cups?

keeping with my trend of asking ridiculous questions, i have one about undergarments.

Do you guys who practice judo or BJJ wear cups when you work out? How about in competion?

Id never really thought about (im very new to all this) but last night i had two different things happen. One was during an especially hard throw and i didnt get hit in the nuts but i still had some serious discomfort. the second was rolling with a BJJ guy and i took a knee when he was passing my guard. not fun...

anyhow is this something that just happens or do you guys wear cups? if so do you wear the same sort of cup you wear for baseball or is there a specific style that is needed.

anyhow thanks in advance for answering a probably stupid question

You should never been in a Martial arts situation without a cup.


Even when Im just at home with my brother, doing some Thai pad work, or non-contact or light contact drills, I always wear a cup. I use a Twins Steel cup, made in Thailand, designed for use by Thai boxers. For BJJ, Karate and Judo I wouldnt say you need a steel one, a strong plastic one would do, since the groin shots you will take there arent full on blasting shots, they are more like glancing blows and accidental bumps (which as Im sure you know, can be amazingly painful in themselves!).

That said, I think the Twins steel cup is so comfortable, that I could do Judo with it on and hardly even notice its there, so you might want to get a steel one, just to be on the safe side. Make sure you get the right size cup though, if you get one and it doesnt feel perfect, send it back and get another size. If you don't get the right size it will feel uncomfortable, it will either squash your nuts, or slip around during training.

The worst thing that can happen from not having a properly fitting cup, is that one of your testicles slips out of it, and if you take a shot while one is hanging out, then it can destroy the vas defrans (sperm duct) and the blood vessals that supply the testicle, yes, you can lose the testicle! Don't get too worried about that though, if you have a properly fitting cup the chances of it happening are nearly nil.


So in summary, a cup is essential imo, you might think "Oh doing this drill or exercise, there is no way Im taking a shot in the balls" - its always the shot you dont expect to take that gets you!


One last thing; getting hit in the nuts while wearing a cup will still hurt! You will still get cramps, feel sick, get clammy and go pale etc, cups dont stop the pain, but they do stop damage to one of your most essential, and vulnerable organs!

Buy a cup, and one for your son too!

I don't use a cup when I do BJJ and I find that alot of people or most people don't either.

i dont wear a cup in practice but i wear one in competition cus if some smacks your nuts, you can lose because in jiu jitsu there are no breaks for that

Wear a cup, a guy had half butterfly guard in and he went for a sweep, he wouldn't of got it if I had been wearing a cup but it hurt so bad I just kind of rolled over to stop the pain.

I've worn a cup ever since I got thrown with a whizzer without a cup on. I tried to back out of it last second, and he caught me with his heel, and proceeded to throw me, it hurt so bad. Plus a proper fitting cup doesn't seem to affect you that much, and its better to be safe than extremely sorry.

sounds like its fairly split down the middle on cup or no cup. i suppose ill get one and see how much it affects me as to how often i wear it.

thx for the replies

I always wear a cup. You can get caught in the groin with knees and feet when people sweep you, jostling in half-guard can cause pain, and if you get taken down straight on your ass, you can occasionally land on your balls. Take it from a dude that spend a week with an icepack down the front of his pants.* Wear a cup.

*That was actually from a weight lifting accident, but tramatic testicle injuries are not cool. At all.

i just started wearing a cup, i wear baseball sliding shorts, that has a slot for a cup and i hardly notice it and it has actually helped my game. I am more comfortable when someone has a butterfly guard on me, and when passing guard. I don't want to say reckless, but not having toworry about my package makes me more aggressive in certain situations. I am definitely no expert, but i highly recommend it

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Posted by Lord_Lenny

i just started wearing a cup, i wear baseball sliding shorts, that has a slot for a cup and i hardly notice it and it has actually helped my game. I am more comfortable when someone has a butterfly guard on me, and when passing guard. I don't want to say reckless, but not having toworry about my package makes me more aggressive in certain situations. I am definitely no expert, but i highly recommend it

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Exactly why I also always use it. I feel safe and am more comfortable when someone passes my guard and stuff. I've also hurt my balls a few times training without one so there's no option for me now. Cup or not training.

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Posted by Stickan

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Posted by Lord_Lenny

i just started wearing a cup, i wear baseball sliding shorts, that has a slot for a cup and i hardly notice it and it has actually helped my game. I am more comfortable when someone has a butterfly guard on me, and when passing guard. I don't want to say reckless, but not having toworry about my package makes me more aggressive in certain situations. I am definitely no expert, but i highly recommend it

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Exactly why I also always use it. I feel safe and am more comfortable when someone passes my guard and stuff. I've also hurt my balls a few times training without one so there's no option for me now. Cup or not training.

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yep, compression shorts are the way to go, and you can get a pair of nice under armour ones for like, 15 bucks.

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Posted by akumairon

i dont wear a cup in practice but i wear one in competition cus if some smacks your nuts, you can lose because in jiu jitsu there are no breaks for that

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If you are going to wear one then wear it all the time. It will help you get used to it and it will keep yuor boys protected all the time.

I always wore a cup for baseball, without exception. I never got hit when I wasn't playing catcher. I started leaving it out for warm up and putting it in right before the games. One day we were taking infield practice and the coach was hitting lasers at me at third base (because I was good). The infield had a lip between the grass and the dirt and he hit a screaming shot that road the ground. When it hit the lip it hopped up and hit my sack like a speed bag. I was went down on one knee, I couldn't breath, I was gasping for air and I couldn't speak. The coach is yelling at me to get up and take some more grounders and I couldn't answer him, let alone get up. The coach called everyone in and I still couldn't move. They other team came out on the field and there third basemen help me up. At this point I was able to communicate well enough to let people know I got hit in the nuts through pointing and grunts. I hobbled back to the bench and the initial pain gave way to bruises. I played the whole game, but had ice on my junk for a solid week.

sounds like my high school baseball coach, a very sensitive guy. nice that no one on your team noticed you were not joining the team in the dugout lol

I would reccommend a cup even for Judo. The problem with Judo is that a bash in the sack can come from nowhere, like in a mis-timed ippon-seonagi or something. One second your arm is being lifted up and the next someones buttocks are being smashed against your nuts-not nice.

I'd reccommend a steel cup, the kind of thing you get from a muay thai stockist. As has been said, they won't make it pleasant to get a shot south of the border but they will stop things getting damaged. I will not go to muay thai training without mine, it's good to have it there!