Proforce Gladiator Kempo Gloves

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Kempo gloves are kind of an oddity. They don’t seem to be the standard gear for kempo and most people know them as “Enter the Dragon gloves” (and from there, JKD gloves). I find them to be a versatile piece of gear that usually isn’t as good as a specialized piece of gear, but you can use them for everything. You can use them for stickfighting, but they’re not quite as good as hockey/lacrosse gloves. You can use them for sparring/boxing, but they’re not as good as boxing gloves. You can use them for pankration/mma sparring, but they’re not as good as 4oz gloves. However, none of those other gloves is as good for any of the other activities as the kempo glove, IMO.

Now, onto my actual gloves: I got these a few years ago when I sparred Chickenbeakfist on the weekends. The very first thing I noticed was that they’re difficult to lace up yourself. I highly recommend buying some laceless wraps (Everlast makes some), so you can change the mechanism from a bunch of laces to a single Velcro strap. The canvas part that wraps around the wrist, although kind of hard to lace, makes the glove feel secure on the hand and I rarely have to adjust them.

Durability: These gloves have held up well to the abuse I’ve subjected them to. This included about two years worth of training about once a week, including san da style sparring, and weapon sparring (padded and rattan). The suede on the palms is looking worn and it has blood stains on it but the padding is fine and they're still functional.


As I mentioned, you can use these for several things but each use has some different issues, so I’m gonna critique them for different uses:

Weapon sparring: These afford a good amount of protection for the hands, particularly the thumb. I’ve seen people use MMA gloves for weapon sparring and the thumb is often unprotected. It’s also a fairly common area to hit someone with a stick, so you really want some protection there. It’s enough padding to take the sting out of most hits. There’s some negatives too, though. They’re sort of bulky and give your partner an unrealistically large hand target to go for (however, common alternatives like hockey gloves are often bulky too). There’s a bit of limitation on wrist mobility too, but standard cuts, abanicos and wraps work while wearing them. It’s also possible (not common) to get hit in the very tips of the fingers, and it’s surprisingly painful. We sparred with rattan sticks, various padded sticks, and various training knives (rubber, wood) and the gloves were not damaged in the process.

Kickboxing: Kempo gloves look heavily padded compared to, say, a 4oz MMA glove. However, a lot of the padding is on the back of the hand and they definitely hit harder than a boxing glove. We would limit the power more than normal when hitting the head/face with them. This is a big reason why they got marked lower on protection.


Grappling: We would allow standing and ground grappling while sparring, partly because CBF was a judo guy and I wanted him to get to use his arsenal of moves. This made the kempo gloves kind of problematic, since sometimes they would get caught in a way that an ungloved hand wouldn’t. For example, I recall tipping him backwards with a bodylock and getting on top of him, then realizing that the bulkiness of my gloves was trapping my hands under his weight. Sure, you can pull your arms out but it’s a whole lot more involved. Also, it’s way easier to keep an arm caught in an overhook since you can’t pull the arm out if the glove gets deep enough. Or, you’re trying to do a guillotine or RNC and the glove makes it easier for them to defend. There’s probably other ways that kempo gloves get in the way, but I’m not much of a grappler so I’ll leave it at that. That’s where the 4oz glove is superior, but we didn’t like getting punched with those so much.

Overall, I think they’re a good addition to a person’s gear, if they’re interested in doing everything but don’t like buying gloves or switching gloves a lot. Having said that, this style of gloves were designed in the 70s as an attempt to make an open fingered martial arts glove based on the boxing glove. A lot has changed since then, and for a lot of things the MMA glove is superior. For mixed armed and unarmed practice though, they’re superior.

[brihno360]

I also use these gloves for sparring and have had mine for at least 5 years. They have held up pretty well.

In terms of use I found that when working the whole range of fighting, that people tend to trap your arm by cinching down on the bulky glove. I consider this rule breaking, so to remedy, I don't cinch mine up but instead leave them tied loosely so I can just slip my hand out.
but overall they work pretty well for what we do in our club, which is mostly kick boxing style sparring, plus they have the added advantage of being kind of heavy so that you get a better workout.

[MartialArtDeals]

Great Review - May I use it on my site ?

[Snake Plissken]

The very first thing I noticed was that they’re difficult to lace up yourself. I highly recommend buying some laceless wraps (Everlast makes some), so you can change the mechanism from a bunch of laces to a single Velcro strap. The canvas part that wraps around the wrist, although kind of hard to lace, makes the glove feel secure on the hand and I rarely have to adjust them.

The laces was (were?) always the big problem with these and your suggestion is a great one.

Nice review.

[Tom Kagan]

I've always felt that Kenpo gloves were designed by someone who read way too many comic books.

Great Review - May I use it on my site ?

Do you mean "steal the content and put it under my own domain name"? No.

Do you mean "add a short, original blurb followed by a direct linkback to this thread"? Yes.

BTW, kudos for having the integrity to ask. Many others would not. You should contact the site owner at phrost@bullshido.com Maybe the two of you could work out something which is mutually beneficial.