Hi! I am a mom of a white belt(getting his third stripe next week). I am looking for advice on sparring gear, if anyone could help me. He gets to start sparring next month, so I need to order it soon. thanks ahead of time!

Hi and welcome to our forums!! Your best course of action is to ask your son's instructor what type of gear your son is allowed to have and what he must have. Most places require head gear, mouthpiece and groin protection at a minimum. There's alot of different types of hand and foot protection out there. Once you know that information, here's a few websites that can help you out.

http://www.centurymartialarts.com/Sparring_Gear.aspx

http://www.sakuramartialarts.com/Martial_Arts_ProtectiveGear_s/8.htm

http://www.awma.com/index.cfm/action/shop/level/8.htm

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks

It would be also good to buy attested equipment so he could use it on competitions.

Tiger Claw has inexpensive gear for most styles. Good advice to buy gear approved for competition! Your son is going to have so much fun!!!!!

Good points.

Different schools require different types of gear, and almost any tournament will require a specific type of gear. Some require the gear to be "approved" by the sanctioning body.

If you're not familiar with what is used in your son's school, I suggest getting gear from the instructor. It might cost a little or a lot more (or sometimes less), but you will benefit from his knowledge. It's better than buying the wrong thing and having to ship it back somewhere.

It's hard to recommend a product or source without knowing more about your school. If it has a website or if you know what organization it's affiliated with, we might be able to help more.

Having said that, the store recommended by NinjaNurse (Tiger Claw) is a reputable company with locations in California and Tennessee. They don't have the WKF style gear favored by many traditional Japanese styles, but they have dipped foam used by more open styles and TKD style gear.

Good luck!

Hi there!

I, too, can't recommend gear- we don't really use any normally in Kyokushin anyway. But my gi was made by Tiger Claw, and I love it! So here's a vote for that.

Thank you all for your advice:) I followed most of the advice to buy it from the center itself, which was a bit more expensive, but at least I got to have him try it on first and knew it would fit.

And we got a surprise today also! His head coach sat in on classes last week, and his normal coach agreed- he was promoted to yellow belt today! A month ahead of time o.o They both commented he was the best in the class and felt he was ready to move on ahead of time.

So proud of him:) Now he'll be with both yellow and orange belts.

Congrats to your son on his promotion!! Way to be there for him mom; I bow to you in respect!!

Congrats for your son

Congrats to him