What Mitts do you use?

[Neurotic]

Heya all,

I was just wondering what sort of mitts and/gloves people use for their sparring sessions?

I've gone through (personal experience):

Cotton split finger mitts - these were okay for a while, but I realised they didn't really offer much protection for the other person as sparring got heavier.

Foam hand guard - I found that these tore the skin off my hands, as the plastic parts just rubbed during sparring. On top of this, it was highly difficult to pull my hand back.


Everlast Leather Speedball glove - This is the leather glove, with an open end, allowing your fingertips through. I'm still testing out this glove, and am quite happy with it. That being said, its not as 'soft' as, say a larger boxing glove, so it is not ideal for more full contact sparring. It does however, give a full range of hand motion.

I've yet to actually try out a boxing glove, as I feel that the lack of hand motion would probably drive me nuts, as well as the ability to not be able to grab.

That also being said - as my training is progressing, I am leaning more and more towards harder and harder training session. Obviously I want to minimise injuries, so the appropriate equipment is a must.

Ideally some sort of MMA mit may be the answer, however (as far as I can tell) there does not seem to be many around Australia that I have yet to find.

So, to get back to my point - what mitts/gloves do you use? How good do you find them? in what sort of training do you use them?

P.S. - if you could link to any sites in which a particularly good glove is sold, it would be much appreciated.

[Losttrak]

Foamed coated for your point/continous sparring

14-16 oz for our full contact bouts.

As demonstrated recently with a sparring partner getting his ribs broken, even 16oz do little to protect the body from the blows... Always good to have a chest protector for more "intense" sessions.

[yuanfen]

No mitts.

Joy C.

[t_niehoff]

Mitts? Gloves? What are they for? Is this WCK you're practicing? TN

Terence

[kj]

Originally posted by yuanfen
No mitts.

Joy C.

Same here.

Regards,
- kj

[bglenn]

For hard sparring nothing better than 16oz gloves ringside makes agood brand.Dont go cheap on head gear either because you will regret it later when your forget who you are,after getting knocked senseless.

[UltimateFighter]

Originally posted by t_niehoff
Mitts? Gloves? What are they for? Is this WCK you're practicing? TN

Terence

Yes! Didn't anyone tell you this is Wing Chun/Tsun the FIGHTING ART where people SPAR as part of training. This has been part of traditional training since the beginning when they wore straw gloves. Time to learn real wing chun!

[yuanfen]

Time to learn real wing chun!
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There we go again.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[t_niehoff]

Ultimatesheep wrote:

Yes! Didn't anyone tell you this is Wing Chun/Tsun the FIGHTING ART where people SPAR as part of training. This has been part of traditional training since the beginning when they wore straw gloves. Time to learn real wing chun! AS

Yes, I understand WCK is a fighting method (and we fight as part of our training - not "spar"), but I still don't see the need for gloves or mitts (which only serve as hand protectors). WCK isn't kickboxing and with our expression of power force is released *after* contact, thus we don't require hand protection (if you are throwing bombs and need to protect your hands from injury by wearing mitts I suggest shotokan might interest you). TN

Terence

[wingchunalex]

tc media has nice gloves, the fingers go through them. i think they are grappling gloves. (this company advertises in kung fu magazine? or at least use to). century's wrap around bag gloves (the $50 ones, with the nice padding) work well for sparring. I put a pice of elastic around the velcroe so it doesn't come undone. (they stink as bag gloves). or century has other good selections. but yeah, point sparring plastic foam dipped ones stink.

[Neurotic]

Thanks for the replies fellows -

In particular to those who wear boxing gloves, how do you find that goes with trapping and pinning, chi sau, etc?

No issues? or issues?

Side note - looking at the mitts used in UFC/Pride/MMA tournaments, seem to be well padded, while offering full hand motion (grabbing, etc) any opinions on those?

[yuanfen]

Prefer no gloves, mitts, nits, wraps...leave those to sports.

[[Censored]]

I can see the value of chest protectors. So you can hit your partner hard without injuring them. But why would you want to wear gloves, except to hide your own lack of ability?

[azwingchun]

We don't wear any gloves or protection either. I never have liked it personally. It takes away from the reality of the training. IMHO

[UltimateFighter]

Originally posted by t_niehoff


Yes, I understand WCK is a fighting method (and we fight as part of our training - not "spar"), but I still don't see the need for gloves or mitts (which only serve as hand protectors). WCK isn't kickboxing and with our expression of power force is released *after* contact, thus we don't require hand protection (if you are throwing bombs and need to protect your hands from injury by wearing mitts I suggest shotokan might interest you). TN

Terence

Wow! It seems our friend here has discovered a new type of physics and law of energy transference as his 'expression of power force' (LOL) is released only after contact! This is truly special. I suggest you stop wasting time training wing chun and submit your discovery on how force is released after contact to the nobel research institute. They may be interested.

For the rest of the human race, punches damage the hands and knuckles slightly whenever a punch is thrown. This happens whenever contact between bone and bone is made. That is a simple mechanical fact.

Training without some protection on the hands means you are not training full out with your punches. Unless you are 'fighting' as you claim without any rules and without any protection (I don't think so). Well then you are doing even more than MMA professional fighters. 'Fighting' full out is generally not the moto of wing chun as the aim is to get to a good standard without incurring serious injury. Hence chi sau and protection when sparring. Maybe you should try kickboxing.

Later.