The most common form of neck protection is a gorget. Usually, it’s a band of leather reinforced by metal plates or is made from high density plastics. A gorget should cover your neck to just below your jaw line and have what is commonly called a lobster tail coming off the back of it. The lobster tail is a plate or series of plates that cover the upper portion of your spine to prevent spinal injuries.
To get an accurate sizing, you will need to measure the overall circumference of your neck. Starting at the middle of your neck, measure all the way around for an accurate sizing. Most gorgets come in a size range and are adjustable.
There are low profile style gorgets that are a narrow band of metal or thick leather. I strongly recommend against these as a neck injury can be devastating and life altering. Extra protection in this case is always better. However, low profile gorgets when used in combination with other protective gear are worth considering.
A properly fitting gorget should cover your neck just below your jaw line to your shoulder. It should not sit too loose, at most, the gap of a finger width or a half an inch is a good rule of thumb.
There are some fighters that will tell you that you can wear an aventail, a chainmail coif suspended from your helmet, without need of a gorget. I highly recommend against this. Chainmail is not rigid protection, even if it does take a great amount of the shock away from the blow, it still puts your neck at risk for injury. If you opt to use an aventail, wearing a low profile gorget and adding ridgid protection to the aventail over your spine to help mitigate risk is highly recommended.
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