Protective equipment is the cheapest category in any fight shop and the one people put off longest. It is also the category that decides whether you are training next week or explaining an injury to someone.

Here is what each piece does, and the point at which you actually need it.

Hand wraps — from day one

Before gloves, before anything. Your hands contain a lot of small bones that were not built for repeated impact, and wraps hold them together while supporting the wrist behind them. They also take the sweat that would otherwise rot your glove lining. There is no stage of training where wraps are optional.

Mouth guard — before your first partner drill

A mouth guard is not only about teeth. It stops the jaw slamming shut and takes some of the shock that would otherwise travel through it.

The important part is fitting. A guard must be boiled and moulded to your own teeth before first use — an unmoulded guard shifts on impact, and a guard that shifts is not protecting anything. Five minutes with a kettle is the difference between a working guard and a decoration.

Groin guard — before you spar, and before any kicks

Not optional in any discipline that throws knees or body kicks. Most clubs will not let you spar without one, and the ones that would should.

Shin guards — when you start checking kicks

In Muay Thai, MMA and most karate sparring, a checked kick is bone against bone. Shin guards take the most punishment of anything you own for exactly that reason. You do not need them for your first classes; you need them the day you start partner work.

Head guard — when you start sparring, not before

A head guard reduces cuts and impact to the face and skull. It does not prevent concussion — nothing worn on the outside of your head stops your brain moving inside it. Wear one when you spar, and spar as though you are not wearing one.

Open-face guards keep your vision wide and are what most boxing gyms use. Guards with cheek protection or a face bar protect the nose and cheekbones far better, at the cost of some peripheral vision. If you are coming back from a facial injury or working with heavier partners, that trade is usually worth it.

Fit beats specification

Every item here fails the same way: it moves. A head guard that shifts when you take a shot, a mouth guard that was never moulded, shin guards that rotate around your leg — all of them are doing nothing while feeling like protection, which is worse than wearing none because you fight differently when you think you are protected.

This is gear worth trying on. Come to 34 Remy Ollier Street in Port Louis, or message us on WhatsApp and we will have sizes ready.

See head guards, the accessories range for mouth and groin guards, and the Muay Thai range for shin guards.