The Myth of 'Pad Rotation': jargon, fallacy, confusion, and the real issue of mechanical interference

[Law Goalie 147]

Commonly, goalies use the terms 'over-rotation' and 'under-rotation' to refer a range of undesirable alignments of pads in the butterfly. These terms, though widely used, are extremely misleading; indeed, they are so misleading that goalies often confound them, using apparently opposite terms interchangeably. These are terms that need to be deprecated, but, in their confused, ineffectual way, they do indirectly indicate a few problems worth addressing.

'Under-Rotation' Example

(Our very own Chris 'Lemieux' Le, showing off his Brian's SubZero set (reviewed here) at the 2013 MSH Summer Jam in Toronto. Note the forward tilt of the face of the pad, towards the ice, and the corresponding 'V-gap' opening between the pads, at the tops of the thighs.)

'Over-Rotation' Example:

(Jonas Gustavsson in his 2011 Warriors, branded as the Ritual series, but not a true Smith design: see the bindings at the toe and top of thigh. Note the backward tilt of the face of the pad, away from the ice, and the large corresponding gaps that open along the medial [inside] surface of the pad, between the pad and the ice.)

The terminology around 'pad rotation' is based upon a spatial confusion that is, in my view, equivalent to insisting that the sun orbits the earth. The sun appears to orbit the earth, from a perspective on the earth, but this does not make the geocentric model of the solar system correct. Similarly, modern goalie pads do not rotate around the leg when the goalie moves from stance to butterfly. The pads stay facing straight ahead the entire time; the goaltender's knees, shins, and feet rotate behind the pads.

Consistent Pad Orientation: Stance and Butterfly (before and after):

(Photos courtesy of Jukka Ropponen, from his 21/07/2004 article on paddle-size selection, republished here.)

In both above examples, you can clearly see the face of the pads in both stance and butterfly; the face of the pad has not rotated at all. It could be said that in bringing the knees of the pads down to the ice, in relation to the relatively stationary boots of the pads, the goaltender has rotated the pads in some respect (clockwise and counterclockwise, relative to the camera), but this is not what goaltenders commonly mean by 'pad rotation'.

However grossly ill-conceived the terminology may be, the tilting of the pad face forwards and backwards is a serious problem for goalies, not least because of the gaps it opens up along the ice (see above). Eliminating the confused terms allows the problems to be seen more clearly and diagnosed more effectively. In particular, it allows us to do away with the myth that loose or removed toe-tie automatically cause 'over-rotation' (ie. backward tilt).

Forward tilt (formerly 'under-rotation') is effectively explained in a series of posts by Brent Woods and Mike Vaughn of (unsurprisingly) Vaughn Hockey. They explain that the most common cause of forward tilt (and associated 'V-gap') is a pad with a tapered toe, on which downward pressure into the surface (eg. the ice or floor) is exerted.

(Photos courtesy of Brent Woods, Vaughn Hockey.)

In the upper row, the pad sits neutrally with no external force; the thigh-rise is very close to the floor, and the taper at the toe is off the floor. In the lower row, weighted bars stacked on the boot force the taper down to the floor, tilting the pad slightly forward and opening a corresponding gap at the thigh. The relationship is simply geometrical.

As Woods observes, this downward force is most commonly caused by tight toe-ties, or other connections between the skate-toe and the toe of the pad. This force can be reduced or eliminated by adding slack to the toe-ties, and/or a sliding toe-bridge, replacing static cord with elastics, etc. (See the discussion of strap solutions below.) Secondarily, forward tilt may also be caused by overly tight boot-straps, likewise pulling downward on the boot. Conversely, extremely tight straps on the thigh of the pad (above the knee) can cause the same problem with an opposite force, pulling the thigh up and forcing the boot down in return.

As a further demonstration, here are Chris Le's SubZero pads in a 'ghost-fly' configuration (unweighted and free-standing):

Notice that unlike the action shot prior, in which Chris' body was applying considerable force to the toe of the pads, down through the toe-ties, the faces of the pads in this unweighted shot are perpendicular to the ice (no tilt), as are the tops of the pads (no 'V-gap'); correspondingly, the medial (inside) edge of the boot tapers away from the underlying surface.

To clarify what is meant by a 'tapered boot' on a goalie pad, here's a good reference image:

(Passau Hockey's excellent illustration of various roundings of a pad's boot; for reference, the Warrior Ritual's rounded boot (via the Smith SP6000) is also round at the corner but much closer to square (#1) than Passau's example #2. For an angular taper, as on Brian's pads (like Chris' SubZero's above), imagine a straight line from any point on the toe (top) to the medial (inside) edge of the ankle-break, where the curved lines converge in the above illustration. Chris' SubZero's feature a custom 84-degree taper, closer to right-angles than the standard Brian's 78-degree taper.)

There are, however, two very important factors that Woods and Vaughn do not discuss, which can force any pad into a forward tilt: the interaction of the pads with the goalie's pants and knee-pads, and the movement of the goalie's knee (with or without knee-pads) behind the pad.

If the thigh-pads of the goalie's pants are too wide, the thighs of the pants will jam against the back of the pad on the lateral (outside) edge (that is, the 'upper' edge relative to the butterfly), and tilt the pad forward; this was especially problematic during the brief, pre-lockout vogue of flat-thigh pads, which the NHL, thankfully, outlawed in Rule 11.4:

The maximum width (straight line) of the thigh pad across the front of the leg is ten inches (10"). If the groin and/or hip pads extend beyond the edge of the front thigh pad they are to be included in this ten-inch (10'') measurement. This measurement is to be taken while the goalkeeper is in an upright standing position. This measurement is to be made five inches (5") up from the bottom of the pant.

All thigh pads must follow the contour of the leg. Square thigh pads are considered illegal.

http://www.nhl.com/nhl/en/v3/ext/rules/2014-2015-rulebook.pdf

Excessive padding inside the thighs (whether as legal padding inside the leg, or illegal 'ridges' outside) can also cause this jamming, even on pants with reasonably-sized, rounded thighs, by jamming together between the goalie's legs and forcing the main thigh-pads outward into the backs of the pads.

The best ways to eliminate goalie pants as a potential source of jamming that causes forward tilt in the pads (formerly 'under-rotation') are to remove as much of the inner thigh-padding (between the thighs) as possible, or to replace the pants with newer, NHL-spec models. The 10" maximum width and standard contour to the leg specified in Rule 11.4 have been universally adopted by goalie manufacturers, and thus universally incorporated into pad-design; no pants or pads made recently (in the last 6-8 years, at least, and probably in the last 10 years) should exhibit this problem. Of course, excessively wide thigh-pads can also be removed from the pants (fairly easily, in most cases), and trimmed and/or curved to be less obtrusive. To curve the thigh-pads, simply warm them up with a heat-gun until the plastic is pliable, then curve as desired, secure in that shape with some sort of strapping, and wait for them to cool. This can reduce the strength of the plastics, without any guarantee that the curvature will take permanently, and you may need to do additional sewing to make the adjusted thigh-pads fit correctly in the thigh-pockets of the pants, but it is nevertheless a possible solution.

This same jamming effect, causing the forward tilt of the pad, can also be replicated with extremely large knee-pads. Such knee-pads may either jam against the thighs of the pants, jamming the pants, in turn, against the pads, or the knee-pads themselves may jam against the pads even if the pants remain unproblematic. Again, removing excess padding from the pants may help, but more commonly, problems of jamming and forward tilt associated with knee-pads are most commonly solved by changes to strapping, because of their relation to the second general case above: restricted movement of the knee (and knee-pads) behind the pad.

Sadly, the most common source of interference with the free and proper movement of the knee behind the pad is actually a feature of many pads: the thigh-boards, thigh-guards, or thigh-wraps that attach to the rear face of the pad, and strap around the leg, whether inside or outside the pants. If you have any such secondary protection attached to your pads, immediately purchase knee-pads and remove the thigh-wraps the moment the knee-pads arrive; if you see a youth goalie with any such thigh-guards, suggest to his parents that they be replaced with knee-pads immediately. First, while NHL Rule 11 does not expressly forbid the use of thigh-guards attached to the pads (though it does forbid the attachment of knee-pads to pants in Rule 11.5), the cumulative restrictions on knee protection attached to the pad in Rule 11.5 and the end of 11.2, along with Whitmore's clearly expressed interpretation, have eliminated thigh-guards attached to the pads in the NHL for the last decade; this has been steadily trickling downward, to the point that thigh-guards or other knee/thigh protection attached to the pads are virtually absent from high-level hockey. More important, however, is the fact that thigh-guards not only offer inferior protection compared with standalone knee-pads, but they are also the source of constant interference with the pads in the butterfly.

The reason is simple. When the goalie butterflies, the knees rotate close to 90-degree behind the pads, from facing almost straight forward (toward the puck) to facing almost straight down (toward the ice). This, in turn, means that the thigh of the pads (defined as the area above the goalie's knee) which runs more or less parallel to (in front of) the goalie's thigh in a relaxed, upright stance, gradually moves away from the goalie's thigh as the stance depends, until it is roughly at 90-degrees to the goalie's thigh in the butterfly. (See almost any image above.) Anything that is attached to the back of the pad above the goalie's knee must also be subject to this 90-degree relative rotation of the thigh. This creates a mechanical problem that borders on an impossibility: the thigh-guards must be simultaneously parallel and perpendicular to the pads and to the goalie's thigh. A variety of accordions, pivots, and other solutions have been attempted; none have been remotely successful, since all must compromise mobility for protection, or vice versa. The standalone knee-pad, however, offers full mobility and superior protection.

While some companies -- most notably Warrior on the whole of the Ritual line, and Brian's on its higher-end 'pro' pads -- have begun to distribute their pads with standalone knee-pads instead of attached thigh-guards, most companies still 'cheap out' and issue thigh-guards. From a certain perspective, the inclusion of attached thigh-guards with goalie pads makes sense. Goalies do need some kind of secondary protection with modern pads, and thigh-guards are much cheaper to make than knee-pads, which allows the manufacturer to keep costs down. However, I would suggest a more reasonable compromise, if including quality standalone knee-pads is not economically feasible. Instead of investing money in developing, producing, and shipping largely useless thigh-guards, goalie companies should simply offer an equivalent manufacturers' rebate on the purchase of their knee-pads (or even a competitors', if they choose not to develop their own knee-pads) with the purchase of any pair of pads.

Once the useless attached thigh-guards have been removed from the equation and replaced with knee-pads, the major remaining factor is the way the goalie's pads are strapped around the leg, and around the knee/knee-pads especially.

Fortunately, there is a very simple way to eliminate a goalie's pad straps (whether someone else or you yourself) as potential problems in butterflying. First, put on the goalie's knee-pads and skates, then attach the pads to the skates (since you've already eliminated the skate-pad connections as a source of potential problems, per the above). Next, have the goalie kneel down into the pads, then the turn the pads around and arrange them into a butterfly configuration, so that the goalie is left in the butterfly positions with no straps above the boot connected. Once the goalie is in this position, start examining and experimentally connecting the straps, working from the calf up. Whether you're dealing with a leather strap with a buckle, a webbing strap with a clip, or a Velcro elastic strap, what you want to find is the setting at which the strap is just barely snug, pulling only faintly on the medial (inside) surfaces of the pad (eg. the calf-wing and knee-wing). This may seem very loose, even at this point, but any added tightness will begin to compromise the rotation of the leg.

Arriving at the knee, you'll notice that something strange starts to happen. Below the knee of the pads (ie. 'behind' the goalie's knee in the butterfly) straps can right 'straight' across the pad (at right-angles to the rear face of the pad) without twisting or binding against the goalie's leg. Any straps at or above the goalie's knee that are intended to run straight across will invariably be forced to twist around the goalie's leg. This twisting around (or binding against) the goalie's leg can be a major factor in limiting the rotation of the knee. In addition, you'll need to make sure that the straps around the knee are loose enough to allow the knee and more importantly the knee-pad to move freely behind the pad. If the straps are pulled tight against the knee-pad, this will seriously limit the rotation of the knee.

What you want to find, then, is the shortest path for the strap that neither A) twists around the leg, or B) is too tight to allow the rotation of the knee-pad.

Generally speaking, the most effective solution is angled strapping, especially around the knee.

Angled strapping is now a common option, but surprisingly few goalies use it conscientiously.

In this example, the two knee-straps can clearly be seen attaching lower on the lateral (outside) edge of the pad (relative to an upright pad orientation, as opposed to the horizontal 'butterfly' orientation pictured; however, the elastic 'knee-lock' strap still runs straight across the middle of the knee-block, at right-angles to the pad face.

If you imaginatively 'paint in' the goalie's leg and knee-pad, you'll notice that the upper knee-strap is likely still going to twist or bind against the back of the knee. The top strap, above the knee, will inevitably bind against the back of the leg, and is effectively useless. (More on this later...)

If a goalie wanted to easily angle the upper knee-strap down a little further, per above, that strap could simply be passed through the buckle below it, effectively a two-into-one 'Y-strap'. A fact that all goalies 'know', but of which few are truly aware, is that every buckle for a leather strap has enough room for two straps to pass through it. Every goalie has doubled a leather strap back through its buckle, creating a 'bunny ear' loop, in order to tidy up excess strapping, yet few have considered putting two straps through the same buckle. In the above case, this would provide an immediate way to test angled strapping to an even greater degree on a pad that already uses it. Note that you will need to use slightly different settings on both straps to achieve equal tension through the same buckle.

Incidentally, this Y-strap configuration works even better with nylon/polypropylene straps and quick-release buckles, since it allows you to connect and disconnect two (or more!) straps with a single 'click'.

On this CCM Extreme Flex Pro pad with Carey Price-style strapping, we can clearly see that both the single leather knee-strap and the wider elastic Velcro knee-lock strap are meant to sharply angle downward, well below the knee area:

Also note that there is no corresponding lateral 'flap' opposite the knee-block; the Velcro elastic knee-lock strap attaches to the upper calf-wrap. This will allow the goalie's thigh to rotate fully to 90-degree behind and above the horizontal pad without any interference. The goalie's leg will remain securely in the pad even in open, upright skating movements. If you take a quick look down your calf, you'll notice that it is at least as wide, if not significantly wider, than your knee on the lateral (outside) aspect of your leg, and more than likely on both sides.

If you're worried about being able to 'close your five-hole' in the butterfly, it's important to realise that the upper straps (aka thigh-straps) on your pads will never do this unless three very unlikely conditions are met:

1) that the top of the pad bends/flexes incredibly easily, ie. at the gentlest touch;

2) that the straps are positioned at the very top of the pad, so as to exert meaningful and consistent leverage on the thigh-rise relative to the thigh-break at the top of the knee; and

3) that you keep this top strap so tight that the moment you 'sit down' behind your pads, or lean backward, the tops of your pads fold together under tension from the top strap.

However, I would point out that a much easier and athletically sensible way to close the tops of your pads in the butterfly is to push your toes forward (and ankles apart) in the butterfly, through an addition, slight internal rotation of the hips. Rather than trying to bend a pad that can't be bent, exerting potentially dangerous opposing forces on your legs, and interfering with your athletic movements under many other conditions, pushing your toes forward can close the tops of any pad seamlessly and easily. Most goalies find that an angled break or pre-existing curve through the thigh of the pad, above the knee (sometimes called 'pre-curve') can make this easier; only the most freakishly flexible can really make use of a perfectly straight pad, and even Quick, Price, and Rinne all use pads that are at least slightly curved, to varying degrees. However, all goalies of all ages and stages of development can benefit from improving their hip strength and flexibility. (See 'Off-Ice' section in related post, TBA.)

Backward tilt (formerly 'over-rotation', as pictured in the Gustavsson example above) is not caused by 'loose toes'. Generally, there are three causes. If, in the butterfly, the goalie's knee shifts to the trailing edge of the knee-block (in the above 'angled strapping' image, towards the bottom of the frame), this pressure on the edge of the knee-block can lever the whole pad off the ice. If the goalie's rear-end begins to drop back closer to the ice -- as in falling over backwards in the butterfly, or extending into a full split -- this can both exert pressure on the trailing edge sod the knee and calf and pull backwards on the lateral (outside) edge of the pad, that is, on the top of the pad in the butterfly; this is why over-rotation is so common with goalies in full splits. The reason Quick (like Hasek before him) is better than most at keeping his pads flush and square to the ice in a full split is that he keeps his weight forward over the pads; he can do this because, like Hasek, he has taken a natural endowment of flexibility and strength and trained them to nightmarish dimensions: athleticism, nothing more or less. Thirdly, it is also possible to over-rotate goalie pads simply by turning your toes upward, as in a classic Mike Richter-style half-split save; this is also part of what contributes to over-rotation in the splits for goalies who can't keep their toes down due to sub-Quick levels of flexibility.

The point, of course, is that while a goalie may experience varying degrees and directions of pad-tilt while experimenting with new strapping configurations, this does not mean that the tilting of the pad was caused by the changes in strapping: correlation is not causation.

SATIRICAL ILLUSTRATION

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.

Lisa: That’s specious reasoning, Dad.

Homer: Thank you, dear.

Lisa picks up a rock up from the family's front lawn.

Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.

Homer: Oh, how does it work?

Lisa: It doesn’t work.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: It’s just a stupid rock.

Homer: Uh-huh.

Lisa: But I don’t see any tigers around, do you?

Homer considers the proposition, then pulls out a wad of cash.

Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

Lisa refuses at first, then shrugs, takes her father's money and hands him the rock.

(David X. Cohen, TS 7.23)

(NB: similar 'logic' is often employed in the selection of goalies at try-outs and for starting roles in key games; this is known among goalie coaches, in mildly political incorrect terms, as "voodoo goaltending." TBD.)

When you have first tried re-strapping your pads as above, you will more than likely feel that they are 'too loose'; you may even cite 'personal preference' and tighten everything up again, the way parents of new goalies belt their kids into a pair of pads as into a car-seat. Every iota of tension in the straps beyond what is described above is probably going to interfere with your ability to butterfly. It's a simple trade-off: does the ability to butterfly properly outweigh your need to feel 'comfortable' or 'familiar'? Likewise, younger goalies may be very opposed to looser pads if they have grown used to tightly-strapped pads, especially if the pads are supporting their legs against certain deficiencies in strength while skating. (I have even known some quite young kids to use pad tightness as an excuse to quit the position: 'I can't move like the other kids, and I'm getting scored on continually, but I won't change my pads so I can learn to move better, so I quit.' These kids generally have about a season left in hockey; they're looking for a way out, for reasons that have more to do with family and self-motivation than with their goalie pads.)

I would urge you not to become routine or ritualistic in your strappings: experiment, try things out conscientiously. Try to figure out the minimum number of straps you can use; for me, it was two: a boot-strap and a two-into-one (aka Y-strap) covering the upper calf and the knee-wing. Once you have the minimum, you'll be more aware of what each strap you add to your model is doing; you may find you don't need any more than that bare minimum. Figure out what each strap in each placement actually does to help you maintain control over the pad.

[minnsy 15]

I had a custom toe setup on my Vipers made that would hopefully give me rotation + some control of the pad from the boot, without using a toe tie:

.

So far it's worked very very well, especially since it allows the toe of the skate to move downards without minimal pressure on the toe of the pad itself. That being said, there are quite a few elastic straps around the skate. 3 was a tad overkill. I think 2 would have done just as well.

[Law Goalie 147]

Interesting, minnsy: did you put that together, or is James' handiwork? Looks rather like a neat revision of the Warrior Ritual G2 elastic toe/boot strapping.

By the way, if anyone's interested in moving from thigh-guards/boards/wraps to knee-pads, I strongly recommend looking at the 2015 CCM 'Pro Knee Pads' (KPPRO). I put up a pretty significant post about them in the 2015 CCM goal-catalogue review on MSH; they look incredible. I'm trying to get my hands on a pair for testing, but let it suffice for now to say that they are a remarkable mix of history and progress, and quit possibly the smartest knee-pad design ever attempted.

[beedee 227]

So I tried on some CCM eFlex500 last week (but pulled the trigger on a set of Reebok P4 Pro's) and here is a pic of me in the eFlex. I am wearing my Bauer Supreme Knee Guards, and my skates. The strapping was fairly loose, I can't remember if I went through the center or rear slot on my cowling though. Looking at this picture you can see that there is some "under rotation" going on (as referenced in Law Goalie's first pic in the first post). I'm not sure if I had the toe ties too tight, or if the velcro knee to calf straps were too tight?

[Law Goalie 147]

1) If you can get three pictures -- one from the front, as you've done, one from the reverse angle (from the back) and one from the top, looking down onto the straps of the pads -- that would really help narrow it down. Even so, I can speculate a little.

2) Per the original post, remove the thigh-guards attached to the pad of the pads; they are almost certainly cause a large part of that, if not all of it. Thigh-guards attached to the pads can cause tilt issues even without knee-pads; adding knee-pads, as in your case, compounds the problems.

3) If you look at the 'bunny-ear loop' above the buckles on the top straps, your legs are clearly torquing those upper straps significantly. This is often attributed to straps that are too tight, but, as I mentioned above, it has more to do with strap placement than with strap tension; tension will make it worse, but the placement is the governing issue. Since the CCM's have modular (movable) strapping, simply move that upper strap (and possibly the knee-strap below it as well) so that they connect diagonally (ie. angled strapping) downward on the lateral side of the pad (the upper edge in the butterfly).

4) If you take a look at the boots of the pads, they appear to be getting pulled into the floor with a great deal of force. (It's hard to tell; one of the issues with very small lenses is some instability around the edges of the frame.) It is entirely possible that your toe-ties are also too tight, in addition to the above.

What's interesting is that the boot of the CCM E-Flex pads is so slightly tapered (probably no more than 5 degrees) and so stiff that even that much pressure can only create a correspondingly tiny degree of 'V-gap' and forward tilt.

[Law Goalie 147]

It should also be pointed out that these confused and essentially vacuous terms are not only in common use, even among professional athletes, but routinely appear in goaltending publications. In InGoal Magazine's review of the Vaughn Ventus LT98 line, published just a few months ago on 23 March 2015, the following comments appear:

“The way I like to wear my pads, I like that it feels a little more secure on my leg,” [then LA Kings' goalie, Martin] Jones said. “I don’t wear mine too loose. For me the idea is to wear it just loose enough so it will rotate easily around my leg when I go down but tight enough that is still feels responsive, not like it’s floppy. That’s why I like these: they find the right balance.”

But perhaps best of all for goaltenders who might still prefer to use a kneepad instead, this new system is easy to remove, and because of the thinner-faced pad, leaves the widest landing area we’ve seen on a Vaughn pad, making it easy to use oversized knee guards without fear of slipping off the kneestack or hindering pad rotation...

This new inner-knee padding system includes a lot of adjustability and a carbon fiber insert that can easy be aligned with the center of the knee to both improve weight distribution and ensure optimal pad rotation speed [of the pad].

To extend my earlier analogy, the geocentric model of the universe seems to be alive and well in goaltending. I suppose that makes InGoal our equivalent of the Flat Earth Society.

[ktang 34]

I think it is geocentric because goalies think they are the centre of the universe. Thus, the pads revolve around them, not the other way around.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

^ this guy gets it ;)

[bunnyman666 445]

I had a set of Vortek V5 pads made to purposely under-rotate, and these are thevthings I have been trying to fix, thanks to Dennis Dombrowski @factorymad:

1) Cald straps not to the outside of the pad

2) Calf wedge positioned where the calf falls forward, therefore tilting forward.

3) Too much crap inside the leg channel.

I have remedied most of this stuff, just waiting on a new calf wedge. See my Intagram @bunnydevildude to find out what I have/am learning.

[IPv6Freely 2092]

Could not be happier with my toe tie setup. Brians did a great job with their smart toe strap. The pad doesn't tilt too far forward or backward, and also snaps right back into place when I stand up. (The boot strap in the photo is over-tightened just to hold the skate in since it's not actually on my leg in the photo)

The huge advantage is that because the straps are elastic, I don't need ANY slack in them.

[minnsy 15]

Interesting, minnsy: did you put that together, or is James' handiwork? Looks rather like a neat revision of the Warrior Ritual G2 elastic toe/boot strapping.

This was James' handiwork. He did an excellent job overall. I gave him fairly vague directions on something roughly based on the Warrior G2 boot system, and he made a slightly modified version of that a reality.