In kickboxing......why where hand gloves, when you don't where foot gloves?

[Cobra]

It makes no sense to me in kickboxing, it is a rule to where some kind of padding on you hand, but no padding on your feet is required. Sure, punching strikes are easier to land, but kicking strikes are three times more powerful and longer and most likely can do more damage than a punch. Yet they leave the feet bare and open for a person to do a devarstating kick. Same in many MMA competions like Pride or UFC. Why don't they require leg pads?

 

[Thesemindz]

At least in boxing, the pads aren't worn to protect the opponent, they are worn to protect the small bones in the hand from being crushed. This might not be as big a deal with feet because,

1. Many kicks are landed with parts of the foot and leg other than the toes, ie. shin, heel, instep, which are less likely to be broken.

2. Far fewer kicks are landed than punches, again reducing the possibility of injury.

3. Foot pads or protective gear might increase the risk of tripping or falling, causing repeated delays in the fight.

I don't really know if those answers are correct or not, but remember, the pads aren't worn because they want to limit the damage the combatants do to each other, they are worn to prolong the fight by protecting the weapons of the fighters from harm.


-Rob

 

[Cobra]

At least in boxing, the pads aren't worn to protect the opponent, they are worn to protect the small bones in the hand from being crushed. This might not be as big a deal with feet because,

1. Many kicks are landed with parts of the foot and leg other than the toes, ie. shin, heel, instep, which are less likely to be broken.

2. Far fewer kicks are landed than punches, again reducing the possibility of injury.

3. Foot pads or protective gear might increase the risk of tripping or falling, causing repeated delays in the fight.

I don't really know if those answers are correct or not, but remember, the pads aren't worn because they want to limit the damage the combatants do to each other, they are worn to prolong the fight by protecting the weapons of the fighters from harm.


-Rob

So then it is not a rule and they choose to wear it for protection. So if they want they don't have to wear it, right? I wouldn't wear them. It slows your punches down and reduces the amount of damage you inflict. I personally punch my punching with no gloves or taping. And havn't broken anything yet. It feels normal to me.

 

[Thesemindz]

No, it is a rule. I didn't say it wasn't a rule. I said the rule was there for a reason, and that reason is to protect the fighter's weapons.


-Rob

 

[Marginal]

So then it is not a rule and they choose to wear it for protection. So if they want they don't have to wear it, right? I wouldn't wear them. It slows your punches down and reduces the amount of damage you inflict. I personally punch my punching with no gloves or taping. And havn't broken anything yet. It feels normal to me.

I'd argue that you can actually hit harder with gloves, even the thinner MMA gloves reduce the shock a lot. Makes a big difference in the amount of power you're willing to invest into a strike.

 

[Han-Mi]

I have kickboxed a few times. The gloves are annoying if you're not used to them, but they do protect your hands more from busting open than busting up. The contact of fist to face leaves a potential of blood from both fighters. This is a bad thing. Also, It's just what they did early on because it identifies with boxing.

 

[kenpo12]

So then it is not a rule and they choose to wear it for protection. So if they want they don't have to wear it, right? I wouldn't wear them. It slows your punches down and reduces the amount of damage you inflict. I personally punch my punching with no gloves or taping. And havn't broken anything yet. It feels normal to me.

But, the bag doesn't have any part as hard as a skull and it's not bobbing and weaving from you.

 

[Gentle Fist]

Fights would be a lot shorter if you took the gloves off, a lot more dangerous as well. Kicking boxing has ended a lot of people's careers, taking the gloves off would just make it a quicker process.

 

[kenpo2dabone]

The reason that gloves were made to be worn originally was to prolong fights and make them more brutal. Not for protection punchee but for the protection of the puncher. There were not a lot of strikes to the head because you stood a good chance of breaking your hand if you did. It is hard to fight with a broken hand. The fights would end as a result. This was not good for the fans or revenue. The fighters would throw punches more often to the softer parts of the body such as kidneys and ribs. This was not good for the fans or for revenue. As a result boxing gloves were invented. They were designed to entice fighter to throw more blows to the head so the bouts had a better chance of ending in a knock out rather than exhaustion or injury. I don't know if it is a fact but I beleive to be true that early boxers would tuck there chin in order to protect their chin and make their forhead the leading portion of the face. A boxer could then move his forhead in line with a strike so that a punch to head was a punch to the forhead which is the second hardest bone in the body next to the heel. Try punching someone in the forhead and see if you ever want to do it again. BTW that last tid bit about blocking with your forhead is something that I got from the movie Gladiators. Not to be mixed up with the movie Gladiator. Gladiators stared Cuba Gooding Jr. I know movies are not the best source of information but when it was mentioned in the movie it made sense to me. If I have to take a punch to the head I would want it to land square on my forhead.

Salute,

Mike Miller UKF

 

[OULobo]

Early UFCs allowed fighters the option of gloves and it was disasterous for the strikers. They would be eliminated after their first fight because they all had broken hands. I think I remember two fighters that won bowing out because of broken fists. The grapplers on the other hand had no problem.

American kickboxing usually had pads on the feet and legs, until the Thai influence began. Thai kicks are so much more shin centered that the instep pads weren't needed and shin pads only reduced the amount of damage you could apply to soft targets like the thigh.