Soft Cups for BJJ

[Disco]

I have been in this sport for a while and I understand the common norm is not to wear any sort of protective cup. Armbars are an issue, as are taking people's backs, and those are the beginning. I never understood why "soft cups" weren't just invented that would absorb a small amount of impact with none of the risk.

I looked into this around 3 years ago and the best I could find was some padded underwear, really made more insecure men's fashion rather than sports.

I have just looked now and it seems there is a wave of "junior" versions of this. These cups now exist, but only for people aged around 10 who are in sports like baseball. Has anyone found anything decent in this space? Or does everyone just go without?

 

[Peteyandjia]

The Diamond cup is pretty close to perfect, as far as balancing protection & performance goes. It turns an errant knee or elbow direct hit to the crotch from a nightmare into nothing, & it isn’t a clunky or annoying thing like the old cups were. I usually forget I’m wearing it, which is probably the best compliment I could give a cup.

 

[ShindoNinja]

I use the spider guard cup. It has just enough protection and won't make your partner "feel you" as much lol

 

[RJ Green]

learn to armbar with your thighs instead of your crotch.

as far as back takes, i'd rather feel every vein in your tickle pickle than have you hump your damn cup into my vertebrae.

 

[JSN]

Did you actually go to a sporting goods store or just scour the internets? Back when I traned I went to the nearest store and found exactly what I was looking for. It's a two piece cup where the side that faces you is soft rubber and the outer part is hard plastic. You simply remove the hard plastic for grappling.

I found it very useful. It's much more comfortable than a hard cup and has just enough protection.

 

[Disco]

The Diamond cup is pretty close to perfect, as far as balancing protection & performance goes. It turns an errant knee or elbow direct hit to the crotch from a nightmare into nothing, & it isn’t a clunky or annoying thing like the old cups were. I usually forget I’m wearing it, which is probably the best compliment I could give a cup.

It looks great for protection, but it still rock hard and would have the same issues for your partner as the others, wouldn't it?

I use the spider guard cup. It has just enough protection and won't make your partner "feel you" as much lol

Looks fascinating. What sort of gear do you wear it with? Their website seems defunct but it is still on amazon. Do you have jock to pair it with?

learn to armbar with your thighs instead of your crotch.

as far as back takes, i'd rather feel every vein in your tickle pickle than have you hump your damn cup into my vertebrae.

Agree, which is why I don't really wear one. And my arm bars aren't that good.

Did you actually go to a sporting goods store or just scour the internets? Back when I traned I went to the nearest store and found exactly what I was looking for. It's a two piece cup where the side that faces you is soft rubber and the outer part is hard plastic. You simply remove the hard plastic for grappling.

I found it very useful. It's much more comfortable than a hard cup and has just enough protection.

Absolutely only looked at the internet. That is a good idea.

I don't suppose you know the name of the one you ended up with?

 

[JSN]

Absolutely only looked at the internet. That is a good idea.

I don't suppose you know the name of the one you ended up with?

sorry I wish I knew but it appears that thing did not survive my last sock/underwear drawer purge.

It may very well have been this one though. It looks indistinguishable from the pictures.

EDIT I don't know why, but every way I try to send the hyperlink leads to the link being recoded as media and chopped up. Google 2N1 Cup and you should find several links to a Duke product

 

[Peteyandjia]

It looks great for protection, but it still rock hard and would have the same issues for your partner as the others, wouldn't it?

The Diamond cup is just hard enough to protect, but it’s not bulky or protruding, it’s not like the oldschool ones at all. The design is pretty streamlined, so it doesn’t really get in the way. I forget I’m wearing it when training, or even walking around. It’s pretty integrated.

As far as the other person goes, I’ve never once had a complaint from a training partner; though honestly in my opinion, if someone is doing backmount with a super-hard pelvic thrust, or trying to bend an armbar over the tip of their dick, then they’re doing it wrong.

I’d highly recommend it for training, it protects the groin amazingly & with minimal interference. I don’t think anyone could even know I’m wearing it, unless they tried to directly cop a feel. In which case I’d immediately regret having it on.

 

[rodgerdodger]

I've been training with the diamond cup for years and never had anyone complain. Just don't use it as a weapon.

 

[ShindoNinja]

It looks great for protection, but it still rock hard and would have the same issues for your partner as the others, wouldn't it?



Looks fascinating. What sort of gear do you wear it with? Their website seems defunct but it is still on amazon. Do you have jock to pair it with?



Agree, which is why I don't really wear one. And my arm bars aren't that good.



Absolutely only looked at the internet. That is a good idea.

I don't suppose you know the name of the one you ended up with?

It comes with a jock but you can use any jock really.

 

[efficientjudo]

I've honestly never found a need to wear a cup for BJJ - if you're getting hit in the nuts, you need to find new training partners that actually know what they're doing.....

 

[EndlessCritic]

I would call myself an armbar specialist, and can safely say, if you think you need a cup, you're doing something very wrong.

 

[Adjaar]

5 years and I almost have never hurt my balls. That being said, I have a buddy how gets bagged in every single roll he is in.

I wonder if i have small balls or his pain tolerance is just nonexistent. Armbars should not cause groin pain. Never felt backmount discomfort ever. If I get bagged it would be during a scramble or just weird positioning

 

[EGDM]

The only time I have ever suffered a genital injury was due to wearing a cup. A guy tried to knee slice from one side to the other and dragged my cup across the midline, nearly pinching my balls off in the process. I stopped after that never missed it.

 

[kjg1672]

Last night I trained with a Diamond cup for the first time. It's much more comfortable than a typical cup and stays in place a lot better. It's still a pretty hard cup, though, so I don't if it's any easier on my training partners.

 

[Disco]

sorry I wish I knew but it appears that thing did not survive my last sock/underwear drawer purge.

It may very well have been this one though. It looks indistinguishable from the pictures.

EDIT I don't know why, but every way I try to send the hyperlink leads to the link being recoded as media and chopped up. Google 2N1 Cup and you should find several links to a Duke product

I ended up with one of these from amazon and its great. I've worn it for a few weeks right now and copped an errant shin from a knee-through-guard-pass the other night and it ate around 80% of the impact. I have worked on taking people's back and sought feedback and no one can notice that I have one in, as it just compresses when that happens.