Player and Goalie Hockey Gloves for Ultimate Hand Protection

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Karen_S_Musselman]Karen S Musselman
Because of the sport itself, the speed and hardness of the hockey puck, the sharpness of skate blades, getting rolled over by inline skate wheels, or the impact of a hockey stick, both inline and ice hockey gloves have to be made of special materials and designed in a way that the players' hands and wrists are completely protected while still being flexible enough so the players maintain the ability to grip and maneuver their hockey sticks.
To do this, generally the hockey gloves are designed from a thin layer of material the palm and palm-side of the fingers, allowing maximum mobility and flexibility to grip the stick and keep a hold of it during play.
The backside of the hand obviously needs a lot more padding since this the part of the hand that's exposed to the greatest danger of being injured by flying hockey pucks, sticks, skate blades, you name it. The main point of this type of protection is that a player can get hit with just about anything and they're not going to really feel it, much less incur a serious injury.
The thumb area on the gloves have extra reinforcement to make sure that the highest protection is there against the thumb possible bending backwards, which obviously could cause a serious sprain or break and put you out of the game.
Those are the player gloves. The goalie's hockey gloves are significantly different because of the position the goalie plays and the amount of times the goalie is likely to get hammered with hard, fast-moving pucks.
The goalie actually needs two gloves. While one will be similar in design to the players' gloves because the goalie still needs to grip a hockey stick, the other glove is used to deflect shots on goal. The goalie can grab pucks with this glove and toss them back in the game, or grab and hold the puck.
Because of the goalie needing to perform these most often amazing feats in action, these particular goalie hockey gloves are designed almost like a baseball glove since they serve the same purpose, but with much greater protection because of the hardness and speed of a hockey puck as compared to a baseball or softball.
The pocket area where the puck is caught is netted and designed to make it easy for the goalie to wing it back into play or toss it to the ref or another player without having to use his other hand to remove the puck from the glove.
Regardless of whether you're playing inline or ice, your hockey gloves are going to protect you from bruises and cuts on your hands and wrists from the pucks or tripping and landing in front of another player's skates. Especially on ice, those sharp blades can be really dangerous to unprotected hands!
About the Author: Karen Musselman writes inline and ice hockey articles for [http://cheap-hockey-sticks.com]Cheap-Hockey-Sticks.com using tips from her son, an avid inline and ice hockey player for more than 15 years. Visit Karen's website for some tips on how to find your perfect pair of [http://cheap-hockey-sticks.com/hockey-gloves.html]hockey gloves for your next season.
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Player-and-Goalie-Hockey-Gloves-for-Ultimate-Hand-Protection&id=6560759] Player and Goalie Hockey Gloves for Ultimate Hand Protection