New Knee guards Causing Pad "Squeeze-out" When Landing

[qlopp]

Hi,

I play goal occasionally at a low level, mostly pick-up.  I have been wearing Reebok 24K 34"+1" senior pads for about 3 years (purchased new).  I've been fairly comfortable playing in them until I changed knee guards last month.  I had been using bulky Bauer Supreme (senior) pads for max protection but wanted to try out something less bulky for comfort.  I went with CCM KP 1.5 (senior) about one month ago.  I've played four times since then, and now when I land in a butterfly or push into a slide my landing knee(s) tend to land towards the inside (away from the face of pads) of the landing pad area.  This usually causes the pads to "squeeze" outward and away from my knees, and also causes the pad faces to tilt upward about 5 - 10 degrees rather than facing the shooter squarely (laying flat, 90 degrees to the ice surface).  The added negative effect of this is as the pads land at an angle to the ice in butterfly position they tend to dig into the ice and stop the pad from sliding easily.  I can't recover like I'm used to because I'm falling out of the pads, or in other words the pads are squishing out away from me.

It would seem there may be a simple solution to this but I'll get to that in a moment.  So far I've tried four different combinations of either wearing the CCM knee guards over/under my sweat pants and taping them directly around their straps and/or taping around the outside of the sweat pants.  I doesn't feel I've made any progress though.  OTOH the good things are -- they are light knee pads and they never slip down.  I'd like to figure out a way to keep using these CCMs if possible.

One concern is the very different design between CCM KP 1.5 and the Bauer Supremes.  The Bauer's base assembly (the main part which makes total contact with the leg) is beefier by itself than the entire CCM guard.  Then the Bauer also has a large rigid precurved "plate" that hovers in front and around the sides of the knee cap area.  It is suspended by elastic and has its own strap.  The thing about this plate is that it is very large and very flat on the landing (inside) of the knee  The entirety of the flat side of this plate lands on the knee block when in butterfly.  It may offer a stabilizing influence that I am missing with the CCMs.  I'm wondering if over time my technique got used to having that additional large flat landing area and I can't figure out how to play with smaller guards now.  But after giving the new CCMs four tries and not seeming to adapt at all I'm thinking there may be another issue.

Could my above observation be a significant factor from your experience?

Or should I just start strapping the knee and calf cradle elastic straps tighter to try to keep the pad closer to my leg, and hopefully cause my knees to land more outboard (closer to the pad face) so my weight/knees stay centered over the meat of the landing area and the pads lay flat in butterfly position?  Maybe these CCMs are just so much smaller that the extra space is causing this floppiness.  But I'm worried tighter elastic straps will affect pad rotation. I'm not one to tinker, I don't play often, and I'm not particularly tuned into the position, as I'm what would be considered almost a beginner.  FWIW these Reeboks have a lower elastic calf wrap strap and an upper elastic knee cradle strap which I attach using the diagonal option (Strap starts high at the knee block side and drops down at about 45 degrees to the higher, angled velcro spot on the calf wrap.  I leave the leather straps somewhat loose for rotation; tighter at the bottom and progressively looser going up. I use the standard laced toe tie with about a 1.5" knotted standoff for toe/pad movement.

Thanks for any insight.

[RichMan]

Trying to visualize what you put down, i'd suggest messing with the strapping to find the right space and rotation.

[qlopp]

Thank you.  I'd love to hear more personal experience type input if possible and also which straps can go tighter without affecting rotation, benefit of the knee lock strap going straight across vs down at a diagonal - if anyone could chime in.  

[dreadlocked1]

Put your leg in the desired position on the pad and then strap up accordingly and stand up.  Make any adjustments needed where it snags or is too tight.  Return back to a flared leg and see if your knee is in the starting position.  If not, watch the knee and pad as you go down to see what is forcing your knee out of position.  Do this with goalie pants on as your pants could even be the culprit with the new knee pads pushing on them differently.

[qlopp]

Thanks dreadlocked1, finding time off ice is one small issue but I'll at least try it while dressing for my next skate for sure, then see which direction the changes go when ice is underneath.  I think the tendency for pads (and leg muscles) to give way outward when landing on ice makes dry fitting adjustments with something like this more difficult than if testing were done on ice.

[qlopp]

I didn't tape my kneeguards last night as I had been doing prior.  That didn't cause an issue during play so it's nothing to do with knee pad sliding/rotation; that's good news.  I slightly tightened up the calf strap and velcroed the diagonal knee strap several inches tighter on both sides.  The pads felt kind of tight in the locker room but OK skating on ice.  I landed in them squarely during play for the most part.  I actually played a lot better than I had in the past month, perhaps due to better recovery and slide ability, but I think I also felt more confident since I stopped worrying about this issue during the game.  About an hour in (and after a crazy amount of shots) my left knee started landing pretty wide but not as bad as it had been last month.  I don't know why that happened only on the left side, but I guess I'll strap them a bit tighter next time.  Rotation seemed OK.  When standing the pads returned to square just as easily as ever, which is a good sign of having enough looseness for them to function.  Despite them hugging a little closer, top of pad interference while skating seemed to be a non-issue.  They moved out of each other's way during strides and didn't feel obtrusive.