Posts Tagged ‘Football Equipment – Shoulder Pads’
September 11th, 2009 | 
Author: Here goes a cool video from ESPN Video.
As usual, I have included the text.
In their early days of football, athletes didn’t even bother wearing shoulder pads, however, when the pads finally did make their first appearance, initial versions were merely made up of sewn together pieces of leather. By the time the 60’s rolled around, foam and hard plastic replaced the leather.
The good news was these pads finally began addressing shoulder and rib injuries. The bad news; the foam was the same material used to pad furniture. It was discovered it actually sped up the process of overheating the athlete. Decades later, a study by the National Trainers Association addressed the rise of heat related illnesses, finding that four highschool students died due to the heat while thirteen other highschool students were reported as injured due to heat issues.
This, in turn, led to the first innovations in shoulder pad design in thirty years, incorporating everything from air conditioners to astronauts.
In 2002, impact pads actually started using synthetic fibers designed for NASA to make new shoulder pads breathable and lighter.
The old furniture foam was replaced with a gel like material and covered with mesh fabric to allow moisture to be taken away from the body and therefore keeping the athletes cooler.
A second major innovation was introduced by Douglas, who in conjunction with scientists from the University of Florida, created the Temperature Management System which actually added an air conditioner to the shoulder pads.
While on the bench, players can be hooked up to an air pump that sends cold, dry air into the pads where air channels are built in.
Any number of players can be hooked up to the system, which uses a hose to force cool air throughout the pads, keeping body temperature down by stopping the radiating heat before it starts.
It may have taken thirty years but shoulder pads are starting to catch up to the ever changing world of gear designed to protect the players.
While the issue of heat injuries isn’t going away, protection will always be the key factor behind the next generation of shoulder pads.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t take another thirty years.”
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Finally on our list of ways to prevent burners on the football field is the mini side roll restrictor.
Don’t let the mini name fool you. For as small as these things are they offer a mountain of protection from neck burners and stingers.
They snap easily to the butterfly restrictor and the shoulder pads and together you have the ultimate in helmet stability.
As always, they offer maximum support without sacrificing mobility.
Be prepared to pay close to $50 for these and $50 for the butterfly restrictor.
Maximum protection is never cheap, but neither is the alternative, that being a trip to the ER or a specialist as well as a dent in your insurance premiums.
These pieces of padding offer the ultimate in burner and stinger protection.
They have the esteemed bragging rights of being developed by Division I-A football equipment managers.
As usual, these attach securely and comfortably to the shoulder pads.
You can use butterfly restrictors as stand alone pieces of equipment or use them with a paid of side rolls for an ultimate level of stability.
Safetys and running backs can wear these and rest assured that there neck will be a heck of a lot less likely to snap backwards, resulting in a serious neck injury.
These pieces come in pairs.
They go over the shoulder pad neck roll on each side to offer additional neck protection by keeping the head and neck stable from the left and right sides.
As all other restrictor pieces meant to prevent burners, these attach securely to the shoulder pad neck roll which attaches to the shoulder pad.
Used in conjunction with neck rolls and neck roll restrictors, you will have optimum stability while still allowing free movement.
The key here is to keep the head from bouncing or snapping suddenly in any single direction while still allowing the player the freedom to move their head as they need.
Lateral restrictors, when used properly, do just that.
Back to “How to Prevent Burners in Football“
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.
In the game of football, it is essential for players to receive proper training. If you (the player) wants to excel, you must work with your coaches, not only on your training regimen, but also on what equipment is going to work best for you. Training with the proper football equipment will turn you into a better player and as a member on your team, you will bring your skills to the team, making it a better team.
There is a tremendous variety of football equipment to use for training, but there are only a few items that are considered “core” pieces of equipment.
You might think it a waste of money to invest in training equipment, or maybe you just need to know where to start?
First of all, you need to know this – the ultimate purpose of training equipment is to allow you and your team to be able to practice at a higher level of intensity without risking injury. Unless your trainers are flipping idiots, your potential for things like shoulder, neck, and head injuries are dramatically decreased when using things like blocking sleds and padded dummies. Just these two pieces of equipment alone will allow you and your team to feel similar resistance to what you’ll find on the field without having to crash head to head with another live body.
As mentioned earlier, there are just a few pieces of training equipment that, if you have them, you have an excellent start. These pieces of equipment coupled with proper coaching can quickly set you on the path to athletic excellence.
Blocking sleds are a necessity. This is without question. They allow for the simulation of real life blocking complete with weighted resistance of a real player (which leads to less of a chance for injuries for both players). Blocking sleds can usually be found in sporting equipment suppliers individually or up to five blocking dummies on one sled. This option is perfect for simulating a line-up on the gridiron.
If you want to make the simulation just a tad more realistic, perhaps for quick blocking drills. Look into some padded dummies. These are filled with foam typically, or for more weight, you can find them filled with sand or beans. The sand or bean filled ones are the best value. These pads are perfect for helping players learn how to take some real weight down with the risk of injuring a real person.
For quarter backs, you need to get yourself a good weighted football. I shouldn’t have to explain what these are for, but I will.
First of all, they’re heavier than normal footballs (hence the name weighted football). These are great for giving a quarterback more resistance when throwing, which helps make their cannons more powerful for firing out quick and accurate spirals. (Work on your finger roll technique if your spirals aren’t tight enough yet).
For your receivers, you’re going to need (or at least highly want) a jug machine. These babies fire spirals out at your receivers at varying speeds and heights without any rhyme or reason. The best of these machines have adjustable velocities and angles.
Can’t forget about the kicker can we? Your kickers needs are going to be pretty basic, but just as essential as any other players. Remember, these are your clinch guys, treat them right! A regular kicking tee is great. No frills. Get him practicing with a kick-off tee and a rubber block tee. The rubber block tee will help raise the height of the tee giving them better connection percentages.
And more importantly, unless you hate your kicker, get him a kicking / punting cage. You gonna want this guy to practice his kicks and punts more than his ability to fetch his own balls (haha). These cages are netted and as long as the kicker is aiming correctly, the ball should land right in his parameter making it easier to set-up and try again.
For all players, their is going to be pieces of equipment which they should all have, but in varied types. For example:
Shoulder pads & helmets- Two pieces of equipment that are used frequently to identify the sport of football. These pieces of football equipment are going to be varied depending on the position. If you’re in a position where you’re getting hit a lot, especially laterally, you’re going to want to get some shoulder pads which can accept a good set of restrictors such as butterfly restrictors, neck rolls and lateral restrictors. If you’re a lineman, get a helmet with some extra caging on it. They’ll keep your opponents fingers out of your eyes. Kickers, you usually don’t need much more than a single bar cage going across the front.
Gloves- Lineman and linebacker gloves have some extra padding which is perfect for their frequent contact with their hands. Unpadded hands connecting to hard football equipment is god-awful. Lineman and linebackers…you need some good padded gloves!
For your wide receivers, you’re going to want some gloves with a little extra stickiness. This will help you snatch those hail mary’s out of the air quickly and efficiently.
Cleats- Whether you’re getting screw-in or molded cleats, check the name and the quality. This is one area that a lot of players forget to pay real attention to. What height do you need? Low, 3/4-high, high? That, as usual, depends on what position you’re playing. Solitary position players can get away with low-top cleats while lineman are going to be looking for high tops and 3/4 tops. For kickers, good ole’ soccer cleats will work just fine for you but here’s a pro-tip, wear them a size smaller. It will make your task of kicking easier as they will make your feet compact and solid.
These are all core pieces of equipment. Check back later and I’ll go over some “nice to have” pieces of football training equipment.