Essential Gear for MMA Sparring

When a prospective student attends a trial class at the Fairfax Jiu-Jitsu academy’s MMA program, one of the top question that they ask me is, “What type of gear will I need for MMA classes?”  Occasionally potential students will arrive to class with gear they have previously owned from other combat sports like kickboxing/boxing or they will make assumptions about what they need based upon what they see fighters wear on TV.

This is my attempt to clarify what I, as an MMA coach for the past 9 years, believe is the proper gear for MMA training.  I’ll begin with the essential gear.

*Note* I am not recommending any particular brand, simply the type or gear an athlete should own. Much like vehicles, sparring gear can come in all colors and shapes and can be very cheap or very expensive. Look to reputable, well-known brands from the combat sports. Ex. If you are looking at gloves and shin guards look for highly regarded boxing and muay thai brands like Boon, Fairtex, Windy, Twins, Ringside, Title, CSI for equipment.  Think about the value of each piece of equipment. If you buy cheaply-made vinyl gear, don’t be shocked when it’s life-cycle is much shorter than those who bought higher quality leather gear. A new student should probably look at gear that’s in the middle of the price range for the best cost-to-value ratio.

So let’s talk gear!

The Essentials:

Groin Protector/ Cup

Let’s be real here, any time you’re involved in a combat sport involving kicking and kneeing, you will get hit in the groin accidentally. Now amplify that by the intensity of your sparring session and you could be facing serious injury! You must wear a cup gentlemen! There are dozens of manufacturers and types of cups out there ranging from plastic flex cups, to muay thai steel cups. Bottom line: Wear one.

Mouth guard

Another no-brainer.  Protect your grill !   :-D will become :-( when you lose teeth (and see your dental bill).  There are several types of mouth guards including single and double coverage. Most are custom-fitted by using the boil-n-bite method at home, while other high end mouth guards are custom molded by doing an alginate mold.  A bruise will heal, sprain will eventually go away, but broken teeth are forever.  Protect them as best as you can.

Hand wraps

You will need to purchase 180” Semi-elastic, aka. “Mexican” hand wraps  These wraps have the required length to protect an adult sized hand and the elasticity will aid in giving for support with the right amount of give as you strike.  Far too often a prospective student will come in to his first class with 120” canvas hand wraps.  These are actually wraps for juniors and while may be OK for “the basement boxer” of the cardio kickboxer, they won’t give you the protection you’ll need during multiple rounds of bagwork/padwork/sparring in a proper striking class such as MMA  muay thai or boxing.

Gloves
There are 3 types of gloves an MMA athlete should own

1. Training / Sparring gloves

Fairly self-explanatory, they will only be used during sparring where the focus is on striking.  These gloves protect your hands and will take a little bit of the sting off of some of your blows.  

A quick rule of thumb that I follow for the number of ounces of padding:  If you're under 160 lbs. get 14 oz. gloves, over 160lbs. get 16 oz., if you're over 220 get 18 oz.

Some students ask about the difference between Muay Thai style gloves and Boxing style gloves.  Due to the nature of Muay Thai’s kicks and elbows, the Thai gloves have developed to be a more square-shaped hand box, with more of the padding applied evenly to the back of the boxer’s hand for protection versus a boxer’s glove which has more front-loaded padding over the knuckles because the hands are the boxer’s only weapons.  For the purposes of MMA, either is perfectly acceptable. Both will provide ample protection during sparring. It’s really about personal preference and comfort.

Training gloves should have an attached thumb for safety as to avoid an accidental eye poke.

2. Bag gloves

These gloves will be the workhorse of most of your heavy bag and pad work. Typically these gloves will be smaller, 9-12oz. but they are made with a much denser foam padding which will protect your hand from the impact better than the softer padding of a training/sparring glove.

For MMA class, an athlete should choose a glove that has either a Hook-and-loop or elastic cuff. In class you are often partnered up for pad/bag work and need to be able to transition quickly as not to cut into your partner’s pad time.

A commonly asked question I get is, “I can only afford one pair coach.  Which ones should I get?”

100% of the time -Training gloves.  Training gloves can serve dual roles as sparring and bag gloves but it’s important to remember that the more bag work you do with them, the more quickly they will break down and provide less protection when sparring.  It’s very important to pay attention to the leather of the glove. Bag work/pad work is naturally abrasive and that is going to wear down the leather over your glove’s knuckles - the same place you are trying to strike with. Small cracks and tears in the leather can cause injury to your training partner when the punch hits skin.  To help with this, occasionally take a little dab of petroleum jelly and rub it into the gloves to keep the leather pliable before class and reduce friction, and wipe them dry after class for storage and to remove any sweat and oils from training.

3. MMA Training gloves

This is the glove that my MMA  students wear when they are doing light striking, clinch fighting (including “dirty boxing”) takedowns and ground work.  The gloves have an open palm and allow the MMA athlete to have full use of his grip during grappling.  The most significant difference between MMA Training gloves vs. MMA Fighting gloves are the fingers.  MMA Training gloves do not have individual fingers. Instead there is a large, single pad covering the knuckle area with a single seam or protective piping along the bottom edge of the 2^nd digits of the hand.  This is often called a “Shooto” style design.  This allows the athletes to strike with light to medium contact and train safely while engaging in striking and grappling.  MMA Fighting gloves are lighter in weight 4-5oz. and have individual fingers. Why is this an issue? In some fight gloves, there is a sharp edge on each corner of the finger, making  8 very sharp edges at the end of your second digit. With this design problem, even light strikes can cause scratches and cuts that can ruin an otherwise good training practice, even possibly blinding your training partner if you were to cut his eye.

  *Note I have been noticing that many manufacturers are aware of the design problem and are now tapering down the edges and sealing them with piping which is much better, however they are still lighter and offer less protection.  MMA training gloves allow athletes to raise the contact level if necessary, allowing athletes to integrate grappling and striking.


Shinguards

While all of our bagwork and padwork is done without shin guards for the purposes of conditioning, when it is time to spar with kicks, shinguards are a must. For MMA which involves kick catches and takedowns integrated with striking, I’m very partial to the MMA/grappling style shinguards which have a neoprene backing across the calf. This backing keeps the shin guards in place where the conventional striking guards would twist or slide and the sparring would have to be stopped to adjust.  Some students ask about the slip-on style shinguards. In my opinion they might be acceptable for very light sparring, they are not substantial enough to use for heavier contact. Why buy two pairs of shin guards?

That completes my list of essential gear for MMA sparring.

But wait coach..  “What about headgear?”

Ah headgear..  The subject brings up a very complicated topic for me regarding sparring, in which I hope to discuss in a future blog.  For now I’ll give you the “Reader’s Digest version” of my philosophy regarding headgear.

a.       You want it? Wear it! I fully understand many people have conditions which make it a must. Do what you must to train well, train safe, and train fun. Are you going to engage in a lot of hard boxing and kickboxing sparring? Wear it! 

b.      I've noticed something over the years. When headgear is worn, the contact level goes through the roof and the skill level of the sparring drops dramatically. Instead of mutual respect and control, it becomes “rock ‘em, sock ‘em robots”.   Notice that boxing headgear is thick around the eyebrows and cheekbones and has little to no padding over the chin.  Headgear is designed to prevent accidental cuts, it will not prevent knock outs!

c.       Clinching while wearing headgear is just awful!  With pure boxing or kickboxing it’s fine, but when you begin to grab the head or a collar tie as in muay thai and MMA, it is almost impossible for it to stay secured.

If you are local to the Northern Virginia/Washington DC metro area you should stop by the NHBGear Pro Shop in Herndon VA.  The owner, Sam Kim,  is very knowledgeable about all of the equipment I've listed and typically has several versions of each component, ex. multiple types of training gloves, MMA gloves, shinguards etc.  For anyone interested in combat sports, walking into his shop is like a kid in a candy store! He's got everything you'll need.                  


If you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear from you.

As mentioned above, my next blog will discuss sparring - purpose, intensity, contact, etc.

Stay safe, Have Fun!

Bill Easlick