The Best Karate Gloves For Sparring In The Dojo
Karate gloves are essential for sparring. Whilst they won’t keep anyone safe from getting hit hard or knocked out, they will help both the wearer and opponent in different ways.
First of all, karate gloves protect your own hands. They are heavily padded and provide a lot of protection to both the knuckles and thumb. These are the most vulnerable points of your hand when punching and must be protected. Even the most experienced striker with conditioned fists would damage their own hands by punching without wrapped and gloved hands.
Secondly, karate gloves protect your opponent’s face. They will not really soften any significant punches, but they will stop the face from being cut and bruised. Bare knuckle boxing fights have an incredibly high laceration rate of over 60%, so it makes sense to keep your hands covered. Facial cuts are not the worst injury but are best avoided if possible.
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Types Of Karate Gloves
There are 3 main types of karate gloves people use for sparring. Depending on which competition ruleset you are under, certain gloves will be banned, whereas others are required. There are some minor advantages and drawbacks for each type of glove.
Fully Closed
Some karate gloves have thumb protection, whereas others don’t. But one thing fully closed gloves all have in common, is that the fingers are completely hidden and are covered by glove fabric. This ensures that the hand remains compact and you are far less likely to suffer any injuries. Not only this, but you can never poke anyone in the eye since your fingertips are completely covered.
Semi Open
Semi open hand gloves do not have any fabric on the palm side. These gloves are a lot more lightweight than traditional boxing gloves since they use less material.
These gloves are mostly used for points sparring since you can strike a lot lighter and faster whilst wearing them. The fingertips are covered which makes sure that eye pokes do not happen.
This semi-open style of glove is the most commonly worn glove in karate sparring and contact karate tournaments.
Open (MMA Style)
Probably the most controversial glove used for karate sparring are MMA gloves. These gloves offer the ability to fully extend your fingers if you desire. The advantages are obvious since you are able to parry the strikes of your opponent more effectively by pushing their hands downwards. However, the drawbacks occur when gauging distance or throwing a wayward punch. Due to the fact that you can open your hand, eye pokes are somewhat common – which is an injury nobody wants.
The Best Karate Gloves
Venum (WKF Approved)
Anyone who has practiced martial arts for a reasonable amount of time will know that Venum are a market leader when it comes to all kinds of equipment. Their karate gloves are no exception and are competition approved by the WKF.
Available in classic colors red and blue, the Venum gloves offer great protection for the knuckles and enhanced padding on the thumb. This is always a good sign of a well constructed glove since thumb sprains can be a real annoyance in karate. The cost is not as cheap as many other sparring gloves, but really not too bad at all given that Venum is a very well established and reputable brand for karate gear.
Note that these exact gloves are also available without thumb protection here (also WKF approved).
Proforce
A solid blue glove that offers ample protection to both the knuckles and thumb. As these are the most important parts of the hand to look after when sparring, it makes sense that Proforce have added the most padding to these areas.
As you will notice, like other karate gloves, Proforce have also made the glove cover the wrist. By creating a long glove, it does add a little bit of weight but also offers protection when blocking strikes (a staple of karate). This extra weight is more than made up for since the palm of the glove is completely open which makes it ideal for sport type sparring sessions in the dojo.
Gingpai (WKF Approved)
One of the cheapest WKF approved pairs of karate gloves that you can buy. Gingpai are not a brand with a strong reputation but does offer the best budget WKF glove if you plan to compete.
As you can see, there is no intricate or fancy design and the glove is just a classic red color. As the fingers are fully covered by fabric, this is what allows the glove to be approved for competition use, rather than a longer and more lightweight alternative. The wrist strap is also very secure and is not a lightweight elastic product. This makes taking the gloves off and putting them on slower but does make sure they are fully secured on your hands when sparring.
Adidas (WKF Approved)
Adidas have been around the sport of karate longer than any other brand. They make gloves and pads for other striking sports too such as taekwondo. It’s for this reason that they can be trusted to make solid karate gloves.
Much like other high quality gloves, Adidas have chosen to make the hand wrap elasticated but close with a hook and loop system for extra security. They also have extra padding on the thumb which is recommended for any glove which is not thumbless. Adding a bit of extra padding really offers a lot of security for not a lot of extra weight.
The cost of the gloves is somewhat expensive, but really not too bad considering they are manufactured by Adidas. You would expect to pay a lot more when comparing this product with top level boxing gloves for example.
