Training Equipment

There are a few extra things to consider when looking at training equipment for martial arts.  Unlike, say, boxing, which requires a certain amount of restrictive protection for its fighters; most martial arts are impossible unless the body is allowed to use its full flexibility.  As such, training equipment for disciplines like Jeet Kune-Do, Karate or mixed martial arts (MMA) need to be chosen with a care that allows the wearer to express the full fluidity of their moves. 

Martial arts training equipment must be forgiving, then – but it must also (like the discipline for which one is training) impose certain restraints.  The idea of training, after all, is to channel oneself into a particular set of behaviours or moves:  the training equipment being used, ideally, should help with that channelling by restricting uneconomical or incorrect movements.

So.  On the one hand, we have training equipment that allows freedom of movement.  Loose trousers; soft shoes; gloves that let the wrist retain flexibility or leave fingers free to grip.  On the other hand, we need training equipment that prevents injury (training is practice, which implies mistake) and stops the wearer from developing bad postural or striking habits.  A conundrum quite suitable for disciplines that have been based around the idea of mutually supportive opposites for hundreds of years – and one solvable by purchasing training equipment based on the gear that has been used in dojo for all of those centuries.

An ideal example of martial arts training equipment that has survived untouched even to the high-tech gymnasium of today is the breaking board.  The breaking board is designed to promote deliberate, focused strikes – a purpose it achieves by only breaking if hit correctly.  An incorrect strike on a breaking board will result in a painful jar to the hand:  painful enough to discourage a student from hitting in that way again, without being likely to actually damage them.  This type of training equipment perfectly answers the unique demands made by martial arts on their practice kit.

Not all martial arts training equipment is old hat, mind – there are very good bits of non-combative training equipment a centuries-old dojo wouldn’t recognise at all.  Collapsible pneumatic or hydraulic punch bags, for example – perfect training equipment for the home gym where space is often at a premium as well as adjustable power grips, the varying resistance settings of which can give a Bruce Lee-like grasp to even the slenderest fingers. 

In the same way that “classic” martial arts training equipment fuses freedom with restriction, a fully-stocked quiver of martial arts training equipment combines the old with the new.  Power grips next to breaking boards; hydraulic punch bags next to a chisau (a Chinese wooden hoop designed to promote speed and blocking strength).  The discipline of martial arts, after all, is about efficiency – its training equipment should follow the same rules.