Shin Guards/Pads Review

Here we're doing a review of the Black Diamond shin pads from Punch Equipment®. These pads are top-of-the-line in the Punch Equipment® range.

Let me just show you why first of all...

Very light Pad

The pad is incredibly light, so a lot of pads when you put them on they to me, feel a little bit too heavy, I guess they do that to try and get the pad absorbing the shock but we've managed to lighten them through high-grade padding and modern materials. So it's virtually weightless, having said that though you've got massive protection here.

Protects your knee, ankles, toes

This shin pad is all Punchtex™ commercial grade material and then it's got these additional panels down the front for your shin and on your instep as well. So the idea of it is the profile looks quite small on your leg but very very efficient for checking and counter kicking. You've got ankle protection on the side here and it comes down midway over your toes here, depending which size you end up with.

Wide range of sizing

They come in a small, medium, large and extra-large. They feature Punchcool™ sweat-wicking lines on the side. So let me just show you that this sweat-wicking line is essential for a good fit. So the hard part of a shin pad is to get this curve right, so the pad sits well on your leg. But this material which is like a nylon outer wicking layer and then a millimetre of foam underneath it pulls the sweat away from the leg and stops the shin pad slipping around. It's also on the instep as well and you can see we've got an instep strap here and then we've got an ankle stabilizer here. If you find you've got a foot that looks like a flipper (some people have massive feet) you can snip that off if you wish and just use it with the instep and the straps.

Adjustable

It's not ideal but if you're a really large person and you just find you can't get your foot through there because they may be reasonably tight. So they fit an average person firmly. So we go to the same as the Thai Pad system with a double overlap back through steel buckles onto itself and what you end up with is a low profile shin pad with reinforced high impact areas. It has extra thick padding, I'd say three centimetres of padding over your shin at least.

Buy online!

These have been used for many years and this is about version 17 or 18 of this shin pad so it's been around for a long time. Basically, I'd recommend this if you're doing a lot of checking or partner work where you're kicking, checking and receiving shin clashes. Also because it's light and fairly low profile it's really designed for proper heavy duty sparring.