Inexpensive Sparring Armor

[Greg]

Rangers are resourceful...right?

Of COURSE they are!

I've been making plans to get back into sparring now that Dave's gonna be back in town so I have someone besides my soon-to-be in-law to beat the crap out of (and have said excrement beaten out of myself by, etc.)

In the past, Dave and I have worked on stuff like that with Shinai, Bokken, and Muay Thai kicking pads for shields. No helmets, no armor (except for one pair of thin leather bracers between the two of us), no gloves, no nothing. Shinai hurt a little. Bokken hurt a LOT.

I've been digging through thrift shops, and through the vintage junk box of equipment at Big 5 Sporting goods, where I've been working on the side, and have been slowly acquiring bits and pieces of things that can function as sparring equipment. I'm rebuilding my shinai to function for WMA with a crossguard and a length adjustment so it's the same handle and blade length as my actual sword, with weight being an understandable problem that I can't resolve. But once that's done...I wanna be able to USE it without causing unnecessary bodily harm to my training partner(s).

In short, this thread is for posting useful and (hopefully) inexpensive pieces of sporting goods equipment, whether they're made for Swordplay or not, that can be used to work on our Numenorean Martial Arts skills.

I've acquired two weight lifting back support belts for free from Big 5's junk pile, one David's size, and one mine, which, when worn backwards (buckle in the back) make very nice kidney belts for the sake of sparring. The chest can take hits easier than the stomach can, so I'm looking forward to testing these out. They look almost exactly like this:

In addition, they could be used as training tools by calling them "targets" for accuracy purposes. Until sparring time comes, I think I'll have Lori help me test it tonight by swinging a canoe paddle at the belt and see how it does dampening the impact.

I'm still looking for a helmet/face cover of some sort. I don't want to have to be concerned for my partner's safety (or mine) when working simple drills. I know we should always be careful, but I want to have a security blanket over my head and face. Any cheap suggestions would be welcome to be posted here.

Gloves are a must. I've been thinking about getting a pair of hockey gloves at the thrift store I've had my eyes on, but they really limit what the fingers can do, so I thought I'd ask you all first. Can't be fingerless...I've done that before, didn't go over well. Motocross gloves have occurred to me, but they'd just pad from cuts...the impact would still numb fingers.

Greaves are an easy one...soccer shin guards are plentiful in thrift stores, and cheap at Big 5. Bracers, we already have, and the thughs and upper arms can handle quite a bit of punishment without complaining. A cup is an investment I haven't made yet, but it's something I'm seriously considering.

Alrighty...now that you see where I'm going with this, I'm turning y'all loose. Have at it!

[Pwyll]

LOL Okay, I'll bite. It's pretty much always on my mind...um, that and Willie Nelson...

I view training as a spectrum. Different kinds of training for different aspects, and different safety requirements. For instance, a lot of work with hickory wasters with no safety gear, but at a speed slow enough for safety and control. Then switch over to shinai and protective gear for greater speed. The first gives us good practice with flow and particularly winding. The second lets us focus more on speedy hits, speed, timing and treach...er, I mean creative thinking.

When doing knife work, we use aluminum wasters for edge awareness, grappling, disarms, etc. Usually with no safety gear, but very controlled speed and avoiding some techniques. Then a switch to rattan so that we can crank up the speed. And fencing masks for face protection.

We don't use SCA weight swords and force, so we're able to use much lighter gear. For the head and neck, good 3 weapon fencing masks are fine, and you can get these cheap on Ebay. You really need this protection, so this is one place you don't want to go cheap. I've gone under the rubber at the back, and run lacing around the metal rim that covers the mesh, to hold it in place. If that rim comes loose, it's a pain, and if you're doing grappling it's a potential danger. But again, this is not for wooden wasters applied with speed and force. If you're doing that, you want full plate around the head, and padding for every body part that you like.

For the hands, it depends on what we're doing. If working at speed with hard hitting wasters, just get the hockey gloves. Yeah, you lose manual dexterity, but if you're working at speed, you're not likely to be doing much of that, anyway. Also, because of stress reactions, find and complex motor control are suffering anyway, so you're going to be relying on gross motor skills. You're not likely to grab, but a hook with the hand is a possible action. Not bad to practice, BTW, after a good hour of training, you begin to develop the "old man's defense" against grappling...you sweat like a dwarf in Fangorn. Anyway, for working more grappling, switch to simple leather gloves and slow it down a bit. BTW, do NOT hit a fencing mask with a bare fist. Use an open hand strike... Hockey gloves should be around $20. Leather work gloves, cheaper.

I like lacross type elbow guards. Really. Protect the points of the elbows. I mean, it sucks when those swell up.

Protect the jubilees, because if you get hit there, it hurts a really bunch.

And that's really all that we worry about. If you're using boken, well, yeah, you might want to protect the knees. Sounds like you're on that, though. But you might think about adding wings to them, if you're going that heavy. Easy enough to rivet on. And check out the SCA sites for ideas on armor. There are some cheap alternatives being added all the time.

We don't use any other armor, than that. We protect the small bones, when required, and the face, etc. Other than that, we get a lot of bruises, but pain is a great teacher. But remember, we're not going full speed with heavy wasters. We do go very, very fast with rattan, but it's only about an inch or so, and we aren't trying to knock each other out of the park, just make our opponent's eyes get really big.

[kaelln]

I saw a batting helmet in Wally-world today with a face cage. It wouldn't protect from a thrust to the face though it would deflect a wild swing. They seem to run around 30 bucks. There is also a much cooler looking catcher's helmet, but they seem to be a lot more expensive. I don't know if that helps or not, but I thought I would throw it out there. Here's a link to look at some: http://www.enasco.com/product/PE06147E

[E.MacKermak]

I am an SCA heavy fighter among other things. Some ideas I have seen:

-The weight belt you have might do ok for shinai, for bokken you might want to add some splints, plastic from a 55 gal drum works fine. You can usually get drums from the local car wash for free. Make sure the belt covers the kidneys and floating ribs. It is real easy to get injured there.

-MacDavid hex pad shirts and padded shorts are great. You might be able to find them cheap at sales, online, or at used sporting goods stores. Get the one with padding across the ribs, shoulders, and chest (thrust to the sternum suck) and you should be good for shinai and even light bokken work.

-Second on the hockey/lacrosse gloves. Alternately, get a pair of work gloves bigger than your hand and cut foam or heavy leather to fit inside to protect the back of the hand and fingers.

-Rollerblade elbows work pretty good for light work. If you feel you need more, Stonekeep Armory actually sells plastic knee/elbow cops for pretty cheap. Attach them to your pads and you should be good.

-Several fighters use lacrosse or hockey shoulder pads but you shouldn't really need those unless you are really swinging hard with rattan or bokken.

-Watch the collar bones, they are pretty easy to break. A leather gorget with a mantle (again maybe with plastic plates) would add some protection.

How much to wear really depends on what you are using to train with, how hard you are swinging and how much pain you can tolerate.

[Peter Remling]

Regarding plastic pieces or inserts, you can also cut up pickle barrels. These you can generally get for nothing from your local fast food store.

Check out some of the classifieds on SFI SBG or even MyArmoury for used fencingf masks. If you don't see any for sale put out a wanted. When a school or individual upgrades they generally don't think there is a market for used eqipment especially if if needs repair. Most everyone here can do modest repeirs to this type of equipment: leathers straps, padding etc.

[Willrett]

There are padded roller hockey shirts that protect all the way around, I have one for hockey also there are roller/ice hockey girdles that are fully padded down about the knee and have great kidney protection. If you check some sites you can get them pretty cheap. The Bauer 5000 helmet is what the bullriders wear and it is my hockey helmet of choice and its a pro model and a cage is pretty cheap it would be better than the catchers mask but has larger holes then the fencing mask.

I have been hit with ALOT of pucks and sticks so I can vouch for the hockey gear working.

[kaelln]

I found this on ebay. If you add some screening to protect your eyes and face, this is about as cheap as you can get! It's a martial arts face mask, currently $6.55 with 3.95 shipping. It ends 12:16 midnight tonight, Eastern time.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWAX:IT

[Greg]

A friend of mine that works strictly with shinai from a recreational standpoint brought up a few things with me today. He's a huge fan of Ronin Products' "Stryker" Gloves, which look pretty nice, but are a bit more costly than I wanna pay right now. They've also got some similar gloves without the wrist protection, which are a bit cheaper, as well as some padded round shields which have piqued my interest.

In addition, he wears a pair of Women's Lacrosse goggles, which look pretty much as though Oakley decided to make a line of SCA legal products:


Both run a little pricey, but it's something to look into finding used somewhere, for sure.

[E.MacKermak]

Thanks for the link on those gloves...those are just what I have been looking for.

[Greg]

Since posting this topic, David and I have sparred twice, and we've found that the best cheap torso armor readily available to us is donning one of my standard full-torso life jackets. Not the wrap-around-your-neck ones, but a full-vest PFD...well-padded and full coverage for shoulders, chest, sides, and stomach.

Add MMA helmets for accidental head hits, plastic goggles until we can acquire some real face protection (and a maintaining of a decent speed to keep things safe), and our bracers. Shin guards and/or kneepads would be wise additions, but I'm rather proud of the PFD revelation. Just use Shinai or other similar round-tipped wasters top prevent damage to the PFD's.