351 Parents: How the wrong gear can hurt development

Let's turn our attention towards what parents are looking at, from a gear perspective going into this offseason.

Yeah. Lots of thoughts on that, but I think Woody wants to have a word first.

Well, you know, they do gear over at the, stop the goal telling you the app. They talk a little bit about equipment from time to time, all part of getting twenty five years of NHL goalie coaching experience at your fingertips, including experience around equipment. Wanna tap into the goalie parenting expertise that helped Joey Daccord reach the NHL? That's what you get with the subscription to Stop It Goaltending U the app. All the knowledge from Brian Daccord who's been an NHL goalie coach, scout, and director, as well as the insights and expertise from his staff at Stop It, which includes a long list of veteran NCAA coaches, all delivered in easy to digest chunks, including five short daily primers, weekly style analysis, and breakdown videos, as well as drills that you can take on the ice with your team and coach.

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Gentlemen, gear season reality check time. This one's timely because we're right in the window where things as a goalie parent get a little bit dangerous. Your season's done or just about it. There's a fresh spring feel in the air. Hockey spinning up again for some people playing spring hockey.

Summer camps are on the calendar, and the equipment bag's been sitting open in the garage long enough that, you started noticing not just the smell, but what doesn't fit anymore. Your kid grew again. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, the conversation starts. What are we doing for a new gear? I get it.

I've been there. You watch your kid mature, you see them working hard. You want to give them every advantage that you possibly can. And when they're younger and a shot stings, it stings them. But honestly, it stings us, the parents too, sitting in the stands.

So we dig deep and often we overbuy. I got an email from a parent, in the last couple of weeks that really struck me. They wanted my opinion on True's top of the line pro pads for a kid whose head barely cleared the crossbar. Listen, I'm not picking on her because that instinct comes from love. I was that parent once.

Here's the truth I had to share and I'll share it with everybody today. Those pads won't fit. Even if they did height wise and frankly, in this case, they wouldn't have, they're going to be too heavy. And the kid wearing them won't be able to be an athlete in the crease. Not just too heavy, in fact, wide as well.

I don't know if every parent out there knows that the width of intermediate and junior pads is a little bit less than that of the pro pads. They're not going be able to learn the basics. They're not going be able to learn the skills of the position and, their way of stopping pucks will just be to fall on the ice and hope that things hit them. Pro gear is not an investment that you grow into. It's, it's built for growing bodies, playing a growing game.

Here's the part most parents don't realize. The gear available today at less than half the cost of pro stuff is incredible. I'd say we're in a golden era for intermediate and junior equipment. I would have gladly worn junior gear that's made today back when I was playing in university and I mean that very sincerely. And here's the bonus.

If you're spending less, you might be in a position to actually keep them in gear that fits as they grow. Do you want two years in that same not quite fitting pro gear or maybe one year in a lower price point model that fits and then next year you get something that fits again. That means they can move, they can play, they can learn the position, they can develop, they can have fun. All the things that disappear the second you strap them into something built for a 25 year old pro. So whatever you do this off season, talk to an expert.

You know we love Cam and his team, but whatever shop you trust, get your kid in there, get them fitted, not just for the right size but for the right level of gear. Kevin's told the story many times of seeing Cam and his team direct people to a lower price point piece of gear because it's the one that was right for that kid. That's a conversation that protects your kid, protects your wallet, and gives them the best shot at actually loving the position.

Interesting. The the the idea of being talked out of more high level gear is something that that that I think it makes sense, right, that that you would want the the best possible equipment, but you don't that you don't need it in in any sport. Right?

Well, it's just not the best for that age. Right?

It's not the best for that age, but it is such a natural parent instinct that just hurt my kid. I gotta buy something a little bit better. And I honestly don't think in most cases that parents think that if they spend $2.3000 on a set of pads, their kid will be a better goaltender, at least when they're quite young. I think most of them are just thinking about safety. I have the only, the only time I have quote unquote overbought and and felt like it was the right thing to do was a mask.

And I guess it happened to be like lucky that my kid at age six pretty much fit an adult sized helmet. Not saying that putting a six year old in a in a pro mask is the right thing either cause they're not going to be strong enough to hold it up. But Just as long

as their heads the size of a watermelon, Exactly.

Exactly. So, but yeah, it's definitely all about the kid being able to look, sometimes pucks hit you and they hurt And I don't want to say that's okay, but it kind of is. We have to accept that. That doesn't mean we run out and buy the next size up or buy the next level of of protection because your kid has to be able to move to play and they're not going to have fun otherwise.

Well, and the other part there too is, like, you're talking about pads too. Like, you're probably not feeling pucks through pads. Like, you shouldn't. Right. And then the the other part of going up to a higher end, you know, pro level gear is the glove's gonna be stiffer and bigger and harder to close.

Like, that's it. Like, if you can't close a glove and catch pucks, forget the forget, like, the the performance aspect. It's not fun.

Yeah. No. You're quite right. I focused on the pads, and I really shouldn't have. You couldn't hold those gloves up if they're too big.

You couldn't fit your little tiny hand in. Like, the intermediate gloves are made to fit smaller hands like mine and like You knew I

was coming with the had

to get it in early. And chest protectors, pants, know, we also as parents get obsessed with our kids being successful so we go and over buy size to fill the net. It applies at all levels. Don't run out and get a 27 inch paddle for your four foot tall kid. Go get fitted properly so that you're not just for the right size but for the right

piece of foot.

Pardon

me? It's why they make that stuff to for that age group.

Oh, no. I'm saying they don't. I'm saying is so many parents go out and buy stuff made

for other age groups. I know. But but parents parents looking at it going and trying to overbuy. Right. Or oversize, like look at what what is manufactured for that age group.

Yeah. And and it's also just a natural thing of thinking you're gonna save money too. Right? Let's let's buy something a little bit bigger. May maybe finally Johnny's ready to get into that senior gear and it'll last me a little bit longer.

It is an expensive sport, but that second price point gear, as Kevin has pointed out so many times on gear segments, is incredibly well made now.

We've got a goalie right now who did CCM EFlex 7.9, their second price point on the EFlex seven line, as a test through us. Went through the entire season. No problem with one set. It looks like it might have another season in it playing at high level prep school hockey. So, they were on the ice five times a week.

No problem getting through the year in the second price point gear. And this like I said, this is, you know, one of his teammates is probably gonna be the first player picked in the NHL draft in a couple of years. Like, these are this is a pretty high level of hockey and no problem getting through a season in the second price point gear. So if you can do it at that level, folks, certainly when you're talking about much younger, much smaller kids, like never mind that it'll get through the year, but to Hutch's point, it'll save you money, maybe allow you to properly size it for two years in a row with different sets of gear. And it's gonna perform better because it's gonna be less stiff.

Yeah. You go the the highest level, the the the what's the the top of the line. You're paying a premium for that because of that product. But if you go but you're you're you have to buy it a little bit bigger to grow into it. If that's the plan, that's the idea.

Or you go second price point, and you can buy what fits you. And if the kid grows, your child grows, you you can buy a a set to keep up with the growth spurt and you're still probably in in line with the the top of the line gear from a cost output.

Yeah. For sure. And I think Woody just brought something up that was really important that that 7.9 set might be good for another season. I think we're all we're not all a little guilty. I think we're very guilty these days of creating this environment where parents and goaltenders think to play the position every near year, you need to go out and buy new gear for next season.

That 7.9 set will be perfectly good for somebody else if the goaltender you're talking about has grown or needs a new set for whatever reason. It is okay to buy used equipment for your kid as well. I know you might not get Cam's expertise in sizing it, but you know what? Cam's an honest guy who wants your business forever. You could probably ask him, Hey Cam, should I be getting something used?

Is that okay to do? Could you maybe help me decide what piece I spend my money on and what piece I have to go and get used? He understands as does, I hope the person that you work with in your local store, the realities of the position. It is okay to use gear for more than one year in a row. It is okay to get it from another goalie in the neighborhood who's outgrown their gear.

We want kids out there having fun and there is the gear today lasts so much longer than it used to. Sometimes you see people online nitpicking because they got a skate cut on something or a seam came. Like the gear does age but it doesn't mean you can't play in it.

And you can get it repaired.

And you can get it repaired. You and I used to do it ourselves.

Remember that

Hutch? It was the best. I used to fix up my gear, add some padding here and there and dream that maybe one day I'd be an equipment manufacturer. It was some of the best parts of it, so it's okay.