The Final word on Gloves?

[Jonathan Newhall]

I know I've asked about safety equipment before, as have many other people, but as time goes on experiences change and I was wondering what all you guys think are the best gloves (for a reasonable price, obviously steel gauntlets are made exactly for this kind of thing but are out of most peoples' price range...) for free play at this point in time? Obviously this will probably differ from person to person, but I'd like the most up to date picture before I buy any particular set of gloves and what features you find to be most helpful in protecting the hands in sparring using wooden wasters (steel is a no-go for various reasons).

Thanks for any information in advance.

EDIT - The answer I'm not looking for is "control", by the way. Mistakes will happen and I want gloves to keep me from breaking a few fingers when they do. I already know control is the most important safety device and all other safety devices are only backup for good control. I know just how much at least one of you wants to tell me "control is the best safety!" but I most certainly already know that, I assure you

[Sal Bertucci]

Lol.

For myself I prefer the padded fencing gloves. They have enough padding that they take the worst of the bite out of the hit. (You still end up dancing around a bit though.) They also are design to keep the manuverability of your fingers.

Apart from that the favored option id lacrosse gloves.

[Jonathan Newhall]

Thanks for the quick post and good opinion, Sal. Much appreciated as always.

Have we any divergent opinions?

[Joshua Hintzen]

I was recently smacked across all four knuckles on one hand and the thumb of the other in one go, I didn't raise my hilt high enough. No real damage, but it did smart. So I started looking around and I am looking at some motorcycle gloves, good padding across the thumb and down the pinky and the tops of the fingers. Basically everywhere its needed. Dexterity is still very good though. Methinks I will give them a shot.

[Jason Taylor]

I'm with Sal on the lacrosse gloves, though I'm going to diverge on the padded fencing gloves. If they're like mine, or the ones I've seen, they won't prevent a broken finger if you get whacked really good. The problem I have with lacrosse gloves is that there is no padding on the edge of the first finger and the top and bottom of the thumb, and it's very easy to get hit there, either because the hands were the target or because you interceded them trying to block the body and screwed up (I've done this a ton of times, by the way, trying to get a hängen in there a bit too late).

I actually modified my lacrosse gloves. I'd go a picture but my wife has the camera today. It's a pretty simple fix, though. I use those interlocking mats you can get to put workout equipment on or for kids to play on--it's a really stiff foam, but it's easy to cut and work with. I cut a pad the size of the area I'm going to cover, say from my hand to the first knuckle. Then I cut a piece of an Ikea trashcan I got for a buck on sale--it's a round wastebasket made of polypropylene like this one: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10096417

Anyway, once I have a plate to match the size of the foam piece I have, tyhe natural curve of the trashcan dishes nicely into a convex piece like you'd probably make if you were armoring for yourself out of metal. I just taped the two together, with the hard plate on top, and then taped tho whole thing into whatever part of the lacrosse glove I was trying to shore up, and it really seemed to reduce my painful finger hits and low-grade injuries (severe bruises, swollen fingers, etc.) quite a bit.

Of course, all of this depends upon the type of lacrosse gloves you have. Mine are Shock Doctor, which have a bit too much space between the fingers for my liking when you close your hand, but I haven't really tried to fix that problem yet.

BTW, I'd have to agree with you regarding control. It's a great safety measure, but mistakes still happen, and it's really impossible to set the bar that high if you have a group of mixed experience levels like most of us do. Someone will always do something like land a shot that was meant to hit further along its arc but the hands got there first, so the focus point of the blow was later and they take the full force of the torqued arc on their hands. That's why we require sparring gloves here, even for padded work (which we still do, but that's another discussion for another time), but particulary for plastic/wood sparring.

Good luck in the search.

Jason

[Stacy Clifford]

Lacrosse gloves have never given me any dexterity problems for longsword or other two handed weapons, but they're more difficult to use with single hand weapons I find. Revival has a pair of leather padded swordsman's gloves that Kyle really likes, and I'm thinking of getting myself a pair, but they're fairly pricey at $80. They look a lot easier to handle a C&T or rapier with while still offering decent padding on all sides. The problem I have with most other types of gloves is too often a lack of padding on the thumb and fingertips, right where it hurts the most.

[Jonathan Newhall]

Thanks for the replies, guys. The consensus I've been getting here and elsewhere seems to favor Lacrosse gloves primarily (usually with some easy modification) for the quick, cheap method and for true safety many other groups recommend investing in a good pair of steel gauntlets or steel mittens (though these are distinctly beyond my price range and so not much of a help).

Jason, can you supply a picture of your gloves as soon as you get your camera? I'd love to see what you did to them.


Also, from what I've gathered in all of your posts, the most important parts to "armor" with the gloves are the thumb and the fingers but not necessarily so much for the rest of the hand? (If I had to pick between what was armored, for instance, what parts would you recommend are covered best?)

[Jason Taylor]

You know, I don't think much about the hand because my gloves have pretty good hand protection, but the fingers were always getting whacked and hurt. I honestly wouldn't spar with wood with anything less than full lacrosse gloves, because you do need that hand protection with wood. Again, one mishap to the back of your hand and all your metacarpals (I think I have that right) can break like twigs. Generally, that's considered bad around my group....

When I get the camera I'll try to get some photos up. I'll warn you, the whole package is pretty ugly, since I went for functionality not looks. I actually may need to disassemble the pads and reattach them anyway; the tape is getting a bit worn out.

Jason

Thanks for the replies, guys. The consensus I've been getting here and elsewhere seems to favor Lacrosse gloves primarily (usually with some easy modification) for the quick, cheap method and for true safety many other groups recommend investing in a good pair of steel gauntlets or steel mittens (though these are distinctly beyond my price range and so not much of a help).

Jason, can you supply a picture of your gloves as soon as you get your camera? I'd love to see what you did to them.


Also, from what I've gathered in all of your posts, the most important parts to "armor" with the gloves are the thumb and the fingers but not necessarily so much for the rest of the hand? (If I had to pick between what was armored, for instance, what parts would you recommend are covered best?)

[Cooper Braun]

I don't particularly like lacrosse gloves. I don't get the movement in my hand and fingers I want. Revival's medium fencing gloves are nice, a couple of my training partners have them (though they have a little more material on the palms than I like. The best gloves I ever used were a friend of mines who does viking reenactment. They were basic leather gloves, with 1/8th inch closed cell foam, with heavy leather (I don't know h0w think) sown in a mitten across the backs of the fingers. And leather on the tops of the thumb and index finger. I am currently making myself a pair that has wrist protection too.

[Sal Bertucci]

So was this a pattern that he made himself, or did he buy it?

[Jonathan Newhall]

So far I've been getting a lot of "well if you absolutely can't afford giant steel gauntlets then get a pair of lacrosse gloves" elsewhere, so I've found two relatively affordable brands of sports glove:

http://www.grays-hockey.co.uk/product.a ... 36&PID=381

Those are recommended as being wonderfully protective and fairly flexible (though they're missing a bit of inside the forefinger padding the second pair I found has), but at 15 of her majesty's finest pounds per glove... well, yeah they're really rather expensive.

http://www.lacrossemonkey.com/rbk-lacro ... es-5k.html

Those gloves are not only significantly cheaper but have relatively good padding placement in my opinion, though mobility may be slightly impaired when the two products are compared.


What do you guys make of them? Which brands did you buy? I'll probably end up going with lacrosse gloves or other sports gloves of some kind due to protection-per-dollar reasons (being in college means, well, you don't have a lot of money )

[Jonathan_Kaplan]

I remember reading all over this forum that people loved motocross gloves!

[Stacy Clifford]

Steel gauntlets are great against steel blunts, but the trouble with them in modern practice is that if you spar with wasters, they will leave lots of scratches and gouges in the wood, forcing you (or rather your opponent) to do a lot more waster maintenance. The rivets and ridges on some steel helmets cause similar problems, and plastic wasters also don't hold up well against metal.

Some people here do like motocross gloves a lot, but those are among the ones I mentioned where I can rarely find much padding on the thumbs and fingertips.

[Jason Taylor]

I remember reading all over this forum that people loved motocross gloves!

I don't personally trust motocross gloves, though I know some people swear by them. But the padding is minimal to nonexistent in many that I've seen, with steel plates or composite plates to protect specific areas--really, it seems more like it's designed to stop roadrash than impact.

Of the two linked gloves Jonathan asked about, they both look like they're missing edge of the finger padding and edge of the thumb padding, so I'd probably have to add that anyway for my uses. Really, I used to have a perpetually sprained right thumb from people bashing me with on the hands. Now, I don't, so I think my added pieces are working.

If you're going to have to modify them anyway, I'd go with the RBKs, or, if you can afford them, the RBK 9ks instead of the 5ks. They're a bit higher end, but they're likely better protections and mobility, with the way hockey and lacrosse gear is generally priced.

Still working on that camera. We're actually missing the charger cord now....

Jason

[Jonathan Newhall]

Aye, but the RBK 9k's are also 90 dollars. This is a question of budget as well, hence the quest for DIY equipment.