Martial arts supplies, equipment, and mixed martial arts gear supplier reviews
April 25, 2008
Martial Arts Gear Suppliers: A List With Reviews
Nothing sucks worse than trying to train with low-quality gear. Here’s a list of reputable martial arts equipment suppliers with reviews of their products and service:
Century Martial Arts - Often known as “the big boy” in the martial arts equipment industry, they definitely have the largest selection. Although they’ve started offering a wider variety of equipment for contact martial arts (mma and kickboxing), their real product focus is on supplying equipment and uniforms for karate, kung fu, and tae kwon do schools. Service is prompt and courteous, and if something goes wrong with your order they will make it right. Quality on a scale of 1 to 10: 7.0 for most products.
RevGear - Great MMA supplier. Frankly, I love their gear and their prices cannot be beat. These guys have been quietly cranking out quality gear at great prices for years. They offer the typical selection of uniforms and foam sparring gear, but where they really shine is in the MMA and kickboxing equipment department. Their boxing gloves are some of the most comfortable I’ve ever used, and their shins and MMA gloves are good quality (all leather and plenty of padding, unlike the generic MMA gloves they sell at the local sporting goods stores). Customer service is excellent, and don’t be surprised if you end up getting Paul Revlin himself on the phone when you need help with an order. Over all quality: a 9.5 - highly recommended.
MMA Warehouse - This is THE place to go when you want to buy any of the top brands of MMA clothing and gear at decent prices. Tapout, Affliction, Sprawl, Throwdown, No Fear… you name it, they probably have it in stock. Plus they carry all the pro quality gear from Combat Sports and Ringside. They are also a top-rated store for customer service at BizRate, which is hard to get. Overall quality is a 9.0since they carry all well-known, top brands.
Links to Martial Arts Sites
April 17, 2008
Wesley Snipes Martial Arts Film Star
April 16, 2008
Wesley Snipes martial arts prowess has arguably been the foundation of his action movie career. Although dramatic roles in early films such as New Jack City and White Men Can’t Jump did not require Snipes to display his formidable martial arts skills, it is interesting to note that many of his later roles involved a great deal of martial arts based fighting.
What is even more amazing is that in his best-known action role as Blade, the day-walking vampire hunter, Snipes acted as both producer and fight choreographer on the first two films in the series. Obviously, this is a man who loves his martial arts.
Wesley Snipes martial arts training and background is impressive. A fifth degree black belt, with high ranks in Shotokan karate and extensive training in capoeira, he is an accomplished martial artist. Snipes first started training at the young age of 12, and credits his martial arts training for helping him overcome adversity. In an interview with the Calgary Sun, Snipes talked about how his early martial arts training taught him valuable life-skills:
“They are what taught me how to deal with adversity in my life. You have to endure and overcome so much physical pain to learn these moves that you can apply the same principles to life experiences. I was a small child. I matured late. It made growing up in a tough world even tougher. I started out using martial arts training to defend myself, so my style is traditional martial arts mixed with Bronx street fighting.”
Snipes seems evasive when asked directly what martial arts he uses most in his films. Yet he never hesitates to give credit to his early training in traditional martial arts, nor his ongoing passion for the Afro-Brazilian art of capoeira, which he studies under Mestre Jelon Vieira. However, he readily admits that he draws on several martial arts styles for his fight scenes, and it’s easy to see influences in his choreography from tae kwon do, hapkido, kenpo karate, and Filipino martial arts.
No matter what martial arts Wesley Snipes practices, there is no doubt that he is one of the most entertaining and engaging action film stars to hit the silver screen. If you’d like to check out some of his work on DVD, the following is a recommended list of the all-time best Wesley Snipes martial arts action flicks to watch:
- Passenger 57
- Boiling Point
- Rising Sun
- Blade
- U.S. Marshals
- The Art of War
- Blade II: Bloodhunt
- Blade: Trinity
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About the Author: Mike Massie has been teaching the martial arts for over twenty years, and is a well-known and outspoken advocate on the topic of ethical martial arts school management. He resides in Austin, Texas and runs a full-time martial arts studio in nearby Hutto, TX.
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