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17 November 2000 |
An Alternative Way to Get Dressed When I first started playing hockey, I followed the extremely helpful "how to get dressed" steps that Ann Wilson provides on her website, the Hockey Diaries. Since I took a slapshot to the shin on October 9 that hit right below my pads but above my skateand which has left what I fear is a permanent brownish and fairly tender lump on my legI've had to change the way I get dressed in an effort to better protect my shins and ankles. The first thing I did, of course, was to buy longer shin guards; it turns out that the ones I was using were at least 2" too short (not surprising, seeing as how I bought them used from another woman, and not too many women are my height, 5'9 1/2"). The second step was to put the shin guards over my skate tongues instead of under them. According to Jason at East West, this provides more padding for your shins, and it helps stabilize your skates. (He's certainly right about the latter: I don't have to re-lace my skates mid-game anymore.) The shorter guards didn't really offer the option of going over the skate tongues, but the new 14" ones do. So anyway, here's my new way of getting dressed; as Ann noted, there's no one way to do it, but this way works for me.
When you come off the ice, perform the steps essentially in reverse order. Resist the urge to pull off your skates firstyou'll just tangle yourself up. Likewise, if you try to pull your pants off before you've removed your skates, you'll get the skates caught. Try this instead: After removing your helmet, jersey, and shoulder and elbow pads, pull your pants partway down, detach the socks, pull the pants up again, remove the shin guards, socks, and skates, and then remove the pants. |
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