Help the Newbie

[TheWay 0]

Tuesday night was a big night.

Two hours out on the rink with the grassroots hockey group was good practice all around.

I changed the toe ties completely and in doing so have reduced my dressing time significantly. Simply put, I removed the toe tie from the pad and applied it directly to my skate. Now to dress I simply thread the ends of the laces up through the grommetes in the pad, tie them together and tuck the knot into the toe cover.

I fixed the slack as well and the MCLs were much happier for it.

Only problem on the night was a minor injury after some older (high school) kids came out towards the end. One of the came whipping down the left wing and wired a solid wrist shot my way; seeing this my rugby instinct kicked in and I blocked it with the outside of my forearm. The move works wonders against smaller rugby players who's craniums are presented in front of me, but a puck is far harder and less responsive to the Ulna than a winger's head.

Don't worry, nothing is broken, just badly bruised.

I have two questions for you ModSquadders. First, while at the Hitmen game tonight, sitting in the front row behind the net, I noticed that both goalies were wearing their bootstraps fairly loose; is this normal? I have been wearing them as tightly as I can because that seemed right.

Second, would a non-elastic knee lock strap work as well as the elastic one I have now? I'm wondering because they seem to to be too stretchy, like I'm losing control of the pad and it isn't beyond me to make something more heavily reinforced to put in there. The obvious response is to make them shorter but I'm wary to do this because a shortening like that was what caused the original straps to not work. I say this because Dreiger seemed to have a knee lock that was secured with a side release buckle rather than the velcro I've always seen.

[Law Goalie 147]

Ah, yes-- the forearm shiver is definitely a non-transferrable skill! Most C/A's are completely unprotective there. I will say, though, that some goalies who frequently turn their gloves over, so that the pocket points across the chest like a baseball catcher's mitt, to catch pucks that are headed into their bodies (Kiprusoff does this a lot, hence its common reference as the 'Kipper Katch' technique) also have significant padding added across the back of the forearm, presumably to deal with deflections.

Clever solution for the toe-ties. A lot of roller goalies will leave their skates permanently laced into the pads, simply because threading the laces through the chassis (or through holes drilled in the cowling) is too annoying.

You're right to notice that most modern goalies have very loose boot-straps. Much as with slack in the toe-ties, it's a question of how freely you want the foot to be able to move behind the pad. If you want absolutely minimal resistance, a loose boot-strap helps. The *extremely* loose boot-strap dates from the late '90s and early 2000s, when modern butterfly play was beginning to arrive on the scene, but manufacturers were building increasingly modern pads but with old-school, very deep boot- and leg-channels (as Lefebvre still does today with the Reebok Revoke). Since the skate was settled into a long, deep channel in the underside of the pad, it first had to 'back out' of that channel before it could rotate and lower to the ice -- hence the very loose boot-strap.

On the other hand, I find that a very loose boot-strap lets the pad slip forward on the skate, and renders the pad sloppy to the point of hindering some movements. The only guys I've seen at higher level with tight boot-straps are goalies like Ryan Miller who have absolutely freakish flexibility and relatively low bodyweight. In a pad with an almost completely flat, table-top boot (think the Smith 6000s/Warrior Ritual) a loose boot-strap is less important.

Interestingly, Henrik Lundqvist came up with a way to have *no* bootstrap whatsoever, and still keep the pad from sliding forward on the skate:

If you look closely, the trainer has stitched a little webbing loop into the tendon-guard of his skate, and Bauer has put his boot-strap higher up the ankle than on most retail pads. Now, frankly, he still has to wear that strap relatively loose because it could actually interfere *more* with the rotation of the foot behind the pad, but it's working for him.

I've noticed a significant number of goalies giving up on elastic knee-lock altogether, and simply using a tighter knee-strap. The loose knee-strap dates more or less from the period in the '90s when there really were true hybrid goalies: who had been drilled in pre-90s stand-up goaltending, but who were learning rudimentary butterfly techniques (not so much the movement while down as the blocking principle). Because, as with the boot-straps in boot-channels, the knee and shin had to back out before they could rotate behind the pad, knee-straps started loosening. You'll see guys like J.S. Aubin wearing straps that barely keep the pad adjacent to their legs. To compensate for this, a relatively snug but elastic knee-lock was invented.

The trouble is that as you really start moving into pure butterfly technique, the traditional knee-lock just gets in the way: its elasticity resists the rotation of the pad, and its padding jams in the joint. There are knee-locks that handle this better than others (again, Pete Smith's new designs are the best I've ever seen), and they can provide a much finer degree of control over the pad at the knee, which is the dominant point of control on modern pads. Having said that, a relatively snug knee-strap which allows *just* enough room for the knee (and knee-pads) to rotate freely behind the pad, but not move much more than that, while holding the knee-wing close to 90-degrees, works extremely well for many goalies. I've been using this for a couple of years now, and unless I get a chance to do an in-depth review of some Warrior Rituals, I doubt I'll ever go back to a knee-lock when I roll my own leg-pillows.

[TheWay 0]

Alright, I went and tried things out and for the first time walked away with no injuries and no equipment in need of repair.

The tightening of the straps on the knee was alright but I couldn't get it in such a place that I could lose the knee lock.

My question is about bags. What is the best goalie bag I could find from Canadian Tire (I ahve a gift card)?

I'm looking at one of these right now.

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/2/HockeyIce/HockeyBags/PRDOVR~0830220P/Koho+Hockey+Bag.jsp?locale=en

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/browse/5/SportsRec/2/HockeyIce/HockeyBags/PRDOVR~0830242P/Reebok+40-in+7000+Goal+Bag.jsp?locale=en

[Axxion89 32]

http://www.hockeymonkey.com/reebok-hockey-equipment-bag-pro-36in.html

If you want to fit pads too, get the 40" bag, its what I use and is more than enough and is made of very good materials. For goalie bag, I suggest a deep bag to fit the bulkier goalie equipment and this one seems to fit the bill for me at least

[Law Goalie 147]

Alright, I went and tried things out and for the first time walked away with no injuries and no equipment in need of repair.

Beautiful feeling, eh?

My question is about bags. What is the best goalie bag I could find from Canadian Tire (I ahve a gift card)?

I'm looking at one of these right now.

http://www.canadiant...g.jsp?locale=en

http://www.canadiant...g.jsp?locale=en

If you're intending to put your pads in the bag along with your other gear, you'll probably find the Koho a tight squeeze. Everything may fit, but it's going to be close. The Reebok bag will leave you with room to spare, but it's a major annoyance to try to carry that over your shoulder: it's too wide, too deep, and the straps aren't well-placed or the right length.

Basically, the ideal bag should be a snug fit for your gear so that nothing is compressed but the contents can't shift around, with enough open space to allow at least nominal airflow while you're going from rink to unpacking point (aka home).

Half the reason I went to a wheel-bag was that I was sick of knocking people down and destroying doors while carrying a 300L rectangular battering ram across my shoulders -- and my gear isn't even that huge.

[jconc1941 0]

not a bad start for gear at all !

[TheWay 0]

Bought the 300L rectangular battering ram.

I love it, It makes me feel more masculine urfing something like that around.

But seriously, it looks far more durable that the POS Vichockey bag I was using. Main reason for buying this one was that the Vic bag had almost completely lost the zipper even without the pads in there.

[SuperMan3 1]

Good old James Fowler High School.

[TheWay 0]

Good Old James Fowler indeed.

That jersey was from the box of old sporting equipment at the school. I did my teaching practicum there and then worked some contracts once I'd graduated.

On an unrelated note, at floor hockey this week my goalie had a rather unusual trick to keeping the pocket on his glove in the right shape. Before putting the glove in the bag he stuffs a softball into the pocket and then ties an extra bootstrap around the glove. Anyone have anything like this to keep their gloves in working order?

[Michzm 0]

For the Sake of digging up an old but interesting thread, A lot of guys I play with here in Australia put small novialty basketballs in there gloves when they aren't playing... roughly the same size as a softball.

[wrangler 157]

Softballs come in different sizes.

[JR Boucicaut 3797]

He meant conventional softball, not Chicago softball LOL :p

[Redlight 0]

Regarding the length of the toe tie, I have been trying to figure this out for myself. After reading the above, does this diagram represent the correct way to set the "length" of the toe tie?

http://imgur.com/Rd5Mb7s

[Gummer12 134]

That is a personal preference situation. Some like the toe right up next to the bridge, some like the extra slack. I prefer the slack. The length is something you can tinker with on your own and figure out what works best for you. But yes, that diagram is an accurate way to set a knot wherever you need to place it to acquire the desired slack.. another option is just to keep tying regular knots from the bridge to the toe to create a chain of knots in one long line.

[Law Goalie 147]

Tying a line of knots from the toe-bridge to the desired length helps to eat up extra length without chopping them down. I've also noticed that guys who tend to step on and slice through their toe-ties more than others *generally* prefer a combination of a good deal of slack and a single knot, which is always 'floppier' than a set of knots.

It's generally recognised that unless you are unbelievably/professionally flexible between the knee and ankle, you need a significant amount (multiple inches) of slack. The trade-off is always a less responsive pad that 'lags' a little behind your foot.

This is why Pete Smith's sliding toe-bridge is such a brilliant invention: it gives you all the medial/lateral movement you need with little to no lag in other directions. I had always thought it was a good idea, but until recently, I hadn't used a set of pads that employed it to full effect. Now I'm just in awe.

[wrangler 157]

He meant conventional softball, not Chicago softball LOL :p

OK, so he didn't mean a real softball.