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Thread: Combatives Training Gear

  1. #11
    I have a Gladiator custom mouth guard that does all the bite molds and then gets sent to them for a custom mouthpiece. It is SO much better than a normal boil and bite.

    If you have a good dentist local (sounds like you do) that is probably a superior option.

    I now have a crown on a molar that got broken drilling with a spazzy Marine. I am a lot more aware of my partners now and wear a mouthpiece for any competitive drill/roll.
    Last edited by Bratch; 04-25-2021 at 10:30 PM.

  2. #12
    I’ll defer to Cecil and others on the cups but for straight BJJ I don’t wear a cup. I don’t compete much but the last I knew they were banned in most competitions. They can also hurt your partners, arm bars are nasty if levered on a cup.

  3. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Bratch View Post
    I’ll defer to Cecil and others on the cups but for straight BJJ I don’t wear a cup. I don’t compete much but the last I knew they were banned in most competitions. They can also hurt your partners, arm bars are nasty if levered on a cup.
    OP also asked for MMA glove recommendations so it's a good bet striking is involved in which case a cup is a VERY good idea.


    For straight BJJ, the IBJJF does indeed ban cups. It's a mixed bag in other grappling tournaments. I've trained and competed with and without and can't say it made a real difference other than keeping my boys protected.

    The danger to training partners from a cup is highly over rated and normally only propagated by traditionalist gyms that don't have MMA programs. Other than the Syliva v. Mir fight back in 2004 where a juiced up heavyweight Frank Mir did indeed use his cup as a leverage point to finish a cr@ppy armbar and break the forearm of Tim Sylvia, I can't think of a single UFC fight where the cup has been used to advantage other than to defend a low blow.

    Armbars levered on cups are cr@ppy armbars. If you properly squeeze your knees together the leverage point of the armbar is significantly higher than the one a cup would provide making using the cup a disadvantage. Even at "cup height" if you want a properly tight armbar that your opponent can't "hitch hiker escape" out of easily you'll need to squeeze your knees and again take pressure off the cup.

    Normally cranking a loose armbar against your cup will drive your cup hard sideways into your own junk and punish you for the poor technique.

    I only loosely follow the sport these days mainly through friends who still train and compete but last I followed closely, there were far more instances (although rare) of ruptured testicles and groin injuries from lack of protection than injuries inflicted by cups. You can google " "BJJ" + "ruptured testicle" " and compare it to a similar search on "injuries due to cup usage + BJJ" to verify.

    The last time I saw someone in person on the mat complain about their training partner's cup was a few years ago when a blue belt tapped to the body triangle of a lightweight purple belt and then proceeded to lecture said purple belt about his cup telling him that he tapped to the cup, not the body triangle. Purple belt immediately reached down his pants, flung the cup off the mat and suggested they roll again.

    Blue belt agreed, they slapped hands, purple belt pulled guard, arm dragged from the bottom dropping the blue immediately back into his body triangle and applied pressure slowly giving blue plenty of time to tap. Blue refused to tap, a loud pop was heard, blue screamed and then tapped. Purple shrugged and said "I guess it wasn't the cup". Blue was gone for 6 weeks with 2 broken ribs and learned to tap to body triangles even though they "aren't real submissions".

    Personally I never much cared if my training partners decided to wear a cup. I once heard a training partner comment to someone "would you rather it was my junk in your face in that triangle instead of my cup?" and got a chuckle out of overhearing it.


    *edit* Probably more importantly on the cup armbar- People should be tapping to locked in armbars well before getting their arms injured by a cup's leverage point. If an armbar was locked in, I ALWAYS tapped before my arm was completely straightened out. People getting injured from locked in armbars are self-inflicting due to ego IMO. Tapping to submissions greatly reduces injury rate.
    Last edited by NoTacTravis; 04-29-2021 at 03:12 PM.
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  4. #14
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    As a relative newbie in BJJ I highly suggest a cup. If you spar with other newbies who occasionally spaz, you should DEFINITELY wear a cup. And a mouth guard.

    Even then you might leave class with a bloody nose. But at least no testicular torsion or missing teeth.

    Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

  5. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by NoTacTravis View Post
    Assuming you're in the Phx valley area (my bad for chiming in if I'm way off here), Charles "Chuck" Gatti, DDS is a BJJ black belt and dentist. He makes the mouthguards for the MMA Lab MMA and BJJ guys for the last decade or so. Great dentist, very nice guy, and serious BJJ hobbyist.

    You can also do a mail order custom one. Personally I like www.opro.com They send you a kit that you use to make your impression at home and mail it back to them for them to make your custom guard. Tightest/best fitting mouthguards I've had and I've had dentist ones, boil and bite ones, and several mail order impression kit ones. I would go Opro again if I was getting another one made.

    The big advantage of a custom guard is that you don't notice it when it's in. Guys always want to spit out their boil and bites when they get winded. I could run miles for time with an Opro in and never notice it.


    As for cups, I'd go Shockdoctor Titan alloy cup. You won't need the metal cup but it's the most comfortable one they make with the gel flex edging. Use their compression shorts with built in cup pocket. This was the most comfortable set-up I found in a few decades of combat sports.
    What was the turnaround time like with Opro being in England?

  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by joker581 View Post
    What was the turnaround time like with Opro being in England?
    It's been a few years but if memory serves it was somewhere in the 2 weeks to a month timeline. No idea these days with Pandemic post times though. Good point if OP is on a timeline for a class it might not make it back in time.
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