You have better things to do with your hands

Our hands and wrists contain lots of small bones made for movement and flexibility. They are not built to withstand repeated heavy punching. The three most important ways to protect your hands in boxing are technique, conditioning, and awareness. Without these you’re liable to get injured no matter what protective equipment you wear. We still need to use equipment to protect our hands and it is important to understand how it works and use it effectively. Adding too much protective gear can reduce the feedback you get from your punches and do more harm than good, stopping you from developing that all important technique, conditioning, and awareness.

The protective gear we wear on our hands has two purposes. One, reinforce our hands so they can cope with greater impact force; two, reduce the impact force they are subjected to.

Start with the foundation

When we make a fist, we tighten the muscles in the hand and forearm to hold all those small bones in place and keep the wrist aligned. Whatever we put on our hands should not restrict the movement of the muscles and tendons as these still provide the primary support. Fabric wraps are ideal for this as, with practice, you can get the perfect fit that will support your hand and wrist without constricting movement.

Always wrap your hands before doing any kind of impact training. Use full length wraps, 4.5 or 5 metres. Experiment with different hand wrapping techniques to find the way that works best for you. You can also try different types of wrap. I found that a heavier weight fabric worked better for me.

Add some padding

With our foundation in place, we can add padding for impact protection. Ideally, we will get this from our gloves, but finding the right glove is tricky. There’s a lot of variety out there and it is not the case that better, more expensive, gloves offer more protection. Some gloves are designed to transmit more of the force of a punch. This obviously has a purpose in a fight glove, but it also improves feedback in a training glove. Other gloves are made for better impact protection, using firmer foam padding and possibly gel.

Check out online reviews and talk to other boxers, bearing in mind that what works for someone else might not work for you. You can also read manufacturers’ descriptions, although these are not always that informative, claiming every possible benefit. There is always going to be a trade-off; better impact protection means less force transferred and less feedback.

If you already have gloves and they’re not giving you enough protection, you can try adding pads or knuckle guards. Some people use rolled up material or sponge under their wraps. This will help if you just have sore knuckles, but it won’t give you any real impact protection. For this you will need foam or gel, like that used in gloves. Strapping some random bits of foam to your hands might not do any good, just adding useless bulk. Padding must offer the right amount of resistance to be effective. Too little and it will collapse on impact without dissipating any force. Too much resistance and it won’t give at all so again the force of the punch isn’t reduced.

• Use wraps, try longer or thicker wraps and experiment with different ways of wrapping your hands.
• Get more protective gloves. Gloves aren’t cheap and if you already have a pair then:
• Add extra padding, making sure that it has the right density and resistance to be effective.

And let’s go back to where we started – technique, conditioning and awareness. Take the time to develop these as without them your hands will always be vulnerable.