Reality based martial arts often come in for a lot of criticism for a number of reasons. One of the reasons is for wearing cargo pants/lightweights during training sessions. These can be worn in order to look more 'military' by some groups, especially those groups with affiliations to military/police units (or those that wish they did).

Two of the reasons that we use them in Exeter Practical Martial Arts are;

1) A number of students that come to train with us are from Taekwondo clubs. This is because my background is also Taekwondo. However, Taekwondo is a kicking art and, due to muscle memory, when under pressure, Taekwondo students kick and kick high. Cargo pants are excellent for reducing the ability to kick high. For a start they don't have the reinforced gusset in the groin. They're also more like normal trousers and so tighten around the thighs when trying to bring the leg up for a kick. This stops my students and I from going for head kicks when truly under pressure in a force-on-force drill.

2) More people wear cargo pants than they do martial arts bottoms. One aspect of reality based martial arts training is using clothing that people are most likely to wear, so that they are used to moving dynamically in it. We could (and sometimes do) also wear jeans, but many people seem reluctant to wear jeans to training.