Issue 090
July 2012
If you don’t protect your tibias in training don’t expect them to carry you through to the fight. Shinpads are the answer. FO gives you 10 things you never knew about shin guards...
1. From old French to middle English
The term shin guard may not be fancy, but the origins of its predecessor’s word are. The name comes from the Old French word ‘greve’, meaning ‘shin’, and changed into ‘greave’ during the Middle English period – also a piece of armor.
2. Guarding gladiators
For years we watched the Roman gladiator begin TV proceedings for UFC events, until the opening was retired earlier this year. Even though the gladiators of that period weren’t using Von Flue chokes and spinning wheel-kicks to finish their opponents, they did use shin guards to protect themselves during battle.
3. The first find
Famed archaeologist Sir William Temple was the first person to find a physical pair of greaves. Apparently the bronze shin protectors had a Gorgon’s head design on them. Imagine someone throwing a head kick at you and an image of a snake-haired woman coming towards your cranium.
4. Thank you, cricket
If we told you mixed martial artists should be very thankful towards the ever-so-polite sport of cricket, you would probably take a cricket bat and try and beat some sense into us. But, before you do, know that cricket was the first sport to utilize shin guards to protect their players, in that instance, from high-speed five-ounce balls.
5. Save your shins
Unless you’re crazy, have shins of steel or you’re Buakaw (we’ll get to that further down the list), not using shin guards in training is foolish. Shin guards protect your tibia, which lies directly underneath your skin. The tibia lacks the muscle around it that would normally act as a cushion for other bones.
6. Buakaw the tree destroyer
Although we just said you should always wear shin guards during training, there are some people so special they can go without. Enter, Muay Thai champion Buakaw and the unbelievable video of him chopping down a tree with his shins via roundhouse kicks. Someone lied, because not all men are created equal...
7. Different shin guards for different training
If you’re dead serious about your training you should probably know that unlike the One Ring in Lord Of The Rings, not one type of shin guard rules them all. A true student of martial arts should have grappling, MMA and Muay Thai shin guards at their disposal.
8. Fashion victims
We at THFE like to consider ourselves trendsetters, especially in the realm of fashion. We’ve seen whole host of weird things pop up on the runways, so what’s stopping a pair of Hayabusa shin guards from going up and down the catwalk.
9. Scientifically sound
Trying to kick a heavy bag or some mitts with bronze-laden shin guards would be a great workout for your legs, but it would also be incredibly hard to train in. That’s why today’s mixed martial artists have fiberglass, foam rubber, polyurethane and plastic materials used in their shin guards, to name a few.
10. Don't knock it until you try it
Even though shin guards are widely accepted in most combat sports, it could have all been very different. In 1874, Sam Weller Widdowson used his cricket shin guards whilst playing soccer. Although he was laughed at during the time, if it wasn’t for him, there’d be more injuries in high-impact sports than there is already.
