Category: Gloves

Both gloves (left and right hand protectors) come in varying shapes and sizes that offer different qualities for making saves.

HI CONTROL vs HI REBOUND

Right Guys and Gals,

There is a massive debate over the Hi-Control vs Hi-Rebound and being an owner of the HR and having tried out a friends HC I think that I can enlighten people as to which kit is best for them. I will start by giving a rough diagram of the rebound levels so you can picture it in your head, I will then say which game style each of the kits suit.

CLOUD |||||||||||||||
HI CONTROL |||||||||||||||||
HI REBOUND ||||||||||||||||||||

As you can see the difference is not that big. Also the HC has more rebound than the Cloud so it certainly isn’t lacking.

Hi-Control
HC suits a agressive player who kicks with conviction and also likes to log at short corners. The pads are narrow allowing ease of movement when going down or getting up. Essentially the design of the kickers is identical to the HR-only the foam density being different. The hand protectors are different from the HR ones, the left  HC is identical in design to the HR except in cosmetic appearance, the right is the traditional tube style for logging.

Hi-Rebound
The HR kit is suited to the more modern player who stays upright for as long as possible and likes to use a passive deflecting type of kicking. The pads are wider than the HC giving a bigger area against attackers, they have stiff wings to delfect the more slowly to be cleared with the feet afterwards. Again, the kickers are the same design as the HC but with more rebound. The hand protectors are a different design to the HC. The left HP is very similar to the HC, the rebound is obviously higher for a more deflecting style of play. The right HP holds the stick at a different angle to the HC for a more upright style of play, it also has a much bigger surface area for reaction saves. The different angle takes some getting use to but works great for me.

Wear
The HC will last longer than the HR especially on sand pitches. However, most of the games is now being played on water-based pitches, here the wear difference is much reduced. even if you do play on a sand pitch do not get the HC purely because of its longevity, get the kit that is right for you. Also, duct tape on the bottom of the kickers will increase their life greatly.

A.T

Using the full face of the OBO HR RHP on high shots

Hi, I’ve asked the same question on FHF, but wondered if anyone esle on here had a view or indeed OBO had some specific “official” advice as this seems fairly funderrmental bust isn’t covered in the user guide on this site:
I’m having a bit of bother with my new OBO high rebound RHP (same I’m assuming applies to similar models from TK, monarch etc).
I’m quite keen on attacking the ball with my hands (as camel and Spartan advises), trying to move towards the lifted ball and to control the rebound either by deflecting or slapping the ball away where I can. Mostly I’ll bring my LHP across as it is just easier, but I’m making a conscious effort, since my Spartan coaching in the summer, not to reach too far across my body and over rotate, putting me off balance.

In the summer  I swapped to the Obo HR RHP due to its increased blocking area for this kind of stuff. However I’m still really struggling to get the flat face of the RHP to the ball. In my ready position I have both hands held identically (as I believe is correct) which means the LHP is flat side out and the RHP is flat side towards my body.

The problem is that as I reach forwards and out towards a wide ball to my right, stick vertical, the face is never flat to the ball in the way the LHP is and I often end up saving the ball with the smaller area designed for penalty corners or deflecting the ball back across my-self with the angled face? It is not such a problem for balls that are below the waist, (as it is flat to the ball when the stick is horizontal) or very wide, as I’m generally not taking these as far in front of myself due to the dive.

I know it has been suggested previously to drop the hand guard back in your stance and hold it wider, but I don’t really want to change what I think it one of the only areas where I am technically correct to accommodate my equipment! On the other hand (pun intended) I don’t want to go back to the HC RHP as it is so much smaller and I really like the HRs extra something in slide tackles (which is surely  the wrong way round)!

Sorry for length of post, wanted to give as much detail as possible. Advice appreciated?