Transition from half-shield to full cage

[Law Goalie 147]

Couple ways I've seen that do a good job adjusting to a cage, try watching tv or playing video games. Another way that's pretty drastic but works wonders, is try driving around the block a few times with the helmet on.

Great advice, though the car is a bit risky.

At the risk of appearing a total lunatic to those closest to you, try to do everyday things while wearing the helmet and cage: reading, watching TV, cooking, whatever. This is how I've adapted to the differences in sightline between my various straight-bar cages on successive masks. You'll be amazed how fast your brain adapts to the bars.

There's a great story of the neurologist Oliver Sacks discovering a blind-spot in his eye he didn't know was there. He was walking with a colleague toward an elevator, chatting as they went; when they got to the elevator, she said a brief goodbye, and he assumed that she had peeled off with another group that had gone down the hallway. He got into the elevator, pushed his button, and sat back in quiet solitude -- which was interrupted when his colleague spoke. She'd been next to him the whole time. Sacks was subsequently diagnosed with a huge blind-spot in one of his eyes; he'd had it all his life, but his brain had compensated so well that even as a medical professional specialising in the oddities of perception, he'd never noticed.

The point is that the visual field as we perceive it is FULL of blind-spots: your nose, for instance, or the corners of your eyes, or your eyelashes above and below the visual field. All you need to do is get your brain to adapt to the sightlines around the cage by subjecting it to commonplace experiences, and the bars will disappear like Sacks' colleague in the elevator.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

I just went from a visor to a full cage after nearly taking a slapshot from the point in my face while I was screening the goalie. Later that game I watched as a teammate got hit in the cage by an errant stick. That was enough for me. I put on my Bauer 4500 cage onto my CCM V10 helmet, and I didn't really like the way it fit so I bought a chrome V10 cage. I preferred the finish of the Bauer, but I like the CCM cage a lot more otherwise.

First game with it on, it drove me nuts (especially since I'm a mouthbreather, which doesnt combine well with a mouthguard and a cage that prevents easy removal of the mouthguard), but now I don't even notice it. Not to mention at 38, hockey isn't important enough to lose teeth over...

[Andoy 5]

I find that there is a little bit of adjustment when the puck is in your feet but that's the only thing I found difficult when i switched back to a cage. Other than that, because I play rec hockey where alot of guys aren't careful with their sticks it's come through for me in many situations