Protective Gear

[Hanuman]

Anyone know much about body armor or protective gear?
I was thinking of getting some discrete shin and knee single piece guards to fit under clothing, mainly for knee protection for practical combat armor.
Anyone have advice?

[bluestarultor]

Originally Posted by Lev

Anyone know much about body armor or protective gear?
I was thinking of getting some discrete shin and knee single piece guards to fit under clothing, mainly for knee protection for practical combat armor.
Anyone have advice?

Given you're a fire-spinner, I'm just going to have to suggest you learn how to throw cards.

[Darth SS]

Yes.

Son, don't be a jack ass.

Practical combat armour does not exist, outside of cut vests and bulletproof vests. This is because there is no such thing as practical combat. Soldiers don't fight with their hands, they fight to get an opportunity to get their guns. Civilians don't fight with their hands, they fight for the opportunity to run away. You clear the threat, you hit back until you have an opportunity to run. You don't know who you're fighting, you don't know if they're alone, and you don't know what's in their pocket.

Rule number 1 of self defence: Practice your run fu first. Wearing this kind of stuff gives you a false sense of invincibility.

Your knee caps are already solid bone, as are your shins. Trust me, these hurt plenty, and they've worked fine in a hurry for thousands of years. If you're looking for something to keep yourself from being hurt when he hit something, then that means you plan on hitting them more than once and you're planning on hitting someone. This makes you the agressor. Don't be the agressor.

Furthermore, you are not going to be able to practically use kicks enough to justify this. Will you have the space for them? Doubt it. Will you have the time for them? Doubt that too. We are not all world K-1 champions like Mirko Cro Cop. If we're kicking, we telegraph it really badly. To hide that, we have to set it up with punches, which again raises the question of "Will you have the time to do that?" and if yes then raises "Why aren't you running?" And even if you did land it, again, we're not Cro Cop, we can't knock people clean out at will.

So...I guess my advice is "don't waste your money."

[Hanuman]

Originally Posted by Darth SS

Soldiers don't fight with their hands, they fight to get an opportunity to get their guns. Civilians don't fight with their hands, they fight for the opportunity to run away. You clear the threat, you hit back until you have an opportunity to run. You don't know who you're fighting, you don't know if they're alone, and you don't know what's in their pocket.
Your knee caps are already solid bone, as are your shins. Trust me, these hurt plenty, and they've worked fine in a hurry for thousands of years. If you're looking for something to keep yourself from being hurt when he hit something, then that means you plan on hitting them more than once and you're planning on hitting someone. This makes you the agressor. Don't be the agressor.

Furthermore, you are not going to be able to practically use kicks enough to justify this. Will you have the space for them? Doubt it. Will you have the time for them? Doubt that too. We are not all world K-1 champions like Mirko Cro Cop. If we're kicking, we telegraph it really badly. To hide that, we have to set it up with punches, which again raises the question of "Will you have the time to do that?" and if yes then raises "Why aren't you running?" And even if you did land it, again, we're not Cro Cop, we can't knock people clean out at will.

I don't intend to kick with my guards, I intend to block with them.
If someone kicks my knee at a double 45 I don't want to be maimed, knees are one of the most fragile and important things on your body, very easy to be maimed or to cripple yourself later in life.

My main martial arts philosophy is to be as neutral as possible, neutral stance, neutral posture, passive and limp kind of like a marionette, legs are very slow moving, the knee/shin area as well as the thigh/butt area are the only 2 places that can be armored in my martial art, I really enjoy the concept of having armor on all the time, but most armor types retard the concepts of my martial art.

It's not that I think I'll ever use it, it's just a little bit of security because I am a little afraid of my knees getting damaged, whether the fear is warranted or not!

[Nikose Tyris]

Tenser bandages holding wooden dowels against your shins. just turn your leg so it catches and strikes the dowel, absorbing and distributing the impact.

Good for makeshift leg/arm braces for after the guy realizes he can't shatter your leg and breaks your face/arm instead.

[Hanuman]

Originally Posted by Nikose Tyris

Tenser bandages holding wooden dowels against your shins. just turn your leg so it catches and strikes the dowel, absorbing and distributing the impact.

Good for makeshift leg/arm braces for after the guy realizes he can't shatter your leg and breaks your face/arm instead.

Good advice! I could just make them!

Yeah I don't need to worry about arms, I've never needed to directly block a strike in sparring, I just absorb it softly.

Besides, having hard arms makes it much easier to slip around them, soft arms are really sticky if you use them right-- bruce lee of all people agrees with me.


As for combat being practical, a wide variety of both private and public security jobs use body armor, from the security guard to the bouncer to police officer to the armored car private security.

[gekkogo]

Originally Posted by Lev

Good advice! I could just make them!

Yeah I don't need to worry about arms, I've never needed to directly block a strike in sparring, I just absorb it softly.

Besides, having hard arms makes it much easier to slip around them, soft arms are really sticky if you use them right-- bruce lee of all people agrees with me.

The only problem is that this isn't sparring, it's a fight and everyone knows the difference between sparring with a good buddy who will knock you, and the attacker who wants to do his best to kick the ever living crap out of you.

Honestly armor is great in theory, and god knows it looks cool, but mobility is the one thing you're always going to want in your legs. Presumably it only takes around 160 psi to break a human bone, plus the muscle, angle, and stability, so really not that much. If you think someone is going to break your leg/knee, they're going to telegraph it. I mean even if you're a big dude mobility in your leg is what's going to keep it safe not armor, unless you're considering Plate Mail ;].

[Hanuman]

Originally Posted by gekkogo

The only problem is that this isn't sparring, it's a fight and everyone knows the difference between sparring with a good buddy who will knock you, and the attacker who wants to do his best to kick the ever living crap out of you.

Honestly armor is great in theory, and god knows it looks cool, but mobility is the one thing you're always going to want in your legs. Presumably it only takes around 160 psi to break a human bone, plus the muscle, angle, and stability, so really not that much. If you think someone is going to break your leg/knee, they're going to telegraph it. I mean even if you're a big dude mobility in your leg is what's going to keep it safe not armor, unless you're considering Plate Mail ;].

We spar while conscious about how mean the other person could be, and we certainly don't ever let ourselves be open due to the other person being nice.
Sparring in my circles being nice is an appreciated and respected courtesy, and by no means is taken for granted.

Knees are strong? Yes, if a knee was simply a hamstring muscle and a knee cap and 2 bones then yes, it would be quite strong, same as a piece of metal, 2 thick bars of oak and a piece of surgical tubing would be strong, but a knee is far more complex than that.

http://www.aclsolutions.com/anatomy.php

As you can see, the knee is built to be very strong, at the common angles, but is INCREDIBLY weak at others, on top of that it has some parts that heal slowly, and some that don't heal properly at all, and even some you need to go get your parts replaced by plastic and metal.

Look at the ligaments, those aren't bones holding your leg together, those are very small, very inflexible and very weak muscles, the knee has a huge efficiency of leverage to rip those to shreds, and pulling the meniscus out of place in doing so, that right there is a one way trip to crutches, for months if you're lucky.

[gekkogo]

Yep, the knee is weak, that's kinda the point. Why leave it out in the open if you know how weak it is, again this is just personally but that's just seems like grabbing a stick, wrapping it in duct tape and deciding to see if it stands up to an axe. Now unfortunately and fortunately I can't say whether every Tom, Dick and Larry out there who's been watching too much UFC and decides he's up to the challenge is going to think. Presumably you can call him an equal in a fight (let's just pretend ;] ) and ten to one how often are you thinking about snapping someone's knee in a brawl, seems like something you'd not bring up unless it's life threatening no?
But then there's the contrary, maybe he's a moron who thinks he can snap your knee and get away with it, with the mobility that you can provide yourself (and of course training) avoiding this situation isn't all that difficult. Granted i can't say from experience that having someone snap your knee is easily dodged or parried it's safe to assume that someone with training such as yourself will have the edge on speed and awareness. BUUUUT back the main point, honestly i can't see any flexible enough, or steadfast enough to honestly say it's a step in the right direction as far as knee protection is concerned.

Sincerely

[TDK]

My advice would be rather than change what you wear, maybe change your life such that you don't get into situations where people might try to do these things to you that you need to protect yourself from. I can honestly say I've never been in a situation where I was worried someone was going to kick my knee at a double 45.

I'm of the opinion that that is a GOOD THING.

So yeah.