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Whats So
Special
about a Goalie Jock?
While a regular cup and supporter is basically a jock strap with
a pocket for the cup instead of a pouch, a goalie jock is a well-padded
jock constructed of foam, nylon, plastic, and Velcro.
The Best
way to wear
a Goalie Jock
The basic principle is to keep your balls snugly held to your body so
that the cup can completely cover them and transmit any impact directly
to your pubic bone. Eliminate anything thick between the cup and your
balls; padding inside the cup is stupid. So, based on personal experience,
heres what I recommend
If you like hockey stockings:
- Start with an ordinary jock strap. This will hold your balls snugly
in place.
- Put a contoured cup in a pair of hockey tights like the WSI
Hockey Joc and put that on. This will hold the cup firmly in place,
and provide a convenient way to hold up your stockings.
- Put on your goalie jock over that.
Alternatively, if you prefer sweat pants:
- Put a contoured cup in an ordinary cup supporter. Put that on.
- Put on your sweat pants.
- Put on your goalie jock.
The extra padding of the goalie jock gives worthwhile added protection from
all the things that tend to come your way during a hockey game: pucks, knees,
pucks, helmets, pucks, skates, pucks, sticks, and pucks.
The best combination Ive found is a Bike cup in a Hockey Joc and a Banana
Cup in the goalie jock. The Bike cup fits snugly inside the Banana Cup.
The Hespeler cup would work inside a Bauer Sport Cup.
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The
Ideal Goalie Jock
One of my favorite goalie jocks is the Heaton 4000. Its well padded and quite firm.
A firm jockone with a large stiff hunk of plastic in itwill
do a much better job of distributing the force of the impact than a floppy
one. Its narrow belly pad lets me move without chafing, and its wide
enough to cover my hips when Im in my stance. My chest pad covers the
rest of my belly.
Next best would be the older Heaton Pro 90Z, Easton, and Vic. The Brians Tarzan and Stitches
seemed a bit floppy; they come with a Banana cup and comes in some
cool designs, but I think its overpriced. The Miller jock is available
in many color combinations, but it comes with a less comfortable Olympia
cup. If you have a Banana cup, use it instead of the Olympia. The
Bauer Reactor goalie jock comes with the wider Bauer cup, which is nice and deep. The Koho Ultimate is the most protective of any goalie
jock, but the guy who designed it apparently points down and thinks
everyone should. I prefer to point up so Im never really comfortable wearing
the Koho. If you point down and like a lot of protection, then you
should consider the Koho.
I do not like the older Itech Jock
Goalie. By itself it does not provide enough support, so you
must also wear a jock strap. The cup is simply not deep or contoured
enough, so it is inadequate at protecting you from the puck. The
design does not do a good job of transferring impact to the pubic
bone. The extra padding around the hips and inside thighs is nice,
but it is not enough to make up for its other deficiencies. You
could wear it with a SafeTGard or new Bike cup in its own supporter,
but I do not recommend it.
The ideal goalie jock would have these features:
- integrated athletic supporter with cup pocket contoured to hold a Bike or Banana cup (or any cup
of the goalies choice)
- integrated compression shorts
- hip and inner-thigh padding as on the Itech Jock
Goalie and baseball sliding shorts
- hooky Velcro tabs to hold up socks (and fuzzy Velcro flaps to
cover them when theyre not being used)
- choice of 3" and 6" waistband
- padding and another hard cup over the cup pocket
- little side flaps like those of the Koho Ultimate, but perhaps
longer vertically
- a big contoured front pad like the Koho Ultimate that distributes
the impact of a puck to the thighs and hips as well as the pubic
bone
Do you have any additional suggestions for the ultimate goalie
jock? Let me know.
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