Category: Kickers

Kickers protect your feet for low saves, whilst also allowing you to kick the ball with power and control; rebound qualities give you a zippier redirect, or give you the chance to stop the ball and then kick it away.

Inside the OBO kicker

Hey guys, thought this might interest some of you who want to know whats really in your kicker. We’ve deconstructed a kicker to show you a little bit about how they work and what they’re really made of.

Hey guys, thought this might interest some of you who want to know whats really in your kicker. We’ve deconstructed a kicker to show you a little bit about how they work and what they’re really made of.

IMG_0990

As you can see in this photo the inside of the kicker is rather different to how it looks on the outside. We counted up the number of components within a kicker, including straps and buckles, and discovered that the Hi-Rebound kicker has 21 individual components. I’ll run through a few of them now.

The black and gray patterned pieces of foam that make up the base of the kicker are a shock absorber. They are less dense than the coating that would normally be on the outside of the kicker and made of soft, lower density foam which absorbs most of the impact from a ball hitting the kicker. They also provide a comfortable inside surface of the kicker that can mold to the shoe.

The two large black surfaces on either side are what gives the kicker its Hi-Rebound. They are rigid, high density pieces of foam. This means they don’t bend when the ball hits them and therefore provide a more solid surface and consequently Hi-Rebound. Notice that they are on both sides of the kicker. This is because OBO kickers do not have a left and right.

The layer of black foam you can see around the bottom of the kicker is like a wear pad. It is higher density than the soft inner and lower density than the outer foam and designed to protect the soft inner foam from wearing on the playing surface.

As with the sides of the kicker, the tongue also has a hard outer surface and a soft inner surface. This cannot be seen in the picture but the top part of the tongue (which can be seen) is higher density than the bottom part of the tongue (which cannot be seen).  This is the same principal as the rest of the kicker. Hard protection on the outside, soft comfort on the inside.

What also cannot be seen in this photo (but you will find on your kicker at home) are the soft foam pieces on the back of the kicker. They are there to stop your shoe from sliding out of the back the kicker during a game.

this kicker doesnt have any straps or buckles for obvious reasons, but the straps and buckles that OBO uses are all designed to wear and survive impact better than anything else on the market.

Conditioning robo hi rebound kickers

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Question:

Just bought new Robo HI REBOUND kickers from Cranbarry, your USA distributor. No info was included on how to condition them. Called Cranbarry and they couldn’t help. Can you reply with instructions? Thanks, Mark and Libby.

Answer:

Hi Mark and Libby,

Conditioning the Robo HI REBOUND Kickers is fairly straightforward. The first part is shaping the kickers (if they were received flat). To shape the kickers, you’ll basically fold them to the shape that you want them as they’ll sit on your foot. I like to bend them ten or fifteen times and then wrap them with an elastic bandage and let them sit overnight. Take some time and make sure the straps are properly adjusted for the shoes you’ll be training. The first couple of times you wear the kickers be aware of hot spots on your legs from the kicker’s rubbing as you can blister. I sometimes wear two pair of socks for those first sessions in new kickers. Make sure the kickers are properly fastened. Make sure the rear buckle and straps are pulled all the way back so that your foot is sitting all the way back in the kicker. The Robo HI REBOUND kickers break in quickly. Hopefully that helps, give me a shout if you’re looking for more,

all the best,

Jon

Here’s a video that might help…

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

Which Kickers for Cloud Legguards?

cloud legguards
It has come to that time of year again where i have to look at my kit and ask myself whether or not it’ll survive another season of punishment. This time round it’s my kickers that are being called into question. My trusty Cloud kickers have started disintegrating at an alarming rate after 4 seasons hard work. While they may well survive another season i will be moving up a division with my school and club so i’m not sure if that’s a risk i want to take.

cloud kickers

So this begs the question; What do i replace them with? Well the obvious answer is another set of Cloud feet friends but given my imminent change in level i think it’s time to upgrade. So my next thought was either the Hi Control or the Hi Rebound Robo models. the problem with this choice is that i play on a sand pitch and i’ve heard that the HR kickers (which i would prefer) disintegrate rapidly on this kind of  surface. And given the cost of Robo kickers i’m not sure that i can justify this. Similarly i’m not sure that i could fork out all that cash for the HC kickers if they’re not exactly what i want.

hi-r kickers

So another, more unusual, option that i have heard of is using Tk Gx 1.0 kickers with OBO legguards. Given that these cost something similar to the Cloud range they are a tempting option. they have a similar tongue system too so i think that the  loking system would still work.

compare the tongue to the Cloud Kickers

If you look closely at the Unusual Diving Syle video (below) i think that that keeper is using Gx 1.0’s with Robo legguards without any twisting.


So does anybody have any thoughts on this? I’d really appreciate some advice. if you have any experience of this or know of anyone using this system please leave a comment.

Cheers,

Cormac Deasy