Hi guys- Long time lurker, but I'm not generally a poster on forums. I wanted to start a thread asking what people's preferred options are for protection when rattan sparring. A friend and I spend a lot of time sparring, mostly stiff padded stick but planning to do more rattan. We're doing 10-12 rounds a session, it's very much at the centre of our training. I have done some rattan sparring in the past and we're planning more of it, but wanted to get a sense of what protective gear other people are using. I'm talking about rattan sparring in the context of wearing relatively minimal armour as opposed to full WEKAF-type rig out. Gloves-wise I have used cricket gloves, motorcycle gloves and KIL gear heavy padded gloves. Preferring the latter in general. Training partner uses modified cricket gloves. For masks we are using Leon Paul fencing masks (at the moment, no overlays or occipital protection but are looking into that, even though sometimes I think the most important protection is to religiously not shirk away or turn from danger). At the moment I have been wearing no elbow or knee protection and have gotten away with that so far. Not sure I want to carry on with that doing more rattan. My question is - motocross / bmx and skate protection seems to be a choice between 'hard' protection which is often made of long pieces (seems to be favoured by the HEMA community) and the alternative is 'soft' or 'soft over hard' where you've got something more like a sleeve that is pulled on. KIL gear sell soft protection that looks very minimalist - like the soft shin pads you see sold cheaply for muay thai. I'm not necessarily knocking that and I understand that it's a conscious choice when it comes to their approach to real contact stick fighting. I think I'd like something with a little more protection, and have been considering something like the elbow and knee sleeves from Kali Protectives (the use of the term Kali seems coincidental in this case!), partly because they're widely available at lower prices on Ebay. All thoughts welcome - I know there are a couple of people very experienced in RCSF on here, whether Dog Bros or Black Eagle Society.
These type of hex elbow pads probably fill the niche that you are looking for. http://www.mcdavidusa.com/protection/pads
I've seen a few designs like that and handled one today. It's amazing that some of them are only 6mm - 9mm thick. If they work then the technology is pretty impressive. I have been looking at some soft-shell MTB knee pads, as I mentioned, and it seems like some of them have a cap to protect the patella but also a little bit of side padding for the ligaments. I've damaged my MCL before (not in the FMA), seems reasonable.
The soft protection of knees/elbows is more about protecting the skin against the fencing mask. If newbies want to use skater knee/elbow hard pads I've no problem with that, but it does interfere with your skills in clinch/grappling. Starting out, I very quickly ditched knee pads as I lost sensitivity in grappling for guard passes. If I'm playing staff... I might dust them off But mostly I think that the heightened motivation makes you better
I was at he Vancouver Beat the Crap Out of Cancer event this last weekend and the knee and elbow pad of choice seemed to be from G-Form: http://www.amazon.com/G-Form/b/ref=...3029415011&field-lbr_brands_browse-bin=G-Form
I ended up buying a set of Fox launch pro pads. They're not as hard as skate pads (and the surface area is a little smaller). I'm not sure I'm 100% happy with them, I think they probably are a bit too padded and could see myself getting a pair of the soft pull-on pads sold by the likes of KIL. I handled something like those G-Form pads in a mountain bike shop and thought they seemed pretty good too.
