Sparring Gear

Don’t Get Knocked Out! What Karate Supplies and Martial Arts Sparring Equipment You’ll Need If You Want to Spar

For the sake of your safety and/or your child’s safety, you can’t do without the right martial arts equipment. If you’re going to participate in any karate sparring activities, you’ll need the right karate supplies for non-contact or full-contact sparring. With the proper martial arts sparring equipment, the risk of injury is lower so you can feel less anxiety when you’re sparring yourself, or you’re watching your son or daughter spar in Karate class.

What you’ll need:

Headgear

Don’t go cheap on protecting your brain. The biggest mistake is for a new karate student to make is to buy a low quality, cheap karate headgear. Invest in a karate headgear with thick padding, and quality straps so the headgear will not come off during a sparring session.

If you’re looking for the absolute best protection for your head, consider a boxing headgear from Everlast, Title boxing, or Top Ten. These are designed to be much more durable compared to karate headgear, simply because in boxing, you take a lot of punches to the head, so your brain will need much more protection.

Some karate headgear also allows you to attach a face cage or face shield, as seen below:

Gloves

Hand guards are the essential to karate sparring. They’re designed to protect your bare knuckles from contact with your sparring partner, and also protect your sparring partner from your bare knuckles!

Forearm guards are also available to protect your forearms from kicks and punches.

Foot and Legs

If you have ever kicked someone in the elbow with your foot or shin, then you’ll know how important (and pain free) it is to have a pair of foot guards and shin guards. They come separately, or combined into one piece of protective equipment (shin and instep protector).
Other Karate Sparring Equipment:

Other karate sparring equipment that should be seriously considered is:

• Groin protection
• Protective bra
• Mouth guard
• Rib guard/chest protector
• Face shield

Best Brands for Karate and Martial Arts Sparring Gear:

• Century Martial Arts
• Macho Sparring Gear
• Adidas
• Lightening
• Ikon
• Pro Force martial art equipment