The CCMA Kit List contains both required and recommended equipment for safe MMA training. Students should endeavour to acquire the essential kit as soon as possible for hygiene reasons. We do have usable training equipment at the gym for new starters to use, but established students are using it far too long before purchasing their own equipment.
A mouth guard and groin guard are essential required equipment, and all students should wear these for all lessons without fail.
Mouth Guard
All students should aim to get themselves a mouth guard as soon as possible. Bumps and bruises heal elsewhere with no negative lasting effect, but teeth can easily be knocked together and damaged when even doing non-competitive drills, so having a mouth guard is an essential piece of kit.
Groin Guard
Every male should have a groin guard for obvious reasons, I recommend the Diamond Cup from Diamond MMA, it is the only groin guard on the market that I personally endorse, and I have tried many, but it is very expensive.
There are many other cups available on the market and I will be setting up a groin guard section on the website soon selling Bytomic, Venum, and Shock Doctor Cups, but I am yet to test these before I can personally endorse them and sell them via my website.
Boxing Gloves
After a mouth guard and groin guard, students usually wish to purchase their own gloves, and it is advised that students acquire a pair of both boxing gloves.
Because we use boxing gloves in training and not necessarily for competition, we recommend a minimum of 16 0z gloves for men and 14 oz gloves for women, depending on size and strength, please ask your instructor for advice before making any purchases.
MMA Gloves
Because we are an amateur MMA club, we only use hybrid style gloves in training, these are designed with a large pad over the knuckles.
Shin Guards
Shin guards are another essential piece of kit to protect the legs and prevent injury. While it is good to build up strength and pain tolerance in the shins for competition, injuries can occur that can put you out of training for some time, so we prefer students to at least wear gel-padded neoprene or fabric-type shin guards for kicking drills.
We sell full contact shin guards with straps that aren’t very suitable for MMA due to them slipping when grappling, so we highly recommend getting a hybrid neoprene shin guard with a larger pad on the shin, such as the Fumetsu Ghost shin guards.
Air Focus Pads
At CCMA, we only use top-quality air focus mitts for all of our striking drills to prevent injury to both pad holder and striker. All students should endeavour to acquire a pair of these for themselves as soon as possible. We highly recommend the Farabi Sports Air Focus Pads available here:
https://farabisports.co.uk/collections/focus-pads-1/products/farabi-aero-focus-pads
Supports (if required)
Some students may require support for their joins, either as a prevention or to support a previous injury.
There are many products on the market, and I am yet to find a decent joint support in a colour that I actually like, but I personally recommend either OPPO or LP neoprene products. As we do grappling, it is preferred that supports without Velcro straps are used.
Hand Wraps
Hand wraps are an optional product that some may choose to purchase to protect their wrists, I personally use them if I know I am going to do a full session of boxing pad drills or hitting the punch bag for a long session.
Rash Guard (top tight layer)
A rash guard is not essential when starting out in MMA, but students may wish to protect their skin from friction burns when grappling as soon as grappling begins to become more competitive. A rash guard and also help to compress and support the body, keeping the body warm while watching demonstrations, which can prevent injuries.
Spats (bottom tight layer)
Spats are not essential when starting out in MMA, but students may wish to protect their skin from friction burns when grappling as soon as grappling begins to become more competitive. Spats also help to compress and support the body, keeping the body warm while watching demonstrations, which can prevent injuries.