How to Care for Thai Pads?

Thai pads are the most versatile piece of equipment in any martial arts gym. While Thai pads that come in a number of shapes and sizes, they are all taking a lot punishment from kickers during every training session. Hence, proper care for your Thai pads is crucial to keep your training gear to last longer.

 

If you want to make your pads last longer, it is important that you make sure that you dry them properly after every use. If the leather gets soaked from your training and you leave it in your bag, it can stay moist. While this will be fine for a few times, if you do this on a consistent basis you will find that the leather starts tearing near the stitches. This is especially true if you are in a country that is cold or one that is humid. Humidity is the reason why Thai pads don’t last that long in Thailand, especially when trainers are holding them for up to 6 hours a day.

To clean your pads you can rub them with a natural cleaning product like Dettol (a disinfectant) or you can use another sanitary spray that you have. You want to make sure that you wipe them down thoroughly so that the bacteria from the gym does not stay on the pads. You should never hold dirty pads because that is disrespectful to the person who is kicking your pads.

You don’t have to clean your pads after every use, but once a week you should be wiping them down to ensure that they are clean. If you are working with different people on the same pads, you should wipe them down between uses. (even though they don’t do that in Thailand)

This is often how skin infections (like Staph infection) end up spreading from student to student. If someone is kicking your pads with an infection on their skin, the next guy who kicks those pads will get that infection. So be sure to clean your pads when you hold them for different people on the same day.

 

Reference:

Stephen, from Muay Thai Pros.