Hey, my name’s Kevin, I love hockey and the internet. I like my rock music and its great to just plug in and get the designs flowing. I love chicken wings, the more hot sauce on them the better and I have 3 kidneys...You can find me on multiple social networking sites, so come say hi. I hope at least one post on here is useful to you!
My protection for hockey
hexpad
I have been meaning to write this for ages becasue many people have asked me what I use to protect my kidney when i play hockey. That right im going to keep playing, the docs said aslong as i find protection i can.
So I have had some really good help from many companies, some which wanted up to £10,000 to set something up others asking for a few hunderd dollars. I contacted companies such as dragon skin, d30, Armourshield, Mcdavid, shock doctor, pinnacle armor and more.
At first Dragon skin said they would help in return i would have to write feedback for them which i thought was a really good deal, so I researched and made template after template which i fianlly was happy with and sent to them in Cali. A few days later i heard back from them saying it was posible but would cost $160. The next week it went up to £260! so i decided to scrap that idea and look else where.
I started searching through ice hockey forums for some ideas and came across a EVOshield (http://www.allsportsarmour.com/product_p/a300.htm) that made mouldable carbon fibre which could be inserted into a skin tight top to wear for sport, but as it was a single piece it would have been difficult to move. I posted a comment on the forum and someone sugested trying McDavid Sports which and did and they helped me so much.
Our roots can be traced back to 1969 when Dr. Robert F. McDavid designed and developed what was to become the first widely used lateral protective knee brace in football.
McDavid has come far from the beginnings in 1969. From a basement in Bellwood, IL, to our production facility and global headquarters in Woodridge, IL, we now manufacture and market over 400 different innovative products for athletes and active people of all ages. McDavid is the most widely used and recommended brand of braces among sports medical professionals and the industry leader in sports medical products, technical performance athletic wear and consumer merchandising. Our most recent innovation, HexPad™ Technology, is changing the way athletes wear under clothing by fusing padding to performance fabrics and defining an entire new category we call Protective Apparel.
Our goal today remains: to develop innovative products and technologies to help prevent injury and to enhance performance of athletes and active people of all ages.
Their products can be found on atheletes such as – Edgerrin James – NFL, Dwyane Wade – NBA, Ryan Boyle – Lacrosse and one you may of heard of Jussi Jaaskelainen.
The product that interested me was the Hexpad technology, layers of foam padding made up into hexagons which would allow the movement i needed. Emails went back and forth and they made me something perfect to wear and it was FREE. It has allowed me to play and coach hockey and go paintballing. I cant thank them enough. (at the bottom its the red top, you can clearly see the protection) www.mcdavidusa.com
The NHS also made me something, it took around 4 months to make then on the fitting he said it will protect my kidney from most sports. Once he fitted it around me like a belt i wondered where hte padding was going to go, but he didnt add any and said that there are plastic splints going through it. I then took it home for a closer look, the splints are no more then a mm thick and they are spaced out over a cm apart. this has sat in the bag firmly shut. This will not offer any protection. (the medical white belt pictured below.)
The last bit of protection which I use all the time as its heavy duty and will deliver maximum protection. It is a rib protector (maverick legacy) for lacrosse which i have cut the strap off so i can wear it around my waist. It is made up of high density foam which is split into sections so you have maximum proteciton. Even if this moves around while playing it will always be protecting you. I use this when I play as it is solid and i feel alot more confident that it will do the job. I little tape around it and it’s good to go.
My Protection.
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