Leg Pad Straps. Tight or Loose?

[Matador29]

Ok I guess I'm a bit weird but I have always had my leg pad straps pretty tight. The reason being is that moving around when I'm in the butterfly position or more importantly RECOVERY from the butterfly position I need all that energy transfer from my legs up through my pads to my skates. I figured if my pads were tighter, there would be less energy wasted in moving because my pads would react quicker since they are snug on my legs.

Fast forward to today, I have the Rbk p2 pads. My league that im playing (ACHA) recently adopted all the NCAA rules and thus I had to go out and buy all new equipment which im having a very painful time getting used to all my new pieces at the same time. I wear the RBK knee pads as well. Now today I was getting smoked on my five hole so it got me thinking if I should loosen up my pads or not. My five hole coverage sucks now that I had to take the thigh boards out and my hips don't enable me to have a wide bfly. Should I loosen up my pads alot? Will that help me with five hole coverage as well as rebound control? I'm afraid that if i loosen them too much, then I won't be as fast around the crease. What am i doing wrong?

sorry for the length

[phil60]

I'm almost certain there is an entire thread for this.

[The West Wall]

Do you have team practices or open hockey you could try out different methods in? It's hard to say since this issue is 100% personal preferance. Try out different methods and see what works for YOU. But theoretically, loose straps make for less rebound velocity, and less predictability. Tight straps make for a high velocity rebound but more controllable rebound. Different pads and different styles will vary however.

EDIT:
For 5-hole coverage, the tighter a pad is, the more pull on the thighrise causing it to seal up a b-fly. Maybe you just need to adjust to a smaller thighrise.

[spidergoalie]

Something I recently experimented with though unconventional by modern standards, was tightening up the top and knee straps...not crazy tight but fairly snug, and loosening the bottom straps a bit, though again not crazy loose.

What this did to my surprise was create the illusion of a wider Bfly.
The snug top straps pulled the thighrise in, much like thighboards would, and the loose lower straps allowed the boot portion to come forward. I still felt like the pads moved with me well though for recoveries and other movement around the crease.
I'm not sure I'll stick with it, I actualy feel there are advantages to a narrow Bfly, but I think it is something guys who want a wider Bfly might want to try.

[Jansson]

I use Rbk X-Pulse and have the straps as tight as I can without them hurting me. Tighter than most goalies... loving it. This probably wouldn´t work as good with P2 pads. But I don´t know. When I tried them it just didn´t feel right for me.

[Matador29]

Originally Posted by phil60

I'm almost certain there is an entire thread for this.

Well why don't ya link it for me if you know where it is. I looked

[Matador29]

Another thing it I think the knee pads are making my knee stacks kinda bulge out so when I drop to the bfly the thigh rises are a little bit elevated so there is a gap underneath them. It could be an illusion though :\

[hroark2112]

Originally Posted by Matador29

Well why don't ya link it for me if you know where it is. I looked

OK...first search..."WEAR PADS" in titles:

How do you wear your pads? Soooo clueless

How do you wear yer pads?

Strapping: Anyone else wear their pads like this..?

Question for those who wear pads loose: Re: Lamlime Craziness

How do you wear you pads?

Second search "STRAP PADS" in titles:

How to strap my Battram pads?

How does David Aebischer strap his pads

eagle fusion users, how do you strap on your pads?

Next search "LOOSE PADS" in titles:

Loose Pads

pros of wearing very loose pads.

Loose Pads (again)


Getting the idea? I see you're new to the board, so I'll be nice...but play around with the Search function and you'll get the information you need fairly quickly.

[henrikfan]

well i put my pads not too tight but not to loose at the bottom and at the top i put i loose so when im in the butterfly position and i need to do shuffle down so slide in the butterfly position my leg and skate can move in my pad so the blade of the skate can stick in the ice so i can push my self easy either way... cause if the pads are too tight when it will come to shuffle down you wont be able to push cause your skate doesnt stick in the ice and pushes you it only slides on the ice and you cant move and then you need to dive to cover up the holes that you just gave them cause you didnt move so you can be betten easily!!

[colavs454]

I used to wear my pads pretty loose & would just get torched 5-hole, but now I wear them Nabokov tight at the bottom 2 straps then fairly loose on the top 2 & now I don't get lit up as much 5-Hole.

But you say you have RBK P2s, & everybody I know that uses P2s wear them loose.

[tnickols]

i wear my rbks loose everywhere except for the top strap. B/C you have p2's the knee strap is adjustable between calf or knee. I would make sure its on the knee setting then strap every strap loose including the lower knee. but put the top knee tight. It closed my 5 hole and now my bfly is wider while still covering the 5 hole.

[Foxbauer]

the time i tried my vaughn v1's on tight instead of loose i ended up with sprained mcl

[SJHawksG33]

I think, like most people, I like the straps tight down my legs to my ankle and a tad looser at the top.

By the way, where are you in the ACHA? I literally just did the exact same thing. I'm playing ACHA this year myself and with the new rules, had to buy all new equipment. I went with the Vaughn 7400s and right now, they are great except for the freaking quad knee stack. I like to pinch my legs together in certain situations and the stacks make this difficult, lol. Also similar to you, I removed the thigh boards because they were just too damn high. What did you replace them with?

[Matador29]

Hey cool man I play for Cal State Northridge in the Pacific Division. Ya i dropped almost $3k for all this new stuff and that sucked I went with the RBK P2 knee pads (the ones with the garter belt) and took the thigh boards off. I'm still getting used to them at the moment but they seemed to be working pretty well. I suggest you get some sort of knee pad because you don't want to get a screamer off your knee cap and be done for the whole season. You might want to take out a knee stack if they are too high, especially if you're going to get knee pads.
What team do you play for?

[njt42]

Originally Posted by The West Wall

Do you have team practices or open hockey you could try out different methods in? It's hard to say since this issue is 100% personal preferance. Try out different methods and see what works for YOU. But theoretically, loose straps make for less rebound velocity, and less predictability. Tight straps make for a high velocity rebound but more controllable rebound. Different pads and different styles will vary however.

EDIT:
For 5-hole coverage, the tighter a pad is, the more pull on the thighrise causing it to seal up a b-fly. Maybe you just need to adjust to a smaller thighrise.

Do tight straps really help with controlling rebounds?! I have to try this, as well as practicing controlling rebounds.