NWFA Muay Thai Equipment

To have a safe long career in Muay Thai either as a competitor, trainer or fitness practitioner you need to use the appropriate Muay Thai equipment needed for the training. Most training facilities will have a variety of training equipment. If you are going to make Muay Thai training a long term practice it is worth the investment to acquire your own personal Muay Thai equipment. Gym equipment is not always the correct size that you will need and no matter how thorough your gym is with cleaning the equipment it will always have other peoples sweat and sometimes blood left from prior use. Also, gym Muay Thai equipment usually does not smell too good. That being said here are some good personal items you should eventually acquire.

Hand wraps are very important in order to protect your hands and wrists from injury. During training a good wrap to use is the Mexican style hand wraps. The reason I prefer these is that they are usually longer giving you more options for your wraps as well as having some elasticity so they will be more form fitting. Wraps are good to use while doing bag work, hitting the mitts, doing partner drills and sparring. When preparing for a fight you will need to have a gauze wrap and some athletic tape. Your trainer will wrap your hands. Always communicate with him to ensure they are not too tight and let him know of any hand or wrist injuries so he can focus on extra protection where needed.

Bag gloves some of the most heavily used Muay Thai equipment. Bag gloves can be used for a number of different training drills. You can use a small bag glove not much bigger than your hand or you can use a large bag glove that looks more like a full size boxing glove. Bag gloves are worn to protect your hands while punching. Some bag gloves will also have wrist support. It is good not to use bag gloves for sparring or partner drills, as they are not designed for safe impact to a training partner.

Boxing gloves needed for partner drills and sparring can be 8, 10, 12,14,16,18 and even 20 ounces. Your coach will let you know what the appropriate size for your weight class is. Once you start doing the partner drills, limited sparring and full sparring workouts the practice really starts to gain momentum and becomes a lot of fun. You are learning how to properly defend yourself, deliver different attacks, change up rhythms, add the faints and fakes and learn how to counter. This piece of Muay Thai equipment is important and you should find a good quality glove for your partners protection.

A mouth piece is required in any contact training. For optimum protection a form fitting mouth piece is best. You can find good form fitting mouth pieces through national boxing suppliers or you can have one professionally made by your dentist. A good over the counter form fitting mouth piece will run between $20-40 a custom piece from your dentist can easily run $200 plus.
A strike to your groin area, intentional or unintentional, can cause serious injuries. For this reason a good groin protector should be worn in any contact training or competition.

While sparring and taking shots to the head, head gear should always be worn and is a necessity for anyone serious about training. This piece of Muay Thai equipment will give you the option of staying with the sport longer as well as letting you retire without becoming punch drunk. When buying head gear make sure to get quality, definitely do not be a bargain shopper.

Protective vests with thick padding are used sometimes while sparring and for some amateur events. They are not used in professional fights. You can find vests ranging in price from $60-120. They are optional with your training but are a good way to increase your intensity without bruising or cracking your ribs and forcing you to take time off from training.

Shin guards and foot protection are also valuable Muay Thai equipment. They enable you to go hard while training or sparring without damaging your shins or injuring your training partner. These guards are often used in amateur fights, but not in the professional arena.

Muay Thai equipment for coaches and trainers will include focus mitts (for working on the boxing form, stamina and endurance), focus gloves (used like focus mitts, but have a glove face so the trainer will have the option of striking back at the boxer), Thai pads (used for training kicks, knees, elbows, and punches), belly pads (these enable the fighter to deliver knee strikes and kicks to the coach without injury), kick shields (used for standard kicking, power kicks and knees), and numerous strength and agility equipment that your coach finds valuable.