What Size Boxing Gloves for 10 Year Old?

Boxing is a fantastic sport for all ages; it doesn’t have to be a brutal combat sport as you may see in professional boxing matches, it’s actually a great way to blow off some steam, learn discipline and resilience, and encourage fair play. Plus, it’s even better for younger children to start from an early age to get into the spirit of the sport and learn the importance of exercise in a healthy life.

However, having the right equipment to perform the sport safely is the most important thing so children can learn and play without risking injury. Adults can use a range of different-sized boxing gloves, depending on what type of boxing training they’re doing, and it can be helpful for children to have different gloves for bag training and sparring too. But, for most children from 6 to 10 years old, 6 oz gloves are the best choice, although the perfect glove depends on the ability and size of your child. 

Let’s look into the right glove size for your children in more detail so they can stay safe while reaping the rewards of such a great contact sport like boxing or kickboxing.

How to Choose the Right Boxing Gloves

Choosing the right boxing gloves isn’t as simple as picking the ones with the nicest design, although that’s sure to be a factor when deciding on boxing gloves with your children. The size, weight and fitting of the gloves are crucial to make sure you and your children can practise boxing safely. 

The heaviest boxing gloves are meant for sparring so you can keep your knuckles and your sparring partner’s body protected from damage, which is why professional heavyweight boxers like Mike Tyson would wear 18 oz boxing gloves when sparring. The lightest gloves are for real boxing matches, so your opponent can feel the full force of your punch, so Iron Mike wore 10 oz gloves when fighting. 

For non-heavyweights and beginners, there’s no need to wear such weighty boxing gloves. Generally, the following weight categories should wear these glove sizes:

• Under 45 kg need 6 – 8 oz gloves
• 46 – 68 kg need 10 – 12 oz gloves
• 69 – 80 kg need 14 oz gloves
• Over 80 kg need 16 – 18 oz gloves

While this is a great guide for beginners to know what size boxing gloves they should choose as they can invest in more sizes as their training intensifies, these are general size guides and don’t consider the training activity or the hand size of the boxer. 

What Size Boxing Gloves Should Children Use?

Although adult boxers will need a few pairs of boxing gloves for different aspects of the sport, children can train perfectly well with one size, as their training won’t be so intense and they’re unlikely to participate in serious sparring, but rather learning punching techniques, footwork and boxing fitness. 

Some of the boxing skills your children will learn are:

• Jab
• Uppercut
• Cross
• Skipping
• Strength training

Moreover, children can easily lose interest in different activities in their childhood, so while they may have an interest in boxing now, they may decide in a couple of years that they would prefer to learn to play cricket or dance. So before you make significant investments in sports equipment for a young child, it’s best to just buy one pair of boxing gloves to make sure they have an unwavering interest in the sport. 

As with the above size guide, people under 45 kg should wear 6 – 8 oz boxing gloves, so children around 10 years old generally weigh around 30 kg, and should use 6 oz boxing gloves. For children between the ages of 4 and 6, 4 – 6 oz boxing gloves can be ideal, however, you should ensure they are children’s gloves, as adult MMA gloves usually weigh 4 oz and will be too big for your child’s hands. 

Why Is the Size of Boxing Gloves Important?

Wearing the wrong size boxing gloves isn’t just impractical, it’s potentially dangerous and increases your risk of sustaining an injury. Injuring yourself when you first start boxing can affect your enjoyment of the sport and may cause you to give up, even though you simply need the right equipment.

Boxing gloves are designed to protect your hands and wrists by softening the impact of punches and supporting the small bones, ligaments and muscles in your hands and wrists. If the boxing gloves are too big, hands will move around within the gloves, and the protection will be ineffective. So before you go out and buy a pair of 4, 6 or 8 oz boxing gloves for your child, make sure they’re children’s boxing gloves so they will provide sufficient support for smaller hands. 

What Boxing Gloves Should Beginners Use?

If you’re interested in starting boxing, it may be tempting to go for the lightest gloves you can find, assuming that the heavier gloves are for heavier people. Or even that the heaviest gloves will provide you with the best protection. But that’s not necessarily the case. 

All boxing gloves will provide protection for your hands, but the weight of the gloves is more about the weight of your body and the strength of your arms. So if you already hit the gym a lot but are interested in learning to box, having 8 oz gloves won’t provide you enough protection from your own strength. When starting, it’s best to get one pair of boxing gloves to first see if you’re into the sport, so a pair of boxing gloves with a medium weight of 10 – 12 oz is best, so you can hit the heavy punching bags as well as spar safely. As you advance, you can get a heavier pair for sparring and use your lighter pair for punching bag rounds. 

Do You Need Hand Wraps Under Boxing Gloves?

Hand wraps are as important for your safety as boxing gloves because they help support the small bones and ligaments in your hands from the impact of your punches. Boxing gloves should be snug enough that your hands don’t rattle around within the glove, but some space is normal, so hand wraps are essential, for both adults and children, to protect their hands further. 

You should have a few pairs of hand wraps so you can use a fresh pair each time you train to stop your boxing gloves from smelling of sweat and growing bacteria, which will require you to replace them after only a short time.  

Boxing Equipment for Children

One of the greatest parts of learning to box is the social aspect; being surrounded by other people who are eager to learn and practise their skills can be motivating as well as improve your general mood. However, it can also be a great idea to invest in boxing equipment for use at home, so you can hone your skills without needing to head to the boxing gym and relieve stress on the punching bag at times that best suit you.

But boxing equipment for adults is much larger and heavier than equipment for children, so, although you may want to help your child gain an interest in boxing with your own equipment, for the sake of their safety, you should invest in children’s boxing equipment which is designed to be relative to their size and weight. 

Buy the Best Boxing Equipment Today!

So your children are showing an interest in learning to box or kickbox? That’s fantastic! Support their interest and help them learn valuable life skills by buying the best boxing gloves for children today!

Maxx Pro Boxing is dedicated to manufacturing the highest quality boxing equipment thanks to our team of experts. We supply gyms and homes across the UK with all the boxing equipment they need to safely practise the sport and improve their skills. You can find our range of boxing gloves for children and adults here.