Feeling like you cannot give your best during combat sports training sessions?
More than your skills, the problem might often lie with the punching mitts you’re using. Though it might sound surprising to some, practising with the right pair of punching mitts is of prime importance if you’re serious about the sport. But finding a good-quality pair can be difficult.
Thus, you must be especially careful when choosing an ideal pair that can provide a genuinely productive training session. There are a lot of factors you need to be aware of.
That’s why we’ve compiled this comprehensive guide to help you with the process. So, without further ado, let’s look at the best focus mitts for boxing training sessions!
Choosing The Best Punching Mitts For Training
Irrespective of whether you’re willing to learn a combat sport from scratch or master a sport, you will need a pair of good-quality punching mitts.
The equipment should help the fighter learn the ideal timing, accuracy, and speed of the required hand and body movements. To ensure the focus mitts help you perform better at the sport, you must look for several features in them, which are briefly described as follows.
1. Absorbent And Flexible
Punching mitts must be shock-absorbent to ensure the long-term performance isn’t affected by a couple of solid blows. This feature will ensure that the punch mitts remain intact in the long term, irrespective of the intensity of your training sessions.
Coming to the flexibility considerations, it’s essential to ensure the punch mitts come with a soft and hard end. While the soft end will benefit the coach since it will save his hands during the training, the harder end will strengthen the fighter’s hands when he strikes.
A good amount of foam padding is also required to ensure the coach and trainee are protected from hand injuries and bad aches post-practice. It would help if you also kept in mind that low-quality padding will raise your expenditure as the focus mitts might need quick replacement due to excessive wear and tear.
2. Durable
The punching mitts should be durable enough to withstand energetic strikes during power sessions for individuals who are likely to practice regularly.
Leather is the most widely used material for punching mitts, thanks to its excellent durability and characteristic velvety feel. Most MMA fighters and boxers always prefer mitts made from leather.
But you must also remember that all products on the market might not use equally tough and resilient varieties of the material. That’s why you should be extra careful to ensure the leather material is strong enough to withstand prolonged use.
When buying the product online, it’s best to go through some customer reviews about the durability and overall quality of the material.
3. Design And Colour
Punching mitts with curved designs are more suitable for combat sport training sessions. Firstly, such a design makes it easy for the trainee to match the natural position of the trainer’s hands. It also ensures the centre is not too difficult to hit.
At the same time, a curved design helps in striking more powerful punches and forms a pocket to securely capture each opponent’s hit.
Another key requirement is that the target circle must have a noticeable colour to focus on and hit it easily during the training. Plus, the colour should contrast with the surroundings to ensure the trainee finds it easily distinguishable.
4. Size
The dimensions of the punching mitts are also a crucial factor to consider when buying a good-quality pair. Mitts come in varying lengths and widths, most averaging around six inches wide and ten inches high.
While the smaller ones help you focus more on precision, the larger-sized varieties can take several types of hits and offer greater resistance to powerful strikes.
5. Ease Of Maintenance
Cleaning and disinfecting the punching mitts regularly is a must if you want them to remain in good shape over the years. As such, ensuring that the pair you’re buying is easy to maintain is essential. Note that focus mitts with smooth coverings will be easier to clean up after strenuous workouts.
6. Weight
Selecting the right weight for mitts can seem quite tricky. The more the punch mitts weigh, the faster the trainee’s hands tire, resulting in slower and sloppier movement.
On the other hand, mitts that are very light might not absorb sufficient power from each hit. This is why it might exhaust the trainer if used for longer.
Considering such factors, the minimum recommended weight for punching mitts is around 453 grams. Such a pair of punching mitts are much larger than those weighing approximately 283-230 grams. This implies it can provide better coverage to the trainee while blocking strikes, lowering the coach’s chances of getting a sneaky punch.
Additionally, a 453-gram pair typically comes with more padding than its lightweight counterparts, giving the trainee and the coach more protection. The trainee can master more powerful strikes using such mitts as more energy and time are needed to throw each strike.
7. Wrist Support
The availability of adequate wrist support in the gloves ensures that your wrist is stabilised during training. As a result, the possibility of potential injuries is lowered.
That’s why you should ensure the mitts come with a quality hook and loop or lace-up closure for the wrist. Such straps are simple to use and adjustable as per the wrist width.
8. Skill Level
Individuals with different skill levels in any combat sport need to train differently. That’s why the punching mitts suitable for their training should have various features per their needs.
Hence, don’t forget to consider your skill level before choosing an ideal pair of punching mitts.
A novice primarily concerned with developing their form rather than strength won’t require extra-large or extensively cushioned mitts. However, experts or intermediate fighters, plus those with a larger body build, need mitts with thicker padding. This ensures the power of their stronger kicks and punches is cushioned efficiently.
Train With Punching Mitts
That’s about it for today.
We hope you’ll find our guide helpful in choosing the best punching mitts for your training sessions. So, let go of the inferior-quality mitts you were using and choose a suitable pair with these factors in mind. This way, you can make your training sessions more productive and fulfilling.
And before we sign off, here’s one last vital piece of information. Punching mitts are available in different price ranges so that everyone can find a pair per their budgetary needs. These come with varying levels of padding and extra comfort elements, so make sure to have your training needs in mind while choosing an ideal pair.
And our friendly customer service representatives are always here if you need help choosing training mitts. So don’t hesitate to contact us. At MMA Factory, we have a huge range of focus mitts and training equipment for martial arts, so don’t forget to check out our range!
With that, we bid farewell for now. But we’ll be back with more interesting guides soon, so stay tuned.
