Getting hit in certain spots by various objects is not fun, especially if you are a man. Airsoft is not an extremely violent sport but injuries do happen from time to time and sometimes people get hurt only because they did not want to take on safety measures. Do you really need a cup for playing airsoft then?
Wearing cups in airsoft is not a serious practice, and players don’t often wear them. However, the fact is that wearing a cup can protect you from unwanted hits and save you from serious pain. Wearing thick trousers is often a good measure which offers enough protection.
There it goes, most of the airsoft guns do not have high enough velocity and heavy BBs that will have enough power to seriously inflict damage to that area, however sometimes you may bump into a guy with a powerful gun at close distances and experience the pain you will not forget that soon.
Overall, you need to be really unlucky to get hit in the groin area time after time and if it happens and you do not wear double or thick pants you are going to cry a bit, but eventually, forget about it because anything more serious is rare. Paintball for instance, is a totally different thing and heavy paintballs can easily take down even the strongest men among us.
Thick trousers do the job
This is a better solution than wearing a cup, try to find and wear any thick trousers that you can attach the knee pads on as well. Good trousers will absorb the hits and you will not feel a single itch most of the time.
Trousers are a good investment anyways because they will protect you from other BB hits that would otherwise destroy the tissue on your legs and if you sometimes jump or fall on the concrete floor they will not tear the skin down your legs.
Be aware that trousers can not stop all hurling BBs and you will certainly have the dots on your legs after some matches but the sensitive groin area shall be protected properly. If you think that your trousers are not thick enough and you still feel like getting hit in that area then you should consider installing a cup.
I used cups very often back in the days when I was training kickboxing and it was a great defense against any cheap kick that may occasionally find its way to the forbidden area, however, I do not think that you need one for airsoft if you wear thick trousers because the BBs do not produce any real force when they strike.
You can also experiment with double pants or anything that you have in mind, if you do not have such trousers or do not like wearing them for any other reason that you can get yourself a cup and start wearing it, I am not suggesting you to not do it I am just stating my preferences and what I hear that most players do.
Recommended trousers
BDU trousers (are known for their quality design and are often the number one recommendation of many players. They are comfortable even after a full day of playing and last for years, so you probably won’t have to think about buying new pants every month.
Any other comfortable trousers are welcome unless they are made from something thin. All my trousers are thick and even without pads on my knees, I do not feel irritation if I sit on my knees for some time.
Do Cups reduce mobility?
As I have mentioned I have used cups in my kickboxing competitions and I used to depend on them. In such an aggressive and agile sport, mobility is a super important trait and I have witnessed no significant reduction in mobility at all.
I was still able to jump, sit, kick, and run at any pace or speed and do it for hours, the only negative side I remember is the uncomfortable feeling on my thighs when I wore it directly on my skin, avoiding the direct skin contact and you will be fine.
If a cup is of the right size you should not have mobility problems at all. People complain that mobility is a problem when you wear a cup but it is either because they did not find the right size, installed it incorrectly, or just did not give it enough time and removed it before they could adapt to it.
At the very beginning, the feeling of wearing a cup may be weird but soon enough you forget that you are even wearing it.
Cups can make you sweat
When the weather is hot you better not put on additional layers of clothes no matter what or you are going to sweat like crazy. It may not be smart to follow this logic because that means less protection and more pain, but some people do not care about additional protection besides mandatory eye protection. I agree that the only mandatory protection is eye/face protection and you do not need anything else.
However, additional protection helps and it should be you who will consider whether you need it or not. Are you ready to make such trades? Cups will definitely promote sweating just like any other piece of clothes, but it may not be a significant difference, at the end it is your personal preference that also depends on the conditions like the type of weather and your body glands, some people sweat more than others.
Do soldiers wear cups?
If soldiers would wear cups you would do it as well just to feel authentic? Well, soldiers do wear cups but their cups are a bit different than what you and I can find in stores.
They wear special kevlar-type cups that protect them from shrapnel and do not act as a protection for their jewels but instead protect the arteries in that area, if something would cut the artery they would bleed out in a matter of minutes.
I do not think that you need kevlar protection because I have not heard of a single case where the airsoft BB cut through the artery and killed a fellow player.
Conclusion on wearing a cup for airsoft
To finish this, I am going to repeat a few tips again, wear thick trousers and you will not have to worry most of the time, it still may happen that you feel the shots to your groin but unless it is a really close shot it will not be unbearable.
Get yourself a cup if you do not want to experience any pain at any given time and completely deny the odds of experiencing even the shade of the worst pain known to man.
Fortunately, cups aren’t expensive and once you buy one they don’t break. If you are interested in getting one I found a good offer on Amazon.
Safety is important and understanding how to prepare in advance is useful. If you want to read more about pain and injuries in airsoft, go ahead it’s important to get a deeper understanding of what can go wrong, and when you see that injuries are rare you’ll focus on the game with more joy.
Most players do not get hit in that part of the body a lot anyways, so they feel like they do not need additional protection.
I have not heard that anyone ever had any significant problem with this, no one needed to see a doctor and no one ever could not continue the game. Everyone has different luck though and some guys are just cursed when it comes to this, so hopefully, it won’t be you, but if you find yourself to be the “cursed” one then get yourself a cup immediately.