Kickboxing Gloves

The importance of kickboxing gloves? Since the advent of Ultimate Fighting Championships (UFC) in the early 1990's many people began to see the combat sport Muay Thai or kickboxing. Though Muay Thai is very popular Thailand isn't the only place to find kickboxing. Japan and the United States have forms of kickboxing similar to Muay Thai, but with different scoring systems. Also from Japan Shoot boxing is kickboxing with grappling and submission moves as well. Sanshou is China's form of kickboxing and is part of the government's official martial art Wushu. Whether your doing Savate in France or mixed martial arts in the United States or Japan you still need good gloves.

The type of kickboxing gloves you use will be dictated by your choice of combat martial art. Remember though it you're wearing gloves chances are it isn't real self defense. That will require other training that will supplement your combat sport training. That is especially true for cardio kickboxing which is only a fitness work derived from a form of martial arts and is not a form of self defense. For that form of workout you can probably get away with a vinyl glove, because there won't be as much impact involved when you're practicing. While you can find good vinyl gloves nothing beats the more expensive leather gloves that will last a long time and deal with the harsh impact on heavy bags and impact mitts. Gloves are available in pink, white, black, red, yellow and other color patterns, but check with your club or school first incase they have their own rules regarding acceptable colors.

Material and color aside the technical side of your sport really makes your decision much clearer. In a sport like Muay Thai, you need to be able to grab onto an opponent so you can do a knee strike so you can't use the bulky gloves used in western boxing. The same goes for mixed martial art where you have to grab onto an opponent and grapple on the ground as well as strike. Moreover, you should have one set of gloves for training that are heavier and one set for competition that are lighter so you can inflict as much damage as possible on your opponent. Sure it is called kickboxing, but there is plenty of grappling and striking and to deal with all that you need a good set of kickboxing gloves.

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