Wrist guard for kids

[DannyGallivan]

Hi there,
I am interested in getting my 8 year-old wrist guards for protection against skate cuts (slashes to the wrists aren't an issue at his level). I've never researched this piece of equipment. Can anybody shed some light on the best to get. I also wonder whether or not they interfere with shooting.

Click to read more...

 

[tarheelhockey]

This isn't very helpful in answering your question, but IMO skate cuts to the wrist are such a rare occurrence that they're not worth adding equipment for. In the past three decades of the NHL (thousands of games and even more thousands of practices by nearly 5000 players) I can only think of a handful of times this has happened. And that's in a high-speed, full-contact environment with limbs flying everywhere. 8 year olds spend a fraction of that time on the ice, at a much slower pace, with WAY more separation from other players.

Gloves and properly-fitting jersey will eliminate 99.99% of the risk at this age. Wrist protection for slashes might be a good idea if he ends up playing at a very competitive level as a teenager.

 

[Yukon Joe]

I coach kids at this age level and have never seen one of them wearing wrist guards.

We make this kids neck guards because a skate cut to the neck could be fatal in minutes. Even a deep cut to the wrist, which is quite serious and requires immediate medical attention, isn't nearly as dangerous.

If you're worried about skate cuts I would instead look for a paid of cut-resistant socks. Not sure they have them for sizes that small though.

As an aside though, I am constantly telling my 6, 7 and 8 year old kids to not lie down on the ice because it is dangerous. They just don't get it. So I do understand the impulse.

 

[I am toxic]

Check out these guys.

I would highly recommend the tights and socks for players. Also the tights and wrist guards for goalies (they go down to cover pucks and also reach out to cover pucks and in scuffles things can go bad quickly). The old goaliestore forum had some nasty pics of skate cuts to wrists.

It is rare, but it happens. I have personally witnessed a massive cut to thigh (I just about threw up just looking at it) and my own kid just missed having his achilles tendon sliced through by another skate blade. Spent the evening at the UBC emerg and he missed a couple weeks of hockey even though it just grazed the tendon. After that we purchased the socks and tights, 5 pairs of socks over the years and are about to purchase his 3rd set of tights.

 

[I am toxic]

This isn't very helpful in answering your question, but IMO skate cuts to the wrist are such a rare occurrence that they're not worth adding equipment for. In the past three decades of the NHL (thousands of games and even more thousands of practices by nearly 5000 players) I can only think of a handful of times this has happened. And that's in a high-speed, full-contact environment with limbs flying everywhere. 8 year olds spend a fraction of that time on the ice, at a much slower pace, with WAY more separation from other players.

Gloves and properly-fitting jersey will eliminate 99.99% of the risk at this age. Wrist protection for slashes might be a good idea if he ends up playing at a very competitive level as a teenager.

Can you expand on this - our association's new jerseys are a thinner material, we've already had a kid on our bantam team cut on the forearm this season, through the jersey.

 

[SoundAndFury]

You will do more damage to your kid trying to protect him from everything than a minor cut to his wrist would even if it happens, which is a tiny possibility to begin with.

To me, this is an equivalent of not letting a child play outside in the summer because the wind is blowing.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Can you expand on this - our association's new jerseys are a thinner material, we've already had a kid on our bantam team cut on the forearm this season, through the jersey.

There shouldn’t be skin showing on the wrists. Jersey should overlap with the cuffs of the gloves.

Newer style jerseys are awful IMO. Saving a meaningless amount of weight at the expense of protection and “breathing”.

I agree with the above comments about legs being a much higher risk for cuts, and goalies’ wrists being a special consideration.

 

[I am toxic]

Jerseys are not meant for protection from skate blades. But yeah, our older jerseys were a heavy cotton mix material that were definitely more cut-resistant than our new fully synthetic jerseys. If it were me, I would use the new lighter jerseys along with the kevlar/dyneema wrist guards, for other reasons.

 

[jetsmooseice]

This isn't very helpful in answering your question, but IMO skate cuts to the wrist are such a rare occurrence that they're not worth adding equipment for. In the past three decades of the NHL (thousands of games and even more thousands of practices by nearly 5000 players) I can only think of a handful of times this has happened. And that's in a high-speed, full-contact environment with limbs flying everywhere. 8 year olds spend a fraction of that time on the ice, at a much slower pace, with WAY more separation from other players.

Gloves and properly-fitting jersey will eliminate 99.99% of the risk at this age. Wrist protection for slashes might be a good idea if he ends up playing at a very competitive level as a teenager.

I remember seeing an incident like that once at the old Winnipeg Arena in 1995, the night that Keith Tkachuk gashed Don McSween's wrist with a skate. To my eyes it was scary as hell, blood was spurting everywhere. But afterwards the sportscasters said it wasn't as serious as it looked, the training staff were able to stabilize the situation quickly and the big question was whether or not any tendons were damaged.

That was also the night Paul Kariya scored his first NHL goal IIRC...

 

[tarheelhockey]

I remember seeing an incident like that once at the old Winnipeg Arena in 1995, the night that Keith Tkachuk gashed Don McSween's wrist with a skate. To my eyes it was scary as hell, blood was spurting everywhere. But afterwards the sportscasters said it wasn't as serious as it looked, the training staff were able to stabilize the situation quickly and the big question was whether or not any tendons were damaged.

That was also the night Paul Kariya scored his first NHL goal IIRC...

FWIW, Brett Pesce had a similar injury recently, just that a puck made the cut rather than a skate. In the moment it really looked like he had suffered a major injury, with blood all over the place, but it turned out he had just "blew up a vein" (Rod Brind'amour's words) and actually came back later to finish the game. It was something to see.

 

[FFWRX]

I got these for my kid. (AA Squirt) He was getting slashed about every other game, and it fills the gap from the elbows to the gloves. It's basically a sweatband with a hard piece in it. He only uses them for games not practices, and they do not affect his shot at all.

CCM Wrist Guards - Senior,junior - - Discount Hockey They are out of stock, but something like that worked for us.

 

[Cams]

There shouldn’t be skin showing on the wrists. Jersey should overlap with the cuffs of the gloves.

Newer style jerseys are awful IMO. Saving a meaningless amount of weight at the expense of protection and “breathing”.

I agree with the above comments about legs being a much higher risk for cuts, and goalies’ wrists being a special consideration.

To build on this comment..... the cuffs of the gloves should also overlap the end of the elbow pads if you want to have a proper "fitting".