What size sparring gloves do you use?

[RozzySean]

At my gym, the head trainer has us use gym-own laceup 18's. I have a pair of Title 16's that my old trainer said were good for bag or sparring. They have a small strap that velcro's and a stretchy sleeve that pulls down over the strap. On of the unofficial trainer (he trains his son and helps out when the head trainer is out) to not ruin them, and he's had me sparring with his son using the Titles. The head trainer said the Titles are too soft - good for the hands, but you can feel the knuckles more and I should use them for the bag. I'm confused. I've gotten three different opinions.

I'm fine using the 18's. I find it a bit hard to land, and they make big shields for blocking. They are pretty damn bulky, though. The obvious advantage is the extra weight helps with conditioning and handspeed. I can see that it might be an advantage to my offense, but I wonder if it could be defense liability down the road getting used to blocking using big ass gloves against other big ass gloves.

I'm just curious what people are using out there and if they've been told different things by different people about the same set of gloves.

[Dizaster]

People just have different opinions.. I use 16oz cleto's and they are fine.. Our trainer isn't to fussed what size we use... Most people recommend using at least 16oz to protect your opponent, help condition your arms etc.. But I guess having really big puffy gloves and learning to defend with them may be a little different to defending with 12oz, but I don't think it would be a huge difference.. If your using good form with your defence, stepping down gloves shouldn't be to much difference... I wouldn't use really light gloves to spar just for that reason...
I think picking between 16 or 18 is just a matter or preference... Plus certain gloves are different as well as far as padding goes.. My Cleto's are twice as hard as some of the other guys gloves in the gym who have 14oz... So maybe your trainers comments were as much specific to your gloves as to the size of them.

[Von Milash]

18s are a bit much if you ask me. The only time I've ever heard of anyone using them (or 20s) is when there's a severe strength and/or skill mismatch. 16s are the norm pretty much everywhere.

I have 3 pairs of 16s. One pair is softer for safety, one middle of the road, and one mexican pair in case I need to make a bit more of a statement. A lot of people use 12s or 14s for bagwork, but again, I use 16s there too.

Plus I have a bit of a glove fetish.... one day they'll either be my son's or I'll hang them in the rec room.

[donnydarkoIRL]

Generally I use 14's.

But when training hard that can fluctuate up or down.

[bikersk]

I was using 16's for sparring and bag work. I got them nicely worn in and noticed the bag work was starting to wear them a bit so i just use them for sparring and a pair of 12's for bag work. My 16's are fairly solid too i even managed to bruise a knuckle sparring with them. It was already sore a few weeks before but thought it was ok. As others have mentioned different makes of gloves have different characteristics. The Mexican ones are usually known to be harder and a 'punchers' gloves. But it's one of those things where you will probably get different answers from different people depending on their personal slant on gloves and glove makes and sizes.

[Dizaster]

18s are a bit much if you ask me. The only time I've ever heard of anyone using them (or 20s) is when there's a severe strength and/or skill mismatch. 16s are the norm pretty much everywhere.

I have 3 pairs of 16s. One pair is softer for safety, one middle of the road, and one mexican pair in case I need to make a bit more of a statement. A lot of people use 12s or 14s for bagwork, but again, I use 16s there too.

Plus I have a bit of a glove fetish.... one day they'll either be my son's or I'll hang them in the rec room.

I can't wait until the proud moment where I give my pair of gloves to my son. Definetly a cool idea...

[bikersk]

18s are a bit much if you ask me. The only time I've ever heard of anyone using them (or 20s) is when there's a severe strength and/or skill mismatch. 16s are the norm pretty much everywhere.

I have 3 pairs of 16s. One pair is softer for safety, one middle of the road, and one mexican pair in case I need to make a bit more of a statement. A lot of people use 12s or 14s for bagwork, but again, I use 16s there too.

Plus I have a bit of a glove fetish.... one day they'll either be my son's or I'll hang them in the rec room.

I can't wait until the proud moment where I give my pair of gloves to my son. Definetly a cool idea...

Tried to get my boys into it. started off ok but they wont go near the gym now. DON'T KNOW WHY B/C they all can box ok. Might be their mother.