Does a Professor Strap Affect Pad Size?

[ilyazhito]

I'm curious whether a professor strap affects proper pad size for a goalie who is between sizes. AFAIK, pads are measured with reference to either ATK or FTK and visually by whether the center of the knee aligns with the center of the knee stack.

 

What a professor strap does is secure the pad below the knee to keep it from sliding down (or up) the leg.

 

For me, the pad sliding down when going into the butterfly has happened several times. Because the pad slid down on me, my knee would slip off the top of the stack when moving in the butterfly and hit the ice. This happened with my 33+1 CCM pads, my Medium Bauer 1S Od1n pads, and more recently, with my Large Bauer 2S Pro pads.

Would a professor strap prevent this, or is it strictly a sizing issue? I'm asking, because newer Bauer pads (Ultrasonic and Mach) do feature a professor strap, but older ones don't. 

[DL42]

the professor strap was just the old upper calf strap that mfg took out bc all the kidos thought less straps make u cooler.   use the heel stap and pull the pad back.  and no it doesnt affect pad size.  

[ilyazhito]

1 hour ago, DL42 said:

the professor strap was just the old upper calf strap that mfg took out bc all the kidos thought less straps make u cooler.   use the heel stap and pull the pad back.  and no it doesnt affect pad size.  

OK. I thought that one could get away with wearing smaller pads, as long as one secured them with the professor strap. This might have allowed me to look at both 35 (Large) and 36 (XL) Bauer pads, because the later Bauer pads feature a professor strap that the former pads lacked. 

From images, it certainly does look as though the professor strap keeps leg pads in place. That's what I was curious about. 

[goalieThreeOne]

A prof strap could, in theory, allow you to strap it tight enough for a leg pad to sit higher than it normally would by lifting the boot further off your skate. In that scenario, it would be similar in function to the Lundy Loop. But in practice, there's absolutely no reason you should have to do this. The Lundy Loop was designed to let Lundqvist, who is limited on the maximum size he can wear per NHL rules, wear his pads higher to get extra coverage with the existing thigh rise. Since you are not governed by NHL size rules, this is a completely irrelevant scenario for you. You should buy the pads that allow your knee to land in the stack properly and you should not rely on a Lundy Loop or Prof Strap or any other strapping to change where the pad sits on your leg. If you need it to ride higher, then you would just go up a size provided that your knee still lands on the center of the stack. There are downsides to do doing this as well, because as your thigh rise gets taller, you're more likely to get interference between the thigh rises while you're skating.

The true purpose of a prof strap is to hold the upper part of the pad tightly to the calf. This allows the pad to stay close to your leg during the butterfly and may eliminate any slack that elastic straps leave, which in theory pulls the thigh rise closer inward in the butterfly, helping with 5 hole coverage. In addition, it helps make sure that your knee always lands on the knee block. In the old days, this would be accomplished with a knee lock strap, a piece of leather that ties the knee block to the inside outer edge of the pad. Since we don't use leather anymore, those straps don't exist and since strapping is elastic nowadays, you have to really crank down on it to keep your knee on the knee block. I view it as a worthwhile upgrade, but others may not prefer it. But it should have no affect on your pad sizing. Start with manufacturer sizing, try them on, and then go with what feels most comfortable.

[ilyazhito]

3 hours ago, goalieThreeOne said:

A prof strap could, in theory, allow you to strap it tight enough for a leg pad to sit higher than it normally would by lifting the boot further off your skate. In that scenario, it would be similar in function to the Lundy Loop. But in practice, there's absolutely no reason you should have to do this. The Lundy Loop was designed to let Lundqvist, who is limited on the maximum size he can wear per NHL rules, wear his pads higher to get extra coverage with the existing thigh rise. Since you are not governed by NHL size rules, this is a completely irrelevant scenario for you. You should buy the pads that allow your knee to land in the stack properly and you should not rely on a Lundy Loop or Prof Strap or any other strapping to change where the pad sits on your leg. If you need it to ride higher, then you would just go up a size provided that your knee still lands on the center of the stack. There are downsides to do doing this as well, because as your thigh rise gets taller, you're more likely to get interference between the thigh rises while you're skating.

The true purpose of a prof strap is to hold the upper part of the pad tightly to the calf. This allows the pad to stay close to your leg during the butterfly and may eliminate any slack that elastic straps leave, which in theory pulls the thigh rise closer inward in the butterfly, helping with 5 hole coverage. In addition, it helps make sure that your knee always lands on the knee block. In the old days, this would be accomplished with a knee lock strap, a piece of leather that ties the knee block to the inside outer edge of the pad. Since we don't use leather anymore, those straps don't exist and since strapping is elastic nowadays, you have to really crank down on it to keep your knee on the knee block. I view it as a worthwhile upgrade, but others may not prefer it. But it should have no affect on your pad sizing. Start with manufacturer sizing, try them on, and then go with what feels most comfortable.

That makes sense. If 35 (L) is too small in Bauer, I'll try XL. 

[ArdeFIN]

On 7/31/2022 at 6:14 AM, ilyazhito said:

For me, the pad sliding down when going into the butterfly has happened several times. Because the pad slid down on me, my knee would slip off the top of the stack when moving in the butterfly and hit the ice. This happened with my 33+1 CCM pads, my Medium Bauer 1S Od1n pads, and more recently, with my Large Bauer 2S Pro pads. 

Just for this part, would be interesting to see you going down to BF. As my pads always try to run up a bit when going down. Physics that happen on my landing I can realise easily ofcourse but I cannot figure out how you can run your pads down your leg when going down to butterflying. 

[ilyazhito]

28 minutes ago, ArdeFIN said:

Just for this part, would be interesting to see you going down to BF. As my pads always try to run up a bit when going down. Physics that happen on my landing I can realise easily ofcourse but I cannot figure out how you can run your pads down your leg when going down to butterflying. 

 Since my knee is above the center of the stack, my knee is more likely to slide off the side when I bring my knees down to drive them into the ice. This is a problem when I try to recover or change directions while down.

If I'm in a pad where my knee is in the center of the stack, that doesn't happen. 

[goalieThreeOne]

2 hours ago, ilyazhito said:

 Since my knee is above the center of the stack, my knee is more likely to slide off the side when I bring my knees down to drive them into the ice. This is a problem when I try to recover or change directions while down.

If I'm in a pad where my knee is in the center of the stack, that doesn't happen. 

Yep and that goes back to what I said earlier. Which is that you size your pads based on where your knee lands and everything else is secondary to that.

[RichMan]

Reading this, I kind of went through a similar experience with pad sizing. I initially purchased some Bauer R6000 in 36". Loved them, except my knee would land off the block when scrambling or in hard stretches. I accounted this to the knee lock elastics. I sold them and got me some Bauer9000 in 35". The landing was more centred and better mobility but again my knee would hit the ice under the same scenarios. This time I was convinced it was the elastics not able to hold my weight in position or something of the sort. I tried to get some nylon straps made up to replace the elastics that would have no give and force my knee to stay in the cradle/on the landing without affecting the rotation. This is an idea I came up with while looking at and studying the Warrior pads. Long story short, I ended up selling my 9000s and buying my GT2 pads. My hypothesis was confirmed, never had the same issue happen since.

I did look into the professor strap for the same remedy but I was worried about it being a nuisance with my knee pads and thus proper rotation. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows.

 

 

[ArdeFIN]

23 hours ago, ilyazhito said:

 Since my knee is above the center of the stack, my knee is more likely to slide off the side when I bring my knees down to drive them into the ice. This is a problem when I try to recover or change directions while down.

If I'm in a pad where my knee is in the center of the stack, that doesn't happen. 

I said I'd like to see what happens on your feet and pads when you go down to BF as you mention your pads travel down your legs. I do understand the physics when you are down on BF and fall off the knee stack.

While it doesn't give anything to anyone the only times I've fallen off the knee stack were when I tried on some fluffy Eflex500 pads in oversized 34+3. Other pads I've used are Warriors 32, 33 and 34+1,5, RBK 33+2, Vaughn 33+2. Warriors are the newest samples. Never have had any extra strapping behind my knee except the RBK padsa are with Professor as I wanted to try it out. Works beautifully so no complains, but can't tell if those pads really do need them straps as I haven't tried them without the professors. Pads have changed every now and then, but I've always wore Warrior knee pads, G4 and GT both sr level I think. CCM Premier and Warrior X2Pro pants.

Edit: Now that I think of it. Could it be atleast partly from the S-curve on pads? When you go to smaller pads to lift your knee higher on stack you at the same time push the pad outward as your knee is more against the thigh rise than in bigger pad. This would somewhat explain why some top goalies in NHL fall from the stack when they stretch out either of both of their legs straight. The stiff thighrise does the job and pushes the pads outwards so that the knee lands out behind.

This reminds me from one occasion last winter when I was watching some kiddos having their exercises on ice and the goalie had some nice new pads (maybe Bauer Supreme) and I saw his leg through the gap between calf and knee stack. And there was atleast 50mm of space between his knee and pad when he was standing upright and legs straight. Skinny boy he was too which exaggerated the view.

Hypothetic thinking is involved. 

Edited August 3, 2022 by ArdeFIN