Why Do Boxers Wear Boxing Gloves?
While the answer to this question is very simple, it is a question that we get a lot. The answer is simply to protect the most important tool that a fighter can have, their hands.
Boxing gloves act as a layer of protection between your hands and the surface that you are punching, whether that be a pad, bag or opponent. Most boxing gloves have been specially designed to offer the best comfort and feel while also ensuring your hands are fully protected and secure.
As you can imagine, in a sport like boxing where your hands are used so often, hand injuries can be very prominent. Ensuring that you have high-quality and well-fitting boxing gloves will give you the best possible chance of avoiding any serious hand injuries that could affect your training and skill progression.
What Are The Different Types Of Boxing Gloves? & Which Are The Best For Beginners?
There are so many different types of boxing gloves on the market. They all have their own specific uses and benefits. Some are amazing for beginners and some are designed more for professional and more advanced fighters. The different types of boxing gloves are:
Bag Gloves
One of the most protective types of boxing gloves on the market is boxing bag gloves. These are gloves that have been designed to be smaller in size but far more compact with their padding in order to provide your hand and wrists with more protection from the heavy nature of a heavy punch bag.
The firm cushioning of the gloves is also designed to help condition your hands to become stronger and to help avoid injuries during your boxing career. These gloves are designed to be easily slipped on and off, typically featuring a velcro loop around closure, making them perfect for beginners looking to just take part in some light boxing workouts.
Because most beginner boxers will not be experienced enough to participate in competitive sparring rounds and will mostly be doing bag and mitt work, these gloves are perfect. However, when you do start participating in sparring you will no longer be able to use these bag gloves due to their firm and compact padding.
Sparring Gloves
Another boxing glove type that could be a good option for a beginner is sparring gloves. While you may not initially be partaking in sparring sessions due to inexperience, these types of gloves can be used for all training methods. Whether you are doing bag work or mitt work, sparring gloves offer you all the hand protection you need.
Sparring gloves are very softly cushioned gloves that come in sizes from 12 oz ranging all the way up to 20 oz. This level of cushioning makes them perfect for use during competitive sparring sessions where the aim is to simulate a real competitive fight while also not causing much damage to your opponent.
These are a good option for beginners as they are generally very well-made and well-designed gloves that offer your hands a huge amount of padding and protection. In addition to this, when you advance and start incorporating sparring into your training, you will have a pair of gloves to use.
Sparring gloves typically come in two different styles, lace-up sparring gloves and velcro sparring gloves. Velcro gloves are more suited to beginners as they are much easier to get on and off. Lace-up gloves can be very inconvenient and are for this reason only really worn by more advanced fighters who need the extra element of protection they provide for your wrists.
AIBA Contest Boxing Gloves
AIBA stands for the Amateur International Boxing Association, which is the governing body that oversees all amateur boxing in the UK. In amateur boxing, there are very strict rules on what a fighter can wear during competition. Their gloves, wraps and head guards have to be AIBA stamped in order to wear them during competition.
These gloves will not necessarily be very useful for beginners as they will not be at the stage of entering into competitions. However, if you are a beginner who is serious about entering amateur boxing then these are the gloves that you would need once you were ready to enter the competition.
Professional Fight Gloves
The last type of gloves is by far the most premium and well-made gloves that you can find. Professional fight gloves are obviously the gloves that are won by professional fighters on fight night and are therefore designed to not only look amazing but feel amazing on your hands.
These gloves come in 8 oz or 10 oz, depending on your weight class, and are designed to allow you to feel as light and as dangerous as possible within a fight. They typically come with foam or horsehair padding and are made from the highest quality leather. There are a huge number of professional fight gloves available with different padding and different materials to meet each fighter's specific needs.
A boxing beginner will not have to worry about purchasing professional fight gloves. These cannot be used at all during sparring and do not offer as much protection as is necessary for typical training involving heavy bag work and pad work.
Which Are The Best Boxing Gloves For Beginners?
Out of all these types of boxing gloves, the best for beginners would definitely be between sparring gloves and bag gloves. This is because both of these types of gloves are perfect for use in a wide range of different training situations. Whether you are hitting pads or doing bag work, both these types of boxing gloves will provide your hands with all of the protection they need.
The other types of gloves, like professional fight gloves or AIBA Gloves, are more for competition. This is unnecessary for a beginner as they will most likely be quite some way off entering any competitions.
It could also be worth asking at your boxing gym to see what they recommend. Different gyms have their own rules on what size gloves you are allowed and what size gloves you are not allowed.
