If you enjoy taking part in martial arts and happen to wear corrective glasses, you may be faced with a dilemma. You need your specs to see clearly, but the nature of your sport means that there’s a high risk of them falling from your face or getting damaged. There are a few options to solve this problem: sports glasses that can be fitted with prescription lenses and that are robust and lightweight are the choice of many. And there are other options on the table, too.
Wearing Glasses During Warm-Up
In general, it should be fine to wear glasses during the warm-up part of your martial arts session if it doesn’t involve any element of sparring. This stage can often be completed at a participant’s own pace, meaning you can pause to adjust your spectacles if needed.
The Challenges of Wearing Glasses While Sparring
If you need to wear glasses, there’s no reason why you can’t try wearing them to your sparring sessions to see how you get on. However, it may be helpful to keep in mind some of the common challenges facing spectacle-wearers during their martial arts sessions.
The most frequent issue you’re likely to encounter is your glasses moving about on your face or even sliding off your nose – the sheer physicality of martial arts and the ways in which you’re required to move your body can make it nearly impossible for your glasses to stay in place. Lenses fogging up as you exert during the session is also a common issue, which can obviously have a major impact on your vision – and, therefore, your ability to overcome your opponent.
Finally, there’s the risk of your spectacles being damaged: snapped frames or cracked lenses are a real – and costly – possibility.
Hacks to Keep Your Glasses in Place During Martial Arts Training
There are some steps you can take to keep your glasses from sliding (or flying!) off during your training. You could consider fitting a sports strap to your regular spectacles to keep them securely on your face or try silicone ear hooks. The latter attaches to the arms of your glasses to help your specs stay on your face. This option tends to be more comfortable than a sports strap, but some users find them not quite as robust.
Stick-on nose pads are an inexpensive solution, although they’ll need changing very regularly to remain effective. They do exactly as their name suggests: stick to the inner frame of your specs to help prevent them from slipping down your nose.
Sports Glasses and Goggles
Prescription sports goggles are a great choice for martial arts training and bouts – the strap provides the most secure fit possible, and a range of styles are available so you can choose the most comfortable option. As well as providing clear vision, sports goggles are a great way to protect the eyes during your martial arts sessions – and their robustness means that they can withstand even the most arduous of matches. Even those with perfect vision may choose to wear clear glasses in goggle styles to help prevent the occurrence of eye injuries.
Look for sports glasses that are lightweight and with good airflow to prevent fogging and provide excellent peripheral vision. Some options allow for interchangeable lenses, which may be particularly useful if you also play outdoor sports, as you can switch your ‘regular’ lenses out for ones that are polarized as needed.
How About Contact Lenses?
Contact lenses could be worth considering as an alternative to wearing sports goggles or glasses while sparring or competing in martial arts. Contacts totally negate the need to worry about glasses getting damaged or in the way of your training, and there are no arms and frames to get in the way of a clear line of vision.
There is a small risk that if a blow lands on the face, a contact lens may be knocked out. If you require expensive, non-disposable lenses, this needs careful thinking; however, if your contacts are disposable options, this is likely to be a risk worth taking.
Finding the Perfect Eyewear Option for Martial Artists
If you enjoy practicing martial arts but need to wear corrective lenses, there are a number of options available to you, from prescription sports glasses to contact lenses to budget-friendly nose pads. Ultimately, base your choice on your budget, style, and personal preferences to get the solution that’ll perfectly suit your needs so that all you need to concentrate on is winning your next bout.
