Hi there my son who is 8 years old has just started to do Taekwondo and his instructer has asked us to buy him his sparring gear now it will cost us £130.00 i was wondering if any body knew of any where other than ebay where i could get it from a bit cheaper as i dont want to spend to much money in case he decides he no longer wants to do it i live in cheshire cheers
£130.00 thats a bit much isnt it??? My full kit cost about £94 and think the mens full kit only cost around £110. new. im not sure. you could try your local ad-trader or something they probably wont have it but its worth a look. Otherwise im afraid its your instructer or ebay. If you buy it new and he decides to give up then you could always advertise it on ebay- you generally get near enough your money back Good luck. x P.S Welcome to the land of MAP!
That sounds about right for the dipped foam stuff, it's more expensive than the old vinyl covered gear. You can ask around at the club, maybe someone there will have grown out of theirs and want to sell? Otherwise ebay is your best bet. Mitch
Mine was the dipped foam ones (well the ones that are more expensive and look nicer too!) Good luck with finding the right sparring equipment for you. x
I understand the TAGB is quite strict on which sparring gear you're allowed to wear. Is that the case and, if so, what are the specs? I'd like to look for something used or in the US (where everything is 1/2 price).
They're strict in that you can only use TAGB equipment and nothing else Stuff comes up on ebay all the time as mentioned above, or ask around the club. Mitch
on ebay theres a set with a holdall that was for a 10 yearold and its at £25.00 + £10.00 p+p. Its worth a look, just type in tabg in the search box.
If it is WTF style, it will need WTF approved, if so, try www.daedo.co.uk Apparently they sell it cheap
TAGB is ITF and you need official TAGB stuff that only comes from TAGB themselves I think. My full sparring set came to about £130 so I know how it can sting the wallet. I would not buy used, if your son shows up with gloves/boots that are falling apart they wont let him compete.
I find it strange that your instructor has asked you to buy your son sparring gear straight away. Generally, for grading, the students don't actually need it until green belt grading, although many do buy it before then - especially if they want to spar at tournaments, some of which are open to yellow tags. We would not let white belts use sparring gear until they have proved to us that they have the necessary control - but things differ from school to school perhaps. The TAGB insists, for insurance reasons, that students use TAGB equipment that is purchased from TAGB instructors. Full kit including groin guard and gum shield is probably around £120. I train and teach with the TAGB. TAGB is not ITF by the way, it's independant. Although our style of sparing is ITF style.
Wouldn't it cost less and be as effective to have specs that the equipment has to meet? Perhaps even endorse a few brands? I'm just whiney cause I get paid in $.
The whole TAGB Branded gear came about when the BTC insisted all members picked 2 types of sparring gear to use as for ensurance purposes.Basicaly if the gear fails its the orgs fault not the BTC hence the TAGB picket their own branded dipped foam as their endorsed product.
£130 for an eight year olds sparring equipment!!!!!!!!! What a money maker!!! Someones making at least a 100% markup on that. Buy it off eBay and save some money. If the instructor doesn't like it, which he wont as he's losing profit, tell him your doing your bit for the environment , helping to recycle someone elses' sparing gear. Just make sure it's TAGB branded sparring gear off ebay. Cheers!
I encourage my students to buy from others in the club or from ebay. Just because you don't want to lose sales doesn't mean we're all like that There are a couple of other brands that are acceptable I believe (maybe Kwon?), but you need to check very carefully with your Instructor and from what I've seen they're no cheaper. Essentially it's safer to buy something TAGB/TKDI branded. Mitch Mitch
I heard this about this association too, surely any decent approved equipment should be ok (well so you'd think) does sound like a money maker
Really, you've heard about the largest TKD association in the UK (by far!)! Not a huge surprise. It's a balancing act really, the trouble with approving equipment by other manufacturers is they can change the spec and supplier of their equipment without notice. Add to that the fact that supply of certain brands is controlled by companies that are owned by heads of rival (often break-away) associations (imagine Tesco being supplied by Aldi!). More money could be made by having an imported 'brand' made over-seas but, as experience has taught, keeping up with supply is, at best, sporadic. Instead one of the top UK manufacturers is used at a competitive price. Is buying British and supporting your own association really that awful?
