz gloves, a mouth guard, headgear or headgear with a face shield that's the minimum I'd spar with now a days.

Why do you require 16 oz. gloves for light sparring? (Genuinely curious - not contesting it, as you may have some good reasoning behind it.)

 

[drop bear]

Why do you require 16 oz. gloves for light sparring? (Genuinely curious - not contesting it, as you may have some good reasoning behind it.)

I say just buy the 16s as a default regardless.

And use them for everything.

 

[HighKick]

I say just buy the 16s as a default regardless.

And use them for everything.

They augment the workout to be sure. But it can be rough sparring with someone who is new to using them.

 

[drop bear]

They augment the workout to be sure. But it can be rough sparring with someone who is new to using them.

It depends how many gloves you want to buy. Or you want everyone else to buy.

16s you can use light or heavy. Sparring or bag work.

So I have one set of them and one set of those MMA sparring gloves and that's it.

 

[Gerry Seymour]

I say just buy the 16s as a default regardless.

And use them for everything.

That has been my go-to with students (other than bare hands for the lightest sparring). I like to play with other glove mixes for some things, but the big gloves are a nice workout, as well as being good for sparring.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Absolute minimum? Depends on how injury accepting you are. When I started in 1968 or so, there were no sparring pads. I'll still spar that way, but only with someone whose control I trust.

 

[skribs]

Absolute minimum? Depends on how injury accepting you are. When I started in 1968 or so, there were no sparring pads. I'll still spar that way, but only with someone whose control I trust.

I'm not too worried about superficial injuries, i.e. small bumps and bruises.

 

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

The minimum that I think should be done is cup and mouthguard. They don't have any big negative drawbacks, and it's easy to accidentally get hit in privates or the mouth, even if both people have good control.

The minimum that I will spar is no gear whatsoever. Done that a lot. But I've also been hit in the nuts a lot, gotten concussions and had my tooth broken. Which is why that's not what should be done.

Just for fun, I'll add stick in here - you can strike with a stick, with light contact. If there's a stick involved, hockey/lacrosse gloves and a fencing helmet. I've seen people just use goggles, but IMO if you're actually sparring you should have a helmet. To easy for someone to jump in at the wrong time, or a stick to slip under goggles, or in the mouth.

 

[JowGaWolf]

Instead of what is the minimum, the question may need to be worded as. What's the minimum needed to ensure a good amount of safety with a random sparring partner.

The more control that I have and the more control that my sparring partner has will influence tha amount of safety gear that I will wear. I've done light sparring where I didn't wear any gear but in fairness it was with a person with good control and we weren't really going at each other. The striking was more like a walk through. If your sparring partner is focused on winning then gearing up would be wise.

Like many things with training there is no one answer or recommendation that is a "one size fits all"

 

[MetalBoar]

It's funny, when I was a gym owner I had people accuse me of being overly cautious but it sounds like I'm on the reckless end of things when it comes to sparring, based on this thread. When it comes to exercise I am very cautious about client safety because the whole point is to improve your health and physical capacity. If you hurt yourself working out that's the opposite of your goal. To be clear, when I say exercise I mean physical activity that's primary and perhaps sole purpose is to increase fitness and strength.

That being said, while exercise may be part of my goal for MA training (and the older I get, the more this is true), if I'm doing MA some acceptance of risk, and some tolerance for pain, is usually necessary if I'm going to actually develop the skills I'm trying to learn. When sparring I'm not a big fan of a lot of padding nor of heavy gloves. I think that may have its place, but if it's always used, and considered to to be the minimum in all circumstances, I think it's going to teach bad habits and in some cases may be more dangerous than just a mouthguard and cup. If I decide that I want almost no risk of injury and almost no risk of experiencing pain I'll go back to fencing exclusively, it's a fantastic martial sport and fits those requirements almost perfectly.

In MA training I've only ever used 16oz gloves when I was training boxing and I've never worn more than cup, mouthguard, gloves/hand wraps, and headgear in any empty hand art for any level of contact. I've primarily used MMA gloves, or "kenpo" gloves like Gerry referenced, though I've also done some sparring without gloves. I tend to agree with Monkey Turned Wolf that mouthguard and cup is the minimum that should be done. If you have to go to work and can't have any bruising on your face maybe you need gloves and headgear to protect against that. Overall, similar to what Dirty Dog said, a lot of it comes down to risk aversion and pain tolerance.

Even then, I think there's a lot of discussion to be had about the definition of "risk" when it comes to any sparring, especially when the head is a legal target. Padding the head or hands may just mean that you can get your brain shaken up a lot more before you decide you need to quit. I know that when I was boxing it often seemed like light and even moderate sparring just felt like an aggressive pillow fight (at worst) in terms of pain most of the time, but despite this, I have been left seeing stars from a sparring session. So it didn't hurt, and I wasn't visibly injured, but there was probably at least some minimal brain injury going on. Is the padding really making me safer in that case?

EDIT: I also want to add that I'm not judging anyone else's decisions and that everyone should wear whatever they feel is appropriate. When discussing "minimum" padding, I mean the minimum that anyone should do, ever, for a reasonable level of safety. For some circumstances more may be appropriate. Some people may choose to spar with less, they should just be aware that if they skip a cup or mouthguard their risk of getting more than bumps and bruises has increased substantially.

 

[Oily Dragon]

The minimum that I think should be done is cup and mouthguard. They don't have any big negative drawbacks, and it's easy to accidentally get hit in privates or the mouth, even if both people have good control.

The minimum that I will spar is no gear whatsoever. Done that a lot. But I've also been hit in the nuts a lot, gotten concussions and had my tooth broken. Which is why that's not what should be done.

Just for fun, I'll add stick in here - you can strike with a stick, with light contact. If there's a stick involved, hockey/lacrosse gloves and a fencing helmet. I've seen people just use goggles, but IMO if you're actually sparring you should have a helmet. To easy for someone to jump in at the wrong time, or a stick to slip under goggles, or in the mouth.

I was going to say, empty handed protective gear and weapons gear are totally different universes. Between the lacerations and flying teeth (especially from even light staff sparring), you have to be proportional when it comes to safety. Sturdy helmet makes total sense in any situation where blunt contact with an object is possible. Dog Brothers 101. I'd rather have limited helmet vision than take a pole (or a finger) to the eyeball.

On wrapping hands/gloving hands when sparring...I have to point out the elephant in the room so I'll do it with a personal anecdote.

I set up a heavy bag for a student once. It was a canvas bag, with a rough surface, not polyvinyl that most people are used to in a gym. I come to use the bag myself one day and notice it is absolutely covered in blood. A hundred splotches of dark red all over the thing.

I asked the kid "what happened", and he said he trained for an hour on the bag to "toughen his hands". I said " yeah but now my best bag is a biohazard and I have to throw it out". HE looked at me confused, and I told him next time at least wrap your knuckles or wear some light gloves. His knuckles looked terrible, and honestly, probably infected (I hadn't cleaned that bag in months).

The same issue goes for sparring whenever skin contact and damage is possible. IT makes total sense to protect the surface of the hands somehow, to avoid transmission of anything from Hepatitis to HIV. In many competition formats its totally normal to bleed all over your opponent, but there are tests and protocols to prevent infection. Those are not in place for most places that do hand to hand sparring (in any art), making it a fine and dandy way of spreading disease. So for that reason alone, I never recommend sparring without some sort of hand protection. Boxing wraps in particular have a long, long history of protecting the wrist and fist from not just structural damage, but also skin damage, and skin is the body's #1 defense from foreign infection. So for me, hand wraps are always on, minimally (along with jock protection and a mouthguard, even in BJJ you take the occasional elbow or foot).

And there are far better ways of toughening the skin of the knuckles than bleeding all over my @!#%& favorite heavy bag, or your training partner.