I put this FAQ together to alleviate some oft asked questions and to help people facilitate getting the information they need. I've tried to eliminate as many specific product references as possible to keep the forum sponsors happy, if it's OK, the FAQ can be edited to answer more product specific commonly asked questions.
Please consider this a community document! This was all written very quickly, I'm sure there are mistakes, if you find any, let me know and I'll edit them. If I've forgotten any common questions, again, let me know. I created a new account for this project because I didn't want my signature (which features a link to a site that I make money from) to be plastered all over what should be a neutral document.
So... here we go...
First,
read this post and pay particularly close attention to the part about the search function. Now, the search function isn't perfect, it can't search for anything that is three letters or less and it often breaks, but you should always do a search before you post something new.
Second, if you can't find what you are looking for and you can't find an existing topic where you might be able to get the information you want and feel like you need to start a new topic, please do yourself and everyone on the board a favor and be SPECIFIC!
Good subjects for new posts look like this:What are the most compact 16oz boxing gloves?
How tall are the split seams on <insert brand>?
Bad subjects for new posts look like this:boxing gloves
question about shorts
hey, help me out!
Now once you've chosen a good subject for you post, make sure you give us all the details we need to help you out. Let's say you want to know what size headgear to get and you've looked everywhere for a size chart, but you can't find one. (By everywhere I mean on the manufacturers site, on the sites of people that sell it, the board's search function, and google) So you've chosen a subject like, “Help me figure out the right size <brand name> <product name>.” Within the post give us the pertinent information, in this case, measure your head. So the post should look something like:
My head is 7391” around. Can anyone help me figure out what size I need?
It shouldn't look like this:
My head is about average I guess.
You should give us all the information we need to answer in your very first post.
If you're asking about the quality of a piece of gear, again, use the search function and see if there are reviews on it. Most items get reviewed at some point. If you can't find a review (and don't just count on Sherdog, use google too) and need to post about it, ask SPECIFIC questions! Again... no posts like “is <insert product> good?” What do you want to know about it? How durable is it? Does it make you the best fighter in the world? How much does it shrink?
Thanks!
The super duper most common n00b questions:
What the hell is up with pink?
Pink is the official color of the Gear and Equipment forum.
I'm thinking about starting to train, what do I need?
Depends on what you mean by train! Most gyms have communal equipment, so, you might not need to buy anything at all at first. If you're training stand-up you probably want to purchase this stuff, in this order: wraps, gloves, shinguards (if you're kicking), cup (if you're sparring) headgear (if you're sparring), mouthpiece (if you're sparring). If you're grappling (obviously getting a gi will be the first step if you're using a gi): rashguard, shorts, cup (yes, a cup, nobody wants to touch your nuts), mouthpiece (you never know). You probably don't want to go with the dirt cheap stuff and you probably don't want to go super high end either.