The other day I was teaching and a student asked me what is the IRT uniform? IRT uniform I thought to myself. There is not one IRT uniform. Nope, not one at all. No we practice in street clothes, bud’s (battle dress uniforms), shorts and a t-shirt, heavyweight karate uniform, karate uniform pants and t-shirt, or whatever you have on at that moment. Me, personally my favorite is practicing in a bathing suit or board shorts either in the pool or outside of it. Then I go for a swim afterwards. 😉 In Instinctive Response Training you can wear whatever you want to training. Really…. Sure when in a Training Hall we might wear a martial arts heavyweight uniform most of the time. They last a long time and they are durable. However, when someone starts I just let them train in whatever they want to for a long time. They usually buy a uniform within a year because of the durability factor. Plus the coat allows you to practice a lot of chokes that are applicable to do on someone wearing a coat during fall or winter. Still a practitioner can wear whatever they want to in training. Whatever works for them! Personally, when outside teaching I like to wear shorts or bdu’s (military style pants) and a t-shirt. That would have to be my favorite. Still I also enjoy wearing jeans as well! When on mats a heavyweight martial arts uniform works nicely and does not have any zippers, etc. that can tear up the mats. (jeans, athletic pants some times do) When up in the mountains you will usually find me wearing winter clothes and gloves. Training in gloves really helps with your technique because some times it is hard to grab with them on. When it comes to colors I prefer dark or black because they hide stains whether grass or blood better than lighter colors. Oh and if you wear flip flops a lot then you better train in them or train to get them off fast! That just brings you to one more point train in shoes and train without them because you never know if you will be in bare feet or in shoes when a violent encounter occurs. Imagine someone breaking into your house in the middle of the night. I imagine that you do not wear shoes to bed. 😉 Bottom line the important thing to do is train and have some variety in what you wear. The training in the end is what is important not what you wear! If you train hard then you will get better. The clothes in martial training do not make the man or woman! 🙂
Never had any required uniform in any TCMA I ever trained and when I was training police/military Sanda the uniform was whatever I wore to work that day. Taiji, XIngyi, Bagua I tend towards comfortable clothes but I have trained in jeans and a couple of times, when I forgot my regular shoes I train in (CMA is big on shoes) I trained in big leather boots. And when you train outside in the winter, well you need more clothes 😉
Uniforms have their place but I am not a big fan of them
Tim, I like variety. However, I have to say I like just training in shorts and a t-shirt with tennis shoes. Always makes for a good time. Particularly when the sun is out! 🙂
I agree, but I live in the North/East so “sun out” does not necessarily mean warn 🙂
warn should be warm, sorry about that
Well to me Martial Arts means respect and discipline.
I have trained in different Martial arts now for much
more than 15 years. I have seen much people come and go but one other thing that I have noticed
is the respect and discipline that’s changed those peoples perception of life.
Young children that have started which have been on the wrong side of the tracks, always in trouble and no idea how to respect other kids. Place them in a controlled environment with discipline and fighting and they soon start to understand.
Martial arts is one method for children and adults to get rid of their aggression without hurting or bullying anyone.