Which boxing glove do I use for what?

You can make your boxing training very versatile - and that means that different requirements are placed on your boxing equipment. If you train on equipment such as the punching bag or the punching ball , impacts and blows have a different effect than, for example, in sparring. Credo when choosing boxing gloves should always be that the risk of injury is reduced as much as possible - for you and your trainer or opponent.

Training with a sandbag, punching bag or heavy bag is an elementary part of boxing. Every athlete trains on the punching bag - and needs the right boxing gloves for this. Now you are asking yourself: Which boxing gloves do I need for the sandbag? You have to remember that you primarily train your endurance, speed, mobility and coordination with the sandbag. Depending on your condition and training goal, you will work out on the punching bag for between 30 and 60 minutes . If you wear boxing gloves that are too heavy, your arms will tire quickly and you will hardly be able to keep going until the end of the training session. How heavy the punching bag gloves should be always depends on your body weight, your fitness level and your training goal. You can wear anything from 8 oz to 18 oz - although boxing gloves with 16 oz and 18 oz are already very heavy for training. For which body weight which boxing glove size is recommended, you can read here .

Make sure that the punching bag gloves have a rather thin padding: 1. you don't need thick padding to protect against injuries with the dull opponent “ punching bag ” and 2. you get immediate punch feedback, you can optimize your punches and harden your fists.

With pad training, the initial situation is very similar to punching bag training: the goal is rather dull, so that multi-layer padding in the boxing gloves is not necessary. At the same time, you can feel better how your punches hit the claws and jab pads thanks to thin padding. Together with your trainer, you can make your shots more precise. Basically, you can use your punching bag gloves for pad training .

[Those who do not do intensive sparring or take part in competitions usually only use a pair of boxing gloves anyway.]

When it comes to sparring, things are different again. When training with a sparring partner, it is important to dampen the hard hits as much as possible. Similar to competition, boxers therefore wear well-padded boxing gloves. In order to achieve a higher training effect, many boxers use heavy 14 or 16 oz sparring boxing gloves , which are also thicker padded. Of course, this depends on the boxing gloves that you usually wear in training.

In German, European and international competitions there are clear rules regarding boxing gloves to be observed. On the one hand, this applies to the weight in ounces, which is between 8 and 12 oz depending on the weight class, and on the other hand to the closure and thumb. For example, the thumb of competition gloves must be sewn on so that the opponent cannot be injured. In addition, only boxing gloves with laces are permitted in competitions. Unlike in training, many boxers also use boxing gloves made of real leather in competitions, as these are more robust and durable.

[Small digression on Thai boxing and kickboxing]

If you want to choose boxing gloves for traditional boxing, note that these models are different from those for thai boxing and kickboxing. In these boxing sports, more flexible boxing gloves are usually used, since you not only have to punch, but also defend against kicks. Therefore, boxing gloves for Thai boxing and kickboxing are also more padded on the inside.

If you are just starting out with boxing or just want to train on a punching bag or punching ball, we recommend boxing gloves with relatively thin padding. This way you get optimal punch feedback and you can use your boxing glove in a variety of ways on the punching bag, during claw training or on the punching ball. On the other hand, if you want to do sparring or fight competitions later, you should get the right boxing gloves for training, sparring and competitions. Why? Quite simply: you should never use your competition boxing gloves in training or sparring, as they could be damaged and would therefore no longer be permitted in competition. Since you have different goals than opponents during training and sparring, it is advisable to have two pairs of boxing gloves that you can then use.