I was curious as to what types of sparing gear all you TKDer's wear. Also include the range of sparring and how intense it may get.
thank you

Chest protector, instep guard, shin protector, forearm protector, groin protector, mouth piece and the head gear.

But then, I've seen Taekwondo schools who spar like my Karate school. With the MA gloves, head gear, shin, and foot guard with the mouth piece.

Sparring inside the dojo itself has never really gotten "intense (if by intense, you mean awesome fight)," but at the tournaments, it's quite entertaining. I've no experience with the WTF tournaments, so I have no say on that. In my dojang, they have no contact sparring (really sucks, in my opinion because I don't see how that'll be effective in actual combat since it's not realistic enough), then there's sparring where you actually tell your opponent what you're gonna do, then, of course, you have the norm. type sparring where you just get in there and go at it.

Chest protector and groin protector. At official (or semi official) events helmet, mouthpiece and shin/forearm guards as well. Instep guards are prohibited and I don't know about gloves, haven't seen anyone with them yet.
We don't usually wear helmets, since it's really rare for anyone to kick to the head (and even more rare for one of those to connect).

At my ITF school we wear:

Gloves (not weighted!!)
Foot protecters(just for the instep)
Groin protector.

And that's it. This is the norm in most British ITF schools I believe, although a few people also wear shin protectors, and some of the guys wear mouth guards for when they want to have a bit of a brawl I think the protection we wear is pretty much comparable with any kickboxing club, indeed, the gear is normally bought off kickboxing suppliers.

Intensity can get pretty intense among the senior males. We don't mind hitting each other, or knocking somone down, as long as it is not done to actually injure anyone and there is no "roid rage." The range is kicking range normally, then short bursts in punching range. Usually after a few punches are scored, both sides back off. It's all done with respect for who you're sparring and how much contact they are happy with- we don't just beatpeople up!

We wear head gear, chest protector, groin protector, forearm pads and shin pads (mouth guards optional unless competing). The head gear and the chest protectors look similar to these ( http://www.tkd.net/store/index.html ) There are different variations of forearm and shin pads but they are a light foam covered either in a sturdy cloth or foam dipped.

Sparring ... very intense. I've knocked people almost out with roundhouses to their solar plex. I've gulped for breath after taking a back kick to my stomach. My Instructor has had a rib broke during competition as well as breaking others and I believe a spleen. I was knocked on my butt after my tooth went through my bottom lip from turning into a roundhouse kick to my head. I've seen and know of people being knocked out from head shots. Blair, one of our older blackbelts (early 50's), competed in his 40's and his leg collided with his opponents and broke his leg. My legs have been battered and bruised, my forearms have ached and during my first tournament after using a block and punch, taking a kick right to my hand, my hand swelled up to the size of a grapefruit due to a bone bruise (swelling between the bone and a filament that covers it).

In class we are not suppose to kill each other but there is certain people such as myself and others that have a common agreement to not hold back and go all out. Earlier we were asked to take it easy but now that we have been there for so long it is expected. During any of my tests if during my sparring I go all out with who ever go up against, whether I meant it or not, my punishment is to immediately spar again without a break; exhaustion be damned.

Of course I am the furtherst from the best sparring and I actually would put myself in the middle of the pack as there are far better people then I am. I don't compete with the exception in class, though I have sort of stayed away due to my torn ACL as pivoting on that leg kills. So of course my skills have obviously gone down ... but I put most of my effort into grappling. Now when we do stand up to take down then I will put myself in the top of the class. I may not be able to kick with the best of them under Olympic rules, but when the ground becomes part of the game then we are playing in my area of comfort and that is where we will "always" end up.

Do all people train hard ... no, you only train to your comfort level. Heck I suck wind for sparring many times; too many times and have had to curb it back some. Does this equipment protect you ... a little but not a lot. Drills besides sparring wearing this stuff, usually before we spar, we thunder each other ... again for those of us with that agreement. Our goal is to make the other grunt and groin loudly or verbally ask to ease it up. Those of us that do that usually don't like to do this but there will be times where we will get the looks from others or will be instructed to tone it down a little ... so when we do it we try to hold on to how loud we are so as not to draw too much attention. However many people don't want to work in with us. Can't figure out for the life of me why not.

LOL BrianS, can you believe these wimps.. what a binch of girly men muhahaha.

At my school we are so hardcore we don't even wear uniforms. Thats right the men go bear chested and the woman fight in bikini's, no wimps here, we laugh at those who wear mouth peices. We eat our own teeth for dinner. hmmm love that extra marrow in our diet. Whoops here I go again reporting one of my bad dreams, you know the kind when your getting your butt handed to you by some girl.

At my school we wear all the above, the WTF gear is usually light weight, meaning the foam is thin. Thin enough to stop skin from tearing and bleeding but not enough to prevent bruising or broken bones.

We use the usual foam padded gear, helmets , chest protector, hands, feet, shin guards and mouth guard, and a cup for the guys. I personally can't stand wearing the chest protector because it just plain gets in the way. I can't kick nearly as high, and I feel like the pilsbury dough boy in it. And I feel like I'm wearing Ronald McDonald shoes with the feet gear. (did you know they are selling a martial arts bunny with the happy meals right now?) anyway...

We usually do light to medium contact sparing.

Laura

Derek, you don't know how much fun that sounds to me.
One of the reasons I quite my school is because we were forced to wear a chest protector, gloves, head gear, instep pads, etc. Yet if our kick produced any "noise" then we were going to hard and would get yelled at to "take it easy."

The only thing really required is gloves, but the norm for me and about 3 other regulars is feet protectors, gloves, and headgear.

If I'm sparring with another adult we usually go full blast, the only time we try to hold back and do "light" stuff is when a person is new to sparring.

The only places we discourage hitting are legs/groin, unless ofcourse we're wearing shin guards then it's all go xcept for groin ofcourse hehe.

Feels like kickboxing alot of the time, which is great because i'd eventually like to enter a sandan/daido juko type of tournament.

tkd_high_green,

I know exactly how you feel. When I first started learning how to spar I hated the chest protector, it got in the way, it was to big. Try using a smaller one it might help. Also don't worry, soon you wont even notice you have a chest protector on, it becomes like second skin. Once you get used to it and your flexibility improves, it's just becomes apart of you. And once you to really go full blast, you;ll be happy that thing is on, rather than taking a shot to the ribs. At my school, when we do sparring drills with a partner, we wear two chest protectors, this allows our partners to go full blast.

We can go full blast on eachother wearing only 4oz gloves and a mouthpiece.

Have any of you ever tried it without all the padding or you just assuming you couldn't handle it?

To me it is beneficial to have less padding. To have good self defense you need to know what it's like to be hit,you need to know how it feels and how you would react to it to avoid the shock factor.I've seen it several times.

I also think all the padding gives you a feeling of invincibility which isn't a good thing.

You mean straight kick boxing style? My brother and I also own a pair of those fancy macho gloves and foot pads, you konw the ones with the cool nifty graffitti designs. The new ones now come with a pad + an added doubled pad on top of that just to make the wearer feel safer. Ofcourse they only cost $35-$50 a pair.

We also own big boxing gloves, not sure how many ounces it's possible they could be the 15 ounce kind. They are big, we box with them. We use those to practice catching each others punches with our elbows. He jabs, I try to attack with my elbow, attempting to trap his arm and rush in for something. Once I get inside I lock, choke, or just bull rush.

The 4oz gloves are open fingered mma gloves,like in the ufc. Don't those guys go full blast? Do you see broken bones and major injuries because of it? NO!

Personally, I am closer to Brian's camp of minimalist protective gear. However, I think the important thing is to have a fair amount of contact in sparring. If people are more comfortable doing this with more padding as opposed to less, then that is OK with me.

I would rather see harder contact with pads than little contact without pads.

head gear... well, thats about it.

Matt

P.S. A cup is suggested for the guys

Busted lips, black eyes, cuts above and below the eye, cuts along the cheeck bones, burised ribs. Definetly a lot of injuries. Worthwhile perhaps if your really into it, but I don't think a person with a high end job would really train that way seeing that they have to go into work the following day.

There are safer ways to train. After all sparring is not fighting it's just the closest thing we have to it. However, at some point there has to be a line drawn between benficial practice and just plain stupidity.

I don't think any studies have beeen done to draw that threshold line, but in my personal opinion I do not think that sparring as realistic as possible with little regards to personal safety can effective, ifact I believe it can be counter productive.

Definitely some truth in your post tek. It comes down to how you want to train,but in all things moderation.

There are some MA'ist like myself, who wear a lot of padding. For instance I wera a chest protectors not for my protection but for yours, for if you were to strike my muscular pecs you would surely break your hand.

LOL

-Tek

We tend to be like most karate schools. The foam stuff similar to what Jhoon Rhee used to sell. Helmut, gloves, and foot covers (for lack of a better word) and a good mouthpiece. Men and women should wear guards according to their gender but I can not say that any does. Most of us wear shin guards. I have a rib guard that I use when sparring newbies or when I am trying to learn a new move that might leave me open (such as a spinback side kick). I drop the rib guard when I am comfortable with the move though I will occassionally wear it at an open tournament.

Sun chest protector, Sun cloth shin protector/instep guard, Sun cloth forearm protector/hand guard, Wally W. groin protection, fitted mouth piece, and Sun headgear.

We are allowed controlled kicking to the side of the head, as well as the front and sides of the body. no blows to the rear and none to the legs (well intentionally that is).

FYI: At tournament we are only required to wear head gear, groin protects and mouth guards. The suggest dressed out in full pads, but do not require that one wear them all.

We use varying equipment and varying levels of contact. We do both competitive sparring and traditional sparring which often includes grabs and throws and sometimes even groin kicks

Most students use the semi-contact type pads, with light to medium contact in a regular class.

Seniors use te same but area allowed medium to heavy contact generally.

We also use 10oz boxing gloves. We have hogus but only really use them to make a human target (adult) for the kicks to kick full contact. we rarely use head guards in the club, but seniors on occassion use the full face ones we have for heavy/fully contact with elbows etc.

We also use no pads at all.. though control is emphaised.


Stuart

feet,gloves,chest,helmet,cup,mouthpiece I dont wear shin gaurds because I have shins of steel and they got hurt more then me when we bash shins

Our school is wide open on this one. The older students have free reign (typically the lower belts sets the tempo). If you want to bang you can, there is chest protectors available, and most students wear shin and instep pads. Few use any type of forearm pads, and to the best of my knowledge none have or use gloves.

There are a group of students (mostly red and black belts) that if you want to fight hard they are more than willing (always a level of control though). As I said the lower belt sets the tempo and they learn quick what they can handle, the group tends to sort itself.

A few things to mention, we rarely make contact with head kicks and never with a punch to the face or head. And no matter what new students are always handled with kid gloves until we figure out what they can give and take, and kids are always hands off, no matter what

As far as intensity, if you get with the hard-core guys it is not uncommon to walk out of class busted up, but you knew it could happen. Friday Class is for fighting and if the instructor does not think you can take it he will not let you take class.

Personally, I don’t wear anything (I do wear a uniform - I’m not that hard-core…). No pads, no cup, I will make an exception on the chest gear if I have the right opponent and I think I may need it.

-JBC-