Issue 058

January 2010

Coach Shawn Tompkins can spend up to eight hours a day in the gym training fighters, so the Las Vegas-based striking supremo makes sure he’s got everything he needs for a hard day’s work in his multipurpose kitbag.  

Kitbag

It’s a cool bag. A buddy of mine, Dave Kaplan, actually gave it to me as a gift for training him. It means a lot to me, when I’m going to work every day, or going to train, or traveling, I look at it and it’s got a good feel to it. It’s a great bag and has got lots of space for me to put everything in. It’s got a front pocket, I like to keep my water bottles and my protein bars in there. I’m always at the gym all day and a lot of the time I’ve got nothing to eat, so I’ll have that in there and it doesn’t take up any equipment space. It’s a multipurpose bag with pockets for my hand wraps, timers, t-shirts. Training eight hours a day I could go through eight t-shirts, so having space for my dry clothes and my wet clothes is good.  

Shin guards 

I’ve always been a fan of the traditional Fairtex-style shin guards. I have a bigger leg, I enjoy kicking. They’re a thicker pad so they protect my training partners and my shins from getting banged up. My job is not an easy job and especially not easy on my body, so I’ve got to protect myself.  

Sparring gloves

Again, the traditional Fairtex. They fit my hand real nice, they don’t move around a whole lot, pretty much anywhere you go in the world people are comfortable in wearing them or getting hit by them.  

Mouthguard

People are always pretty amazed by the fact I use the 99c boil-and-bite mouthguards.  I’m a big fan of the Shock Doctor style, and I’ve had professionally made ones, but I find they make me gag or choke.  

Thai pads

I always use a Combat Sports Thai pad, they’re a medium sized pad; purely because I like my fighters to move quickly with their hand combinations as well as being able to put their kicks in. A smaller pad makes more sense because I can move them faster. A lot of coaches don’t like to use them because there’s not as much padding, but I feel I’ve held pads long enough I can catch a kick with them perfectly.  

Focus mitts

I’ve got Everlast, they’ve got thick padding. The reason I use these pads is because a lot of people I train are MMA fighters and we like that extra padding. A lot of them like to train in the gloves they fight in, the four-ounce MMA glove. With a pad like that they can hit as hard as they want but not scuff or bruise their knuckles.  

Wraps 

Getting close to a fight I like to gauze and tape my fighters’ hands, just because it’s safer for them. It’s a nice feel, gives them a good sense of confidence. We’ll do both hands; I’ll use three rolls of gauze and a couple of rolls of tape. I also have extra pairs of the Mexican-style hands wraps, the elasticated ones. In a week I go through about 20 rolls of tape.  

Timers

I always have a couple of timers in my bag, they’re just your typical kitchen countdown timers.  A lot of the time when we’re traveling we’re working out in makeshift gyms, banquet halls and stuff, we won’t have professional timers, and with these I can count down a five-minute round.  

Shawn Tompkins spoke with Gary Alexander