Calf wedges with knee blocks

[jcp2 2]

Finally, I am the happy recipient of Law Goalie's ex-Aubin pads. I immediately went to the hardware store to purchase a kneeling pad and duct tape and made another pair of knee blocks to fit these pads, which came without. They are comfortable in the carpet fly, but there's no calf wedge to match, whereas my other pads do have something to fill the space here. Do I need to have the calf wedge in order to use the knee blocks effectively?

On another note, the rise of the pads is a lot for me, such that I can't really get my knees together in the butterfly unless I have a really narrow butterfly or I overlap the thigh rises significantly. Since the pads seal the 5 hole on the ice much better than the PS2s, can I get away with a knees apart butterfly, provided I keep my stick blade flat on the ice and my body upright? The only drawback that I can see is coverage for the shot that is higher than the width of the pads, but lower than my groin. There's a little triangle there that has no blocking coverage.

[nicholus.h 0]

Finally, I am the happy recipient of Law Goalie's ex-Aubin pads. I immediately went to the hardware store to purchase a kneeling pad and duct tape and made another pair of knee blocks to fit these pads, which came without. They are comfortable in the carpet fly, but there's no calf wedge to match, whereas my other pads do have something to fill the space here. Do I need to have the calf wedge in order to use the knee blocks effectively?

On another note, the rise of the pads is a lot for me, such that I can't really get my knees together in the butterfly unless I have a really narrow butterfly or I overlap the thigh rises significantly. Since the pads seal the 5 hole on the ice much better than the PS2s, can I get away with a knees apart butterfly, provided I keep my stick blade flat on the ice and my body upright? The only drawback that I can see is coverage for the shot that is higher than the width of the pads, but lower than my groin. There's a little triangle there that has no blocking coverage.

No calf wedges required. My One75's have knee blocks with no calf wedges.

That triangle of no blocking coverage is not good. It's probably worth it to overlap your thigh rises so that your pants can come together. The 3-4 inches of coverage you lose off the end of your pads shouldn't be as big of a concern because you can fix it with good positioning and good skating. Having a hole in the middle of your go-to blocking position, though, is a no-no.

[Law Goalie 147]

Glad to hear you're liking the pads, jcp. If you haven't already (I have about a thousand PMs after two months on the sidelines), please drop me a line and let me know how they're working out.

No calf wedges required. My One75's have knee blocks with no calf wedges.

They are not necessary, but if jcp feels there is a gap in the support of his leg, there's no reason not to add them.

The thing to bear in mind is that depending on the attitude of your foot relative to the back of the pad (that is, toe pointing forward into the pad, or angled away from it toward the ice), the line from your knee to your ankle along the tibia will be different. That's why there is no physiologically perfect calf-wedge. With the toes forward, you'd want as thin a wedge as possible; with the toes down, you'd need a much thicker wedge to have support at the ankle.

That triangle of no blocking coverage is not good. It's probably worth it to overlap your thigh rises so that your pants can come together. The 3-4 inches of coverage you lose off the end of your pads shouldn't be as big of a concern because you can fix it with good positioning and good skating. Having a hole in the middle of your go-to blocking position, though, is a no-no.

Bollocks.

That is a simple side-effect of tapering the medial boot and/or medial thigh of the pad; any pressure through the toe will tilt the pad into what is somewhat misleadingly called an 'under-rotated' position, opening this 'triangle'. If you spend five minutes on GIS or Getty, you'll see dozens of pro goalies with this supposed "no-no hole" in pad coverage -- including several who are prototypical Allaire-schooled blocking butterfly goalies, and several who are the polar opposite.

The comment about skating and positioning is irrelevant. Improving those will make any goalie better; they have nothing specifically to do with 'coverage' in what you yourself describe as a static position.

[nicholus.h 0]

Glad to hear you're liking the pads, jcp. If you haven't already (I have about a thousand PMs after two months on the sidelines), please drop me a line and let me know how they're working out.

They are not necessary, but if jcp feels there is a gap in the support of his leg, there's no reason not to add them.

The thing to bear in mind is that depending on the attitude of your foot relative to the back of the pad (that is, toe pointing forward into the pad, or angled away from it toward the ice), the line from your knee to your ankle along the tibia will be different. That's why there is no physiologically perfect calf-wedge. With the toes forward, you'd want as thin a wedge as possible; with the toes down, you'd need a much thicker wedge to have support at the ankle.

Bollocks.

That is a simple side-effect of tapering the medial boot and/or medial thigh of the pad; any pressure through the toe will tilt the pad into what is somewhat misleadingly called an 'under-rotated' position, opening this 'triangle'. If you spend five minutes on GIS or Getty, you'll see dozens of pro goalies with this supposed "no-no hole" in pad coverage -- including several who are prototypical Allaire-schooled blocking butterfly goalies, and several who are the polar opposite.

The comment about skating and positioning is irrelevant. Improving those will make any goalie better; they have nothing specifically to do with 'coverage' in what you yourself describe as a static position.

I was under the impression that he wasn't talking about the "under-rotation", but rather an actual hole of no coverage above the 11" width of his pads and under his groin between the legs of his pants. He's asking if he can get away with a butterfly where his kness aren't together and are only close enough to get the tops of his thigh rises together. Something more akin to this. Which is WAY exaggerated but the best I could find quickly. In retrospect, that hole should never really exist. I think.

The comment about skating and positioning is relevant because he's worried about losing coverage from the ends of his butterfly if he brings his knees together. That coverage is largely irrelevant if the goalie is in proper position because that coverage will not be stopping shots that would otherwise go into the net. Yes, skating and positioning will help any goalie at any level, but I'm saying that once you get to a certain level, losing a few inches off the end of the butterfly becomes a non-issue so instead of worrying about those few inches, he should spend his time working on his positioning so it doesn't matter.

I think an analogy would be if he worrying about how the training wheels on his bike should be optimally angled. He should just get good enough at riding to not need them and then it would be completely irrelevant.

[jcp2 2]

Well, I've fixed the funny feeling with the knee block present, no calf wedge problem. The knee blocks that I made at first were too thick (1 3/4"). I thinned them out to 3/4" and everything felt a lot better.

As for the butterfly coverage problem, two things that I have learned from going from carpet fly to "real" fly. Firstly, although my pads look really good in terms of five hole coverage when laying them flat and then placing knees and legs into that perfect position on the carpet, in a game situation there is dynamic weight transfer which, for me, tends to drive my knee into the angle between the back of the pad and the knee wing, thus rotating the pad and making a small hole appear. This happens with all three sets that I have tried (Beasts, PS2s, and these).

Secondly, I am under the impression that there are two types of "butterfly" saves. One is the blocking one, which I am trying to replicate with the carpet fly and the one that is concerned with no holes in the middle. The other is the reactive one, where the legs are flared apart, maybe one more than the other, depending on the shot angle. I think the thigh rise works to make the blocking surface larger, but there is no 5 hole seal, and the stick is not static in the 5 hole but working to deflect the puck away to the sides. I think I've been focusing too much on the blocking butterfly because I wasn't even aware of such a thing as a reactive butterfly before some remedial reading of gsbb material.

The pads are working great. Every once in a while the lateral calf wing folds on itself, but it's no big deal. The main work now is with the goalie himself. I drop too early on breakaways, am sometimes too deep in the crease, and my glove merely touches the puck, yet does not catch it. If only my arms were 2 inches longer.