Leon Paul Leather Faced Coaches Jacket

[Colin F.]

http://www.leonpaul.com/acatalog/Leathe ... stron.html

Xmas pressie from the lovely wife.

Very comfy, easy to do it up on the back zip (I tied a shoe lace to it for ease).

The leather facing makes it a little more rigid and therefore slightly less maneuverable at the moment, but I guess as the leather and the plastron wears in I'm guessing it relax a bit. It hinders only a very tiny a bit.The padding on the shoulder is good.

It takes thrusts from shinai and controlled steel very well. The padded arms are slightly less well padded, but with some of the escrima guards over the forearms for steel, they are padded well enough.

Will give an update in a few months when I have worn it in and you'll see it at fightcamp no doubt!

[admin]

I have been meaning to get one of the Leon Paul instructor jackets for a while. Do you think the leather facing is necessary? It seems a lot of added heat insulation for only a little added protection - I'd prefer a plastic chest protector underneath.

[Colin F.]

You can take it off if you prefer, which I will prob do against shinai and the like, but it seems comforting to have it against steel. I've got a slightly larger size (42 rather than a 40) so there is a little amount of breath ability. I've tried a few coaches jackets on (like the basic Leon Paul and the PBT) and they both felt just a little less warm then this and they don't have the leather. Plus an underarmour cooling vest will get the heat partially sorted anyways. That's next on the list.

I got this purely because I was given a budget for my pressie and this came to it, so thought I may as well.

[Reinier]

I received the leatherless version last Monday. Basically, my opinion after one session of Rapier-training is the same as above.

I was hoping to also use this jack for nylon-sparring, but it may not be sufficiently padded for that. I am under the impression that it might be somewhat less padded than the All-Stars; I'll confirm if this is true in Dijon.

[Reinier]

Update: Last Tuesday after training I noticed some damage to the fabric that wasn't there before. It's not much, but there are some "proto-tears".

I use it in rapier training, with Hanwei rapiers; technique drilling only at the moment (very little sparring once every few weeks).

[Paul B]

I will probably be spending my tax rebate on this. I will be getting the leather faced version a size too big and will be wearing bike armour underneath for steel sparring