Martial Arts Head Guards

The more you enjoy martial arts training and the challenge of contact sparring, the more important it is to have the right head gear to protect your most valuable asset, and that is of course your brain and your head!

Well designed head gear for martial arts reduces both superficial and internal damage to the head whilst maintaining enough vision to still be able to see what is coming at you, and most importantly be able to defend and move in time to prevent being hit.

The head gear with the best vision but with the least amount of protection have an open face and are mainly designed to protect the head from dangerous head clashes and punches to the forehead and to the side of the head. So if you are wearing an open face head guard then you want to make sure your opponent is wearing good quality well padded large gloves.

Full face head gear compromises a little less vision for more protection of the face and chin. You can also have head guards with protective clear face masks or ABX grill. Whilst the head guards with the protective mask offer more protection from superficial injuries, it is debatable whether they reduce internal head trauma, as the impact still shocks the head and rattles the brain possibly even more as your head becomes a bigger target and easier to hit when wearing a face shield. To give face shields more credit they are particularly good with light to semi-contact sparring and with weapons training as a weapon contacting the face can easily cause severe injuries.

Most boxers prefer the open face head guards and to use well padded extra large gloves for added protection when sparring in the gym.

With stand up sparring in the gym a full face head guard is recommended to protect against both punches and kicks. Even though there is a little less vision with the full face head guard with martial arts sparring you tend to stand further apart so you can see the opponent better than with close up boxing.

The most important thing to remember to maintain better vision, whether you are wearing a head guard or not, you should try to always keep your chin down with your nose and both eyes pointed at the opponent. To do this you must avoid dropping your head too low or turning your head sideways. Also covering you face with your hands so you cannot see a thing is not such a good idea as the opponent can still see you.

It is important to remember wearing a head guard does stop your teeth from clashing together so you still need to wear a mouth guard to bite down on so you do not get hit with a loose jaw.

You can buy online one of the most popular and reliable head gear brands such as Morgan at the Universal Self Defence web store.