Knee is Landing under Knee Block | Vaughn Ventus SLR2

[Gruia Radu]

I’ve been using my SLR2 pads for a couple months now, and i’ve had no problems as they fit perfectly. All of a sudden, a few practices ago, my knee started landing way under the knee block when i went down. what could be the cause of this, what should i alter in order to get my knee square on the block when i go down into the butterfly? i wear a 33+2. i attached pictures of my strapping and knee landing. i’ve tried different strapping variations and decided that having you guys take a look and giving some advice would help me tons. 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Gruia Radu

[ilyazhito]

It looks to me as if your pants are pushing your knees down. You could either tighten your kneepads, so that the knees go down less, or get smaller pants to reduce pad/pants interference. 

[Gruia Radu]

my pants are actually small, the shell goes a few inches over the pant padding. i didn’t have my suspenders on so they were hanging way lower than they would during play. do you think if i tightened my toe ties it would hold the pad lower on my leg?

Edited April 15, 2022 by Gruia Radu

[dreadlocked1]

Can't see your toe ties, but if you're using skate lace, I suggest moving to elastic when possible.  You have a professor strap on there already.  If that were my pad, I would remove the heel buckle and knee elastic altogether (how my Warrior pads are now).  I would bet you the pad would function the same if not better.  It looks very crowded at the knee, and things could be binding up.  Since that may be too drastic of a change, at minimum, I would pull the knee elastic down to the calf instead of across to open up the knee channel a bit (how I used to wear my Warriors).  Seeing the inner landing padding bending into the side of your knee from the knee strap could be causing an issue with your knee pads.  Just a guess and some suggestions.  Hope your issue gets resolved.

[ilyazhito]

What type do you use? From your comments, I'd assume skate lace.

Try a Lundy loop and tighter toe ties. The Lundy loop would keep the pad stable, and the toe ties would keep it from sliding up.

If you use elastic toe ties, they would help keep the pad stable, too. They would ensure a tight seal of your skate to the pad, but at the same time allow enough slack to let your pad rotate. 

[ZeroGravitas]

1 hour ago, ilyazhito said:

Try a Lundy loop and tighter toe ties. The Lundy loop would keep the pad stable, and the toe ties would keep it from sliding up.

Lundy loop generally results in the pad sitting higher on the skate when standing and sitting lower in the cradle in the butterfly. Since OP says he is falling off the bottom, this probably won't have the effect OP wants.

OP, it is a little hard to tell where your knee is with the straps on, but the picture you provided indicates to me that the pads are too big. It looks like the center of your knee is close to, or just below the red line I've drawn here.

Edited for phrasing and clarity.

Edited April 15, 2022 by ZeroGravitas

[Chenner29]

1 hour ago, Gruia Radu said:

I’ve been using my SLR2 pads for a couple months now, and i’ve had no problems as they fit perfectly. All of a sudden, a few practices ago, my knee started landing way under the knee block when i went down. what could be the cause of this, what should i alter in order to get my knee square on the block when i go down into the butterfly? i wear a 33+2. i attached pictures of my strapping and knee landing. i’ve tried different strapping variations and decided that having you guys take a look and giving some advice would help me tons.

Need more info to take you in the right direction

What is your ATK?  Cross reference with this size chart from GoaliesPlus https://www.goaliesplus.com/goalie-pad-sizing-guide/ - which recommends a 17.5-18" ATK for a 33" SLR2.  Based on your post history, if you're still 5'8 and came from a 33 CCM...gonna guess this Vaughn pad is too big for you

Can you recreate this picture without the knee elastic?  Without knee pads would be great too.  I'd like to see where your knee lands with the gear strapped on. 
Your knee looks to be in that red circle I placed, which is in the lower third of the block but I'd like to be sure

Boot strap looks a little tight, I'd loosen that up or take it out completely.  How loose is your toe lace?

Sidebar, I'd also recommend wearing socks over your knee pads to help reduce friction on the back face of your pads.  Any exposed hook side of that velcro is going to eat away at the inside of the knee lock area

 

19 minutes ago, ilyazhito said:

What type do you use? From your comments, I'd assume skate lace.

Try a Lundy loop and tighter toe ties. The Lundy loop would keep the pad stable, and the toe ties would keep it from sliding up.

If you use elastic toe ties, they would help keep the pad stable, too. They would ensure a tight seal of your skate to the pad, but at the same time allow enough slack to let your pad rotate. 

Uh, no

Pad already looks too big, we can try to get the knee to land on the block better by moving his shin and skate away from the back face of the pad

What you are recommending is counter-intuitive.  Running boot strap through the back skate loop will loosen up the pad yes, but tighter toe ties will just bring his toe forward into the toe box of the pad bringing the pad back down again

[Chenner29]

34 minutes ago, ZeroGravitas said:

Lundy loop generally results in the pad sitting higher on the skate when standing and in the butterfly. Since OP says he is falling off the bottom, this probably won't have the desired effect.

OP, it is a little hard to tell where your knee is with the straps on, but the picture you provided indicates to me that the pads are too big. It looks like the center of your knee is close to, or just below the red line I've drawn here.

Hey I know you

[Gruia Radu]

thank you all so much for the help. my ATK is 16.5”, which suggests that the pads are big on me. my main question is how they fit me perfectly for months before posing any problems. attached is a picture of my toe ties, which are skate lace. any suggestions at this point? 

Edited April 15, 2022 by Gruia Radu

[Chenner29]

18 minutes ago, Gruia Radu said:

thank you all so much for the help. my ATK is 16.5”, which suggests that the pads are big on me. my main question is how they fit me perfectly for months before posing any problems. attached is a picture of my toe ties, which are skate lace. any suggestions at this point?

My quickest guess is that the elastic knee lock and the RRC strap below the knee were both still new and had enough strength in the elastic to make you feel like the fit was dialed in, when it actually was not

Now that they're broken in and worn down a bit, the elastics aren't as tight so they don't support you as much

I'd let out the toe ties a little more (seriously, get those things to the same length - you're triggering my OCD), loosen up the boot strap, and move the knee block velcro down to the calf.  This will let your knee, shin, and skate separate from the pad when you're down, and maybe we can get you to hit a little more centered on the knee block

Kinda like this, obviously Vokoun isn't exactly in a textbook butterfly but the image accomplishes what I'm trying to illustrate.  Your knee and boot are going to take a position further back in the pad (in yellow) which should allow your knee to slide up the pad a little when you drop.  Elastics in the knee and calf should hold pad in place well enough when you're cruisin around the crease.  Don't go to an bungee skate cord toe tie IMO, it's going to pull your toe into the toe box

 

[ilyazhito]

I'd suggest you re-measure yourself. If the pad is too big, there is no shame in looking for a similar pad of a smaller size and flipping the pair that is too big. I've done the same thing when I found out that my pads were too small.

[johncho]

On 4/15/2022 at 6:08 PM, Chenner29 said:

My quickest guess is that the elastic knee lock and the RRC strap below the knee were both still new and had enough strength in the elastic to make you feel like the fit was dialed in, when it actually was not

Now that they're broken in and worn down a bit, the elastics aren't as tight so they don't support you as much

I'd let out the toe ties a little more (seriously, get those things to the same length - you're triggering my OCD), loosen up the boot strap, and move the knee block velcro down to the calf.  This will let your knee, shin, and skate separate from the pad when you're down, and maybe we can get you to hit a little more centered on the knee block

Kinda like this, obviously Vokoun isn't exactly in a textbook butterfly but the image accomplishes what I'm trying to illustrate.  Your knee and boot are going to take a position further back in the pad (in yellow) which should allow your knee to slide up the pad a little when you drop.  Elastics in the knee and calf should hold pad in place well enough when you're cruisin around the crease.  Don't go to an bungee skate cord toe tie IMO, it's going to pull your toe into the toe box

I agree with everything that you've said, but just to add my experience. When I strap my knee block velcro down to my calf, it actually pushes my pads up. But experiment like Chenner has said, because YMMV.

[Maxpower29]

I have this same pad and same size. Im 5 10". I use the bungee toe ties and tight, i have the boot strap not even tight what so ever, I strap the others normal and then the top strap I strap up higher. If I put the top strap lower or down I will slide off the knee landing. So I keep it up. Makes all the difference for me. I also have a set of V7s and its the same. I went with the suggested Vaughn sizing on all sites and this is what happens with me

[Goalie K]

Exactly, I got a set of used 2Xs and ideally for my knee to be in the "middle" I need XLs... couldn't find the right deal on XLs though... so my knee rests at the very top, if anything my problem would be landing on top not below of the knee block even though I wear knee pads underneath regardless...