Effective immediately, all students will be required to wear hand protection when training combatives. Boxing gloves, MMA-style gloves, and handwraps are all acceptable. This is for two very important reasons:
- Safety. If you are striking a pad with even moderate force, there is a chance you could injure your hands or wrists. This is particularly true for new students who have not yet developed the technique nor the tolerance for heavy punching. However, even experienced students can be at risk for injury on a well-worn tombstone pad or when their typically good technique degrades under stress and fatigue.
- Hygiene. Regardless of your training experience, your knuckles will invariable get scuffed when slamming them into leather. This will leave blood on the pads—shared equipment. (Also note: If you ever do get blood on the equipment or the mats, bring it to an instructor’s attention immediately so that we may properly sanitize them.)
If you are a new student, the school does have “loner” gloves for you to use until you have your own.
If you choose to wear handwraps, please put them on before class begins so that there are no delays in training. For those new to handwraps, we do have a video tutorial in the works to teach the basics of wearing them. Stay tuned.
We appreciate your cooperation.