elbow pads

my sparring group is looking for some method of safely practicing elbow strikes - none of us is eager to take even a half-force elbow without some type of padding. i've looked, and the cloth pads only help to not get blood on your elbow, and all the other pads i've seen are designed for protecting the elbow, and no tthe guy being hit with it. does anyone have any suggestions?

i'm thinking about tearing apart an old set of 16 oz. boxing gloves and sewing them back together, with some sort of stretch clothfor the inner elbow. has anyone tried this?

thanks in advance.

tim

I don't care how much padding you guys use on your elbows, you're

pads *and* full face helmets. If you do use helmets, videotape it and post it on the NG, it would be amusing to watch.

Mike

That's wise. Why don't you try doing the elbows onto full-length top-and-bottom bags or one of those big hand-held pads? You don't need to do it to a human to practice it. If you hit a human with an elbow, he's going to get hurt if you use any less than a ridiculous amount of padding.

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We have 4 of them and use them for all kinds of stuff - it's the closest thing you can get to a steet fight without actually being in one !!

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I don't know if any amount of padding will help you 'practice' elbow blows on each other. You will be whacking each other goofy, man.

Do you really need to practice elbow strikes on each other? You will be seeing

No kidding... How about people-shaped dummies? We've got 'Bob' where I train, I think it's a Century product. There are probably others too. Anyway, 'he' is good for general abuse that you wouldn't inflict on classmates, elbow strikes being a good example. (Eye pokes are another). Some strikes just seems to be helped by having a proto-human to bang on, to get around all that stuff that Mom and Dad taught me not to do.

Inhibitions may be part of being civilized, but sometimes, being civilized isn't the answer.

Mike,

that's exactly what they should do...I have been doing it that way for several years now, and you only need elbow pads to protect the elbows. We use Macho MVP head gear with the steel face cage. It is very lightweight and gives perfect protection against punches, elbows, knees and kicks. It reduces the actual punishment to the point of being almost negligable.

To Tim, poster of the original question...you can buy the Macho MVP at karatemart.com for about $100 plus a few bucks shipping. It is your only reasonable alternative. Mike was quite correct in that you cannot pad the elbows enough to prevent serious injury without completely hampering movement of the arm...hardly practical, that.

I hope you are able to procure this gear, because practicing the elbows full contact in real time is the only way to learn how to use them well.

Longimanus