Padding The Truth

Many martial arts studios encourage trainees to wear protective gear when sparring. It seems to make sense, surround your chest, hands and feet with padding, and then a punch or kick won’t hurt so much. But a better way to prevent injury is to learn how to control your techniques and learn distance and accuracy while training. In my training sessions, pads are never worn. It’s not a new concept. Traditional martial arts styles rarely use pads, and there are two important reasons why this is the case.

First, pads compromise the effectiveness of the techniques being taught. If a person trains with pads, they become unaccustomed to what it feels like to be in good form when blocking punches and kicks. Pads make it difficult to hold a tight fist, plant the foot correctly and execute good technique.  

Second, when martial arts techniques are preformed correctly, pads don’t work. Solid technique will not be deflected by the flimsy body shields and gloves designed for martial arts practice. To illustrate, let’s use a professional boxer as an example. Think about how powerful a professional boxer’s punch can be. The way they punch is similar to how most martial artists punch. Boxers wear gloves that are far bigger and more heavily padded than martial arts gloves, and boxers knock-out their opponents and inflict serious damage.

I know students who trained in martial arts using protective gear, and they still suffered significant injuries that range from broken noses to cracked ribs. I have never seen these kinds of injuries in any dojo where protective padding is not used. The illusion of safety offered by using pads minimizes the need to learn how to measure distance, and more importantly, makes refining actual techniques nearly impossible. 

Since most people turn to martial arts schools to learn effective self-defense, it’s important to teach in a way that prepares people for real life situations. A good martial artist can knock out an opponent with one hit, whether or not they are wearing padding. Inferior martial arts instruction will promote the use of protective padding, and encourage wild attacks in an attempt to make any kind of contact. This methodology also makes inflicting an injury on a training partner a measure of success when, in fact, injuring your training partner is the exact opposite of the desired goal in karate.

In Shotokan Karate, it is not acceptable to harm anyone you are sparing with while training. The importance of learning to judge the distance between you and your training partner, and the focus required for every move, makes the use of pads superfluous. Knowing that your sparring partner will push you to the edge, so you can develop a swift defensive response and not be injured in the exchange, elevates sparing to a collaborative art. In karate, acquiring solid self-defense proficiency is the goal, and students need to understand the complexities and obligations of the powers they are learning to harness. 

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