My husband and I used to have great debates about the hockey equipment my son wore. I used to opt for the more expensive, stressing that if it was more expensive, it was probably better. Dave would go for fit and be much more practical. One of the pieces of equipment we could agree on were hockey gloves or ringette gloves for our daughter.
Hockey gloves need to fit and fit well! Here’s a list of what we look for.
Some hockey gloves my kids like
- Decide how long you want to keep the hockey gloves. If you are buying gloves for a child, you may be replacing them yearly as the child grows. As the child gets older you may replace them every two years. When our son started playing midget hockey, we bought very good quality gloves for him, knowing this would be the last pair we bought.
- Think about the level of competition. Rep players need better quality equipment than house or recreational players. Hits are harder, the competition is more intense and the kids play more often at rep levels.
- Do some research. There’s lots of info on the internet about different brands.
- Decide how much you want to spend. The price of hockey gloves varies widely. Sometimes you can get great deals on last year’s model – just ask!
- We’ve always gone to a hockey store, rather than a chain store to purchase gloves and skates. The staff is more knowledgeable and the selection is better.
- Look for gloves that are comfortable and are not too wide on your hands. Your fingers should fit inside the fingers of the gloves with only a small gap to spare. Some gloves have individual pads on the fingers for each joint. This makes the glove for flexible.
- Another thing to look for is how high the padding comes up your wrists. Your wrists take a beating and you want them protected. Think of your hockey equipment as armour and you want as few gaps between pads as possible.
- Pick up a stick and make sure you can handle it correctly.
- Lastly, make sure the athlete is the one trying on the hockey gloves. They have to wear them!
I remember the first time I took my son for hockey equipment. It wasn’t the best experience. Hopefully these tips will be helpful.
