Since I see myself working on new elements when I return to the ice next week, I think it's time to invest in some protective padding. Any suggestions out there? What works, what doesn't and what gives the most bang for the buck?

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

DD swears by the Ultra Crash gel pads. She uses the knee one; by her account, she can't even feel it when she hits the ice with her knee, and I'm just happy to see that there aren't any more blue and black bruises on it. It's a bit pricy ... and it does slip a little, but, she thinks it's great. It's also so thin that you don't see it under a pair of tights.

Yep, those are exactly what I use...and love! I have both the knees, hips, and tailbone one. I've been using them for about 7 years and they've held up to the wear and tear of skating. They're extremely easy to clean with soap and water.

They can be a bit pricey at almost $40 a pad, but I don't have the slipping your DD does. Perhaps it's because I wear them directly on my knees and they are held in place from the two pairs of tights I always wear. Unfortunately, that causes my knees to become a bit sweaty after an hour or two of intense skating. The hip and tailbone pads, however, I put between my two pairs of tights, but they also seem to stay in place well.

Still, I absoutely love these and would recommend the knee, hip, and tailbone pads to anyone. Like sk8tmum's DD, I also cannot feel any pain when I fall on my knees or hips because the knee pads are filled with gel. I too like that they are almost undetectable and don't leave you with that big butt look that some hip and butt pads cause.

I have recentely switched from the $5 slip on knee pads to the $40/each SkatingSafe gel knee pads. I haven't fallen on them yet, but frequently kneel on the ice and they seem good. I wear them directly on the skin under my tights and have found they slip some until I sweat, and then they stay in place. I do find them clammy though, and may try to make sleeves for them or experiment with a thin fabric backing. I bought the sleeves that SkatingSafe sells for them, but they are useless as they are so tight at the top that it really shows.

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Before my secondary coach strictly enforce my not using any protective pads (except for certain circumstances...sliding on the knee is one of those.) I was wearing the SkatingSafe pads. I can personally tell 'ya that the tailbone pad saved me from a having a tailbone fall be a very nasty bash on the tailbone. (Well, it was BAD for about 5 minutes but after that I just went back and skate and felt nothing.)

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Here's another vote for the Skating Safe gel pads - they are very, very effective. I took a hard knee fall about a year ago after a "click of death" and my knee didn't even bruise. I barely felt the crash, too, and it was right down on my very bad (arthritis) right knee. If the Impact Absorbers are too expensive, you can also go to Menards and buy a roll of concrete joint expansion foam for about $8.00 and cut it into pieces to use as hip and tailbone (but not knee) pads - it is also very effective and one roll will last you and three friends a skating lifetime.

BTW, my lovely coach freely admits to having used pads (sometimes even multiple sets of pads!!!) back in her training days, so she has no problem with my using pads. Which is good, because I would use them on my knees and my damaged left elbow anyway.

Most bang for the buck = sponges. I use the thick, rubbery type with the large holes in them - not the foamy thin type. They absorb the shock extremely well.

I stuff some down my pants practicing new jumps, but also I have made elbow pads like that with some lycra (originally with socks,but lycra looked better)

Also, you might wanna get wrist pads - just the normal skating type (as in, skateboard and/or roller skates). They're usually available at toy stores (if you've got small hands) or sport shops (bit more expensive). They prevent over-extension of the wrist ligaments and broken wrists.


At our club, they were a bit anti-crash pads, basically only allowing padding on existing injuries, until several girls of the top competitional group (doing nationals) got seriously injured. Now the coaches don't have a single problem with however much padding you want to use, so long it does not affect your mobility on the ice (knees, elbows, posture, extension) and so long you don't have psychological issues taking it off. Some of the girls in the competitional group skate almost as padded up as some hockeyers are (elbows, knees and crash pants).

I also use the Ultra Crash, its very thin, very discreet and provides excellent padding, you feel nothing. I don't mind spending more for this as the current total on my hip is in the low 6 figures and the next surgery will mean never skating again soooo... I'll go with that.

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Who me? Couldn't be....
http://www.youtube.com/bouldersk8r

I highly recommend the Skating Safe pads!!! and yes, they do slip, even under the compression Under Armour or tights. So, do what I did...take a pair of running tights/bike-shorts and sew "pockets" into them, make sure that the top is open. Ta-Da! now you have no-slip versions!!! AND you can add extra padding for working on those doubles, Terri (or those back 3's)

If you sew (or know someone who does) they can make some that look really good; but since they go on underneath your other stuff...who cares?

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

What about slippage on the knee pads? My dd refuses to use hers, since she says they slip, even in the sleeve and under tights. I don't like seeing her black and blue knees all the time, and I'm afraid of permanent damage eventually.

Any tricks for keeping them in place?

Being inherently thrifty (read "cheap"), I make my own pads from the foam they sell at outdoors stores as sleeping pads. It's inexpensive high-density foam that's very effective.

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Dianne
(A.O.S.S.? Got it BAD! )

Having had a broken wrist, I can tell you that there is no medical concensus on the value of wrist guards. My doctor told me that he and many other orthopedic surgeons are of the opinion that if your fall could break a wrist, but you are wearing those guards, then the shock will be transmitted upwards and you will have a worse and more complicated break of the ulna and radius close to the elbow. Since there are no studies, it's suit yourself on this issue. I hate them.

One young skater that I know uses an elastic knee brace to keep hers in place. I bought some elastic material to try to make sleeves to sew them into, but haven't tackled it yet. Is it possible that a larger size would slip less?

Another Option:
Renatale told us (at the last NYC meet-up) about Akton Padding, a gel material just a bit thicker than Skating Safe pads, and much cheaper. She bought a big square of it and cut it to fit.

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what a lot of skaters at my rink do for knee pads-volleyball pads. They slip them down over the top of their boots when they don't need them then pull them up when they do. Of course, they are big and chunky but they do pad extremely well and don't slip.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

Volleyball kneepads around the top of the boots . . . eeek! this would most definitely be a problem for me. My pant legs catch my toepicks or the heel of my blades enough, but bulky kneepads around the ankles? eeek

Thanks for reminding us about that option too!!! I totally forgotten about that. And yes, much cheaper option! Obviously, you gotta do a bit of work to get the pad to the shape you want but at least it will be a custom shape pad.

EEEEK!!! No no no no!!! Tried that option myself! Not only is it bulky, but it didn't help! It doesn't absorb the shock as well as the gel pads AND... often enough on the fall itself, it ends up pushing the pad OFF so I end up bang the knee on the ice anyway!!! I would NOT recommend that as an option. I speak from experience! (3 weeks off the gym and tack on at least another 2 weeks before I can bend well enough to actually skate and do crossovers and such.)

I actually am bending my knees more without the pads and that in itself actually helps me somewhat from getting the dreaded knee bash b/c I'm lower on the ground and am already down enough to just fall on the butt. So... there is something to my secondary coach's madness!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Yeah it is definitely a strange thing-but then again, maybe it works for them.

I don't believe ANY of them weigh more than 120 lbs tho....altho the force of hitting the knee even at that weight must still be formidable!

I will pass on a tip from another coach; when some of her "girls" (big and little) work on complicated moves (doubles, flying camels etc) they wear the big puffy ski gloves. Man does that pad your hands when they smack into the ice! Feels weird tho. I imagine you could wear the padded cycling gloves too.

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

I have a knee pad that velcros on, but I never wear it...I just can't imagine skating with padding on...maybe I'm just stubborn... But, every person finds something that works for them...me, I just end up with black and blue knees for weeks on end

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

I have the skatingsafe kneepads and wear them rather than the volleyball ones when I don't want the pads to be obvious (read: wearing a skirt/dress). I don't wear the pads as often as I should...

I found that the trick to keeping them in place was to get some wide (25mm) tan/flesh coloured surgical paper tape (we call it Micropore tape here - it's available from pharmacies), and to tape the pad along the bottom rim to my skin in a semi-circle, starting from outside top of the calf to the inside top of the calf. You will need several short pieces of tape to negotiate the curve - it doesn't have to be exact.

Then run one round of tape right around the leg below the knee joint, at about the bottom third of the pad, right over the pad. It looks kind of weird when done, as the pad sticks up straight when you bend your knee, but it does mean that the pad doesn't hinder knee bend at all, and remains firmly in place.

Then wear one or two pairs of tights over the top. The tights hold in the top of the pad and stop it sticking out, while the tape stops it sliding down. The brown tape completely disappears into the tights and cannot be seen at all (note: the white tape doesn't disappear as well, hence the suggestion to use brown tape when appearance matters). It doesn't take long to do - about 5 minutes or so when you're new to doing it and faster as you get more experienced.

I use Micropore tape as it's known to stick better the wetter it is, so when I sweat, the tape won't come loose and slip.

The only catch is that you have to be prepared to take your tights down to your ankles to put the pads on. On the other hand, it's better than the volleyball ones, in that I have to take my skates completely off to put those on...which accounts for why I don't wear them very often...

Just remembered another reason my knee pads don't slip much. The ones I bought are too big for me, so I wear them with the "point" downward, at 90' to the orientation the instructions call for. I get complete coverage, and the top of the pads do not protrude.

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Just ordered my pads... minutes later got a phone call that my hip pads will be shipped out today, while the spine protector is on back order. Oh well... will make do with what I get.

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Adult Nationals, 2009 "The Time of My Life"

I found a dance store that sold Hip-hop knee pads. They were around $12, and I'm now no longer afraid to bang my knees up anymore. They took awhile to get used to , but they work for me.

Bubblewrap. No, I'm not kidding you. It is light and bends well. Can't even tell you have it on. I've put this on another forum because it amazes me that a lot of ice skaters don't use pads....We always used them on roller because of the "burns" from falling on cement/wood (skin scrapes off). OUCH!!
Anyways.... Use the small bubble kind. (Big bubbles are too bulky), and cut it in a square to fit over your entire knee cap. Then tape it on both sides (top, middle, and bottom of each side) with waterproof medical tape onto your stocking (under your 2nd pair of tights (if you wear a dress) or under your pants. It needs to be on the inside stocking with something (over the boot tight or pants) over it. Underneath, the pad will get sweaty, but you don't notice that when you're skating. When you're done, just untape them and throw them away. (Don't try to reuse. Yuch!)
Elbow pads: I cut a square of "sweatpant" material and sewed 2 layers of bubblewrap into it to make a square the size of my elbow. Then got a pair of microfiber, (stretchy nylon kind) of sock and cut off the toe. Use the sock over your arm to secure the pads. (Put sock on arm, put square pad at elbow and pull rest of sock over.) Pads will pretty much stay in place.
*This idea doesn't work as well with the knee pads because they take a harder beating and all the bubles will bust in a matter of a few days. The elbow pads usually last 4-6 months.I am not kidding about this. It really works! ....I'm still here and I have terrible technique!!

Has anyone tried something like the bobmber shorts or the body armour padded shorts?

http://www.nextag.com/padded-shorts/search-html

Or how about these for the ladies:
http://www.xsportsprotective.com/mcd...by-shorts.html


Does anybody know how different the gel pads are from the padded shorts (ie which provides better protection)

My personal experience is that pads don't reduce the pain or the injuries from falling, but they do reduce the amount of bruising. When you're my size pads don't make much diffence.

I mostly use the gel pads and in my own experience they help with both bruising and pain. I have taken hard knee falls with them and barely felt it. For those on a serious budget, Menard's has concrete joint expansion foam in large rolls for about $8.00 a roll and that can be cut down to make hip and tailbone pads, although not knee pads. That, too, provides terrific protection, and for not a lot of money.

So if you fall on bubble wrap, does it pop? I'm just imagining skaters falling all over the place on purpose to make the bubble wrap pop. I love popping it when it comes in a box, I can absolutely see myself falling just to get that satisfying sound of bubble wrap popping. But then again, I might just be a freak when it comes to that. Well, not just me, my sister is too. We used to argue over who got the bigger sheets of bubble wrap to pop when we moved.