Chest and Arm Pads
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My chest and arms are covered by a Cooper Reactor 5 goalie chest & arm protector.
Made of nylon and thick high-density foam, it can absorb and spread over a large area the impact of a fast-moving puck or wayward stick. Notice how the elbow pads are built asymmetrically. A goalie's stick arm is normally bent at the elbow while the catch-glove arm is more open. The Reactor 5 makes up for this difference by placing additonal padding at the elbows on the outisde for the right arm and on the inside for the left.
Sizing
Make sure that the pads are long enough to cover your chest and arms. For instance, I’m relatively tall & skinny. Though I wear “Medium” T-shirts, I wear a “Large” chest protector. More expensive chest pads tend to have all kinds of tweaky size adjustment straps and thingies. Since you’re going to spend several hundred bucks, you might as well get the sales guy to earn the sale and help you get the proper fit.Gearing Up
You can wear the chest protector inside or outside your pants. I cut the velcro tab-thing off the front of my pads and sewed them back on underneath. I use it to attach the pads to my belt & pant laces.
Some Photographs Copyright © 1997 by Raphael Vallin. All Rights reserved.