With so many pieces of martial arts gear on the 
market it’s hard to decide what you need. I am going to talk about four pieces of equipment you must have and I will explain why! Regardless of what style of martial arts you practice, this equipment is necessary.
The first critical piece is the kicking bag. The reason this is so important is because without it, you will find it’s difficult to develop power. Practicing techniques in the air is a great way for you to learn a technique. Once your have that technique down, it’s time to add power. At this point, you need a kicking bag or shield. There are many different styles to choose from depending on size, weight, and whether you have a training partner.
The second piece of equipment you must have is a hand target. Hand targets help you build speed and accuracy with your techniques. They are also a great tool to have in order to work on your timing. Since they are smaller, you can move them quickly and the number of drills with this piece of gear is endless.
The third piece of equipment falls into the personal protection category and that is a groin cup. If you plan on doing any type of contact drills or actual sparring, you must have a groin cup. There are many styles on the market, investing in a higher end version is worth the money.
The fourth piece of martial arts gear you must have is the focus mitt. I don’t believe there is a better piece of equipment for improving your hand speed. Every professional fighter uses a focus mitt for speed drills for not only hands, but many other techniques. There are literally thousands of training drills where you can utilize a focus mitt.
If you are serious about building speed, power, and accuracy with your techniques, these pieces of martial arts gear are critical. You will develop power with the bag, speed with the targets, and accuracy with the focus mitts. Even if your still a beginner and have not started sparring, I suggest that you start wearing a groin cup to get used to it. This list is certainly not complete, but it’s a great start.
If you could recommend one piece of equipment to a new student, what would it be? What piece of equipment has helped you the most in your training?
Leave A Reply (7 comments So Far)
Kevin Box
540 days ago
One training tool I added to my gym is simply a tennis ball hung from a thin rope connected to a swivel hook fixed to the refter. My accuacy on moving targets has improved so much. In sparring, I just threw kick after punch trying to make a clean shot, but after a few weeks of tennis ball trainning, I find that I use less energy sparring now. My moves are faster and more direct. From kicking distance or in a clinch, hitting the target is so much easier. It is a light cardio tool that doesn’t need as much power as it does speed and movement. It works bob duck and wieve too. Punches, elbos, kicks, knees, foot work, exc.
Kevin Box
540 days ago
Note on the tennis ball training: My gym rafters are drywalled, so the rope won’t wrap around anything.
Master Scott
539 days ago
Kevin- I like the tennis ball idea, I would imagine that really makes a difference in reaction time and speed. That is something someone could use and it’s really inexpensive, great idea, thanks for sharing!
Rick Henderson
539 days ago
I like the tennis ball idea too. I think that in some cases a must have piece of equipment is a good pair of shoes. For styles like wushu and other Chinese styles a sturdy yet flexible piece of footwear is a must. I’ll be writing a post about footwear soon.
Master Scott
538 days ago
Rick,
Let me know once you have completed the footwear article, I would like to check it out!
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501 days ago
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