Football Equipment Guide

Posts Tagged ‘Shoulder Pad’

Yea, your shoulder pads suck if they don’t follow some simple rules.

When speaking about football equipment, one of the first things that come to mind, second only to football helmets, are the shoulder pads.  Unless you think you’re funny or you’re just some pervert, in which case you would blurt out jockstraps.
Either way, when thinking about the shoulder pads, one would only consider it’s function of protecting the shoulders from all of those cracks and crashes on the field.
As outlined in some other posts of mine, the shoulder pad also can function as a stabilizer for the helmet when used in conjunction with various restrictors.

The shoulder pads, when closely looked at, carries many different intricate details in it’s make-up. For starters, the shoulder pad has a hard plastic shell with foam padding underneath. The pads fit over the shoulders and the chest and rib area, and are secured with various snaps, buckles, straps and ties.
Take a look:

Pictured above is the Schutt Y Flex Youth All-Purpose Football Shoulder Pad. A great purchase for your youngster, especially if he doesn’t want shoulder pads that suck.

What to look for when purchasing shoulder pads:
1) Shoulder pads that allow free movement- The last thing you need or your child needs is to be cramped up on the field. People will be coming at you from all angles and you need to be able to move. Do not overlook this. Just because your pads are stiff does not mean you’ll be safer.

2) Comfortable- If I’m going to be out there for a couple hours, my heaviest piece of padding had better be comfortable. I’m sure some of you might disagree as some of you might want be reminiscent of the early days of football. For you, I urge you, until you strap on your moleskin helmet ala Admiral Reeves and hit the field, shut your mouths, you posers.

3) Excellent protection- DUH. This is the main qualifier in this list. You can throw all of the other points in this list in sacrifice for this one. Don’t waste your time searching for a comfortable set of shoulder pads only to find out they’re comfortable because they offer crap protection. Unless of course various trips to the ER for head, neck, shoulder, and chest injuries are your thing.

4) High quality- Yes, the old saying is true. You get what you pay for and I can guarantee that a good trusted brand of shoulder pads are going to be of better quality than the no-name set of shoulder pads you found at Wal-Mart.

5) Lightweight- The shoulder pads are already the heaviest piece of equipment in your locker, try not to make this any worse than it needs to be.

6) Price- If you can find a set of shoulder pads for roughly $100 that match all of the above criteria, you found a good investment.

To wrap this all up, shoulder pads need to essentially do 2 things:
1) Absorb shock on impact.
2) Distribute the shock across the larger area of the shoulder pads so the impact isn’t exclusive to one spot.

Find a pair of shoulder pads that meet up to the criteria I outlined above and you will have a good set of shoulder pads that do the above two necessary jobs.

The shoulder pad neck roll is a piece of football equipment that attaches securely to the shoulder pads and helps to stabilize the helmet, which in turn stabilizes the head.
Styles vary on these from manufacturer to manufacturer. There is never one single way to attach them. As a rule of thumb, always consult the instructions for your specific brand on how to make sure your neck roll is attached properly.
The most typical set up is done by attaching the string on the back of the neck to the back of the shoulder pads. Your neck roll should also have side strings which you use to attach to the (inside) sides of the shoulder pads and finally, there are usually 2 more strings on the front which you use to lace onto the front of the shoulder pads.
Make sure your strings are tight and secure.

More advanced versions come with snaps which lock onto the shoulder pads. These are going to be brand specific and will only be able to snap onto the shoulder pads manufactured by the same company that made the neck.
These pieces of football equipment usually run in sizes small all the way up to XXXXX-Large.
With that being said, you can see how wide range the support is for this piece of equipment. It, as well as a few others I mention in this blog, have become almost as integral as the helmet.
Parents: If you plan on sending your child out for school football, check with the athletics department for these supplementary neck and head equipment.
If they do not offer them as part of their teams equipment, you would serve yourself well going out and investing in this and other pieces of equipment.
The prices are usually minimal compared to the price of having to get a neck injury treated.
$50.00 to $75.00 is the usual price these pieces of equipment are going for.
Check back later for some personal reviews of different shoulder pad neck rolls.

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