Australia recorded a 3-2 win over the Netherlands in our opening game of the Hamburg Masters today. We went to the break 2-1 up after goals to Luke Doerner and Eddie Ockendon, before Luke made it 3-1 early in the second half with another penalty corner conversion. Holland hit back with a drag flick of their own with less than ten minutes remaining, but we held on for the victory. Once again George Bazeley and I played 35 minutes each in the net. In the other game, host nation Germany ran away with a 6-0 victory over England, although the scoreline does not reflect the eveness of the match for long periods. We have a rest day tomorrow then come up against England on Saturday, so it will be imortant that we are at our best as I expect them to be very keen to bounce back.
I’m going to keep this short and sweet, just like me 🙂
I’m the proud owner of Obo ROBO Bodi Arma, well let’s just say when the parcel arrived I was like a small child at Christmas, and was soon bouncing about in my new toy.
Why do I think it’s so great???
1) When I’m wearing it I don’t look like a midget sumo wrestler!!! ( that’s because it’s super slim lined).
2) Those occasional blows to the chest dont’t feel like bullets and take my breath away; rendering me useless and the goal open to those goal hungry forwards.
3) I can move and jump around without it getting stuck on my shorts, (making it hard to get up fast from a slide), riding up (not covering tender parts) and twisting, which my previous body armour did (not sure about the make and model it was one I lent off my club).
4) It looks good with or without a a smock, also lets me have more choice on the smock front (well we all know how us girls love clothes). No need for super baggy or boring, I can becomne an individual with awesome designs :).
What’s not so great???
I have a real problem with the shoulder pads, they seem to rub and dig into my skin, especially if I’m not wearing a long sleeved top. They seem to over lap the main body of the Arma. I’ve tried to bend and mould them to no joy :(.
I think the main reason for this is that I’m a girl, which means I have those things men don’t have but love lol. This seems to push the Arma up and out causing gapping around the area (see pictures) meaning that the shoulders don’t sit in the right place.
But hay I think I can get over this small niggle.
Maybe Obo could think about making a Bodi Arma just for us girls????
Enjoy 🙂
My Robo Bodi Arma
Side View of Bodi ArmaView from shoulderGap between chest and Bodi ArmaBetter view of the gap
Here are a range of 12 cool helmet designs; Some good inspiration for some custom graphics…
I came across this article which i thought was pretty cool- most are motorcycle helmets but there could be some inspiration for your custom helmets in there…
Here is a oldie but a goodie from a South African magazine named Sports Illustrated.
This magazine featured an article that makes a comparison of kit worn between Shankar Lakshman, who was goalkeeper in the 1950’s and Chris Hibbert the current South African.
Shankar Lakshman was nicknamed the rock of Gibraltar…
OBO kickers are awesome ! I have tried all series of kickers and you get what you pay for in performance and quality as you move up the range. I don’t want to review all the kickers however for a long time now I have been thinking of a way to design a kicker that has a specific inner bootie instead of regular hockey shoes. The idea is like my motor bike boots. You put on the inner bootie then slip your inner bootie into the outer which is the protection layer. Velcro or other similar product could be used to attached to two eliminating the need for straps etc. The booties could be washable and both new inners and outer could be sold. The idea is only in a thought phase but I would love to develop it into an OBO product. Just a thought!  🙂
This time however I’m going to review my Obo Robo Hotpants!!!
Before I got these pants I was using my clubs (So ice hockey brand that I can’t remember)
And will if I may they were RUBISH! (Compared to the hot pants)
They were heavy, loose around the thighs, the system for tightening the waist loosed and even when it was tight enough to stay up, it hurt!
They only offered protection to your thighs leaving your hips and parts of your groin that the cup doesn’t cover open.
This though is a thing of the past with my Hot-Pants!
They first few things I noticed when I took them out of the box was the same nifty buckle on the belt as is on the leg guards and robo kickers meaning no more loosing!!!!And plenty of padding between you and the belt (One problem solved instantly!)
I also noticed the Velcro straps for the thighs meaning you could tighten them eliminating the annoyance of them flapping about and getting caught as you run out to cream somebody.(Yet another problem solved)
And the big cup like pads for your hips meaning lots of protection from shots and less pain when sliding and diving.( all four of my major problem with my old pants solved)
On further examining I found that the inner leg which is often hit was also covered!
There is a gap for your cup, making them more comfortable.
They offer Brilliant protection and I must emphasise BRILLIANT!!
And I have proof.
One day in training one of the coaches (David Hobbes 120+ Ireland International. Still playing)
He was warming me up. We had done the pushing, flicking, slapping and were about to move on to hits. I had just kicked the last of the balls over to him and was waiting for it to begin. I had just said Okay Go!
When one of the bungle out field players calls me to pass them a ball,
As is natural I looked over to see who it was and WHACK!!!
I get a full force strike from the man himself straight into the thigh!
As I was off balance I fell back onto the ground much to the amusement of the other goalie and some of the outfielders.
When I had come back to my senses I noticed it DIDN’T hurt one bit!( thinking back to it now I was lucky I didn’t have my old ones as the ball would have probably gone through my leg! haha
And so ends my story.
I’ve been hit in the leg a few times with no pain whatsoever but this one sticks in my head.
All in all Robo hot pants are Amazing and if you’re willing to spend a bit extra.
We had our first loss of the tour this week in our opening game against Germany, the defending Olympic and World Cup winners. They scored in the final minute to record a 4-3 victory after we had come back from 3-1 down to get back in the game. Luke Doerner, Simon Orchard and Jason Wilson all scored for the Kookaburras in a generally even game that could have gone either way. We get a second chance against the home nation today in our final hit-up before the Hamburg Masters, and with the addition of Jamie Dwyer, Mark Knowles and Des Abbott to the squad we will be looking to get even.
One of the big challenges a goalkeeper of a touring representative side can face is getting mentally and physically prepared to play the second half of a game after sitting off for the first. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the goalkeepers in the Australian team will be interchanging at half time in the majority of the matches on tour, so being ready to play after 35 minutes of spectating is very important. In the pre-game warm-up, the two keepers rotate evenly through the penalty corner attack and goal shooting practice. If I am playing the second half, as I did in the game against Germany, I will come off after the warm-up and take off my all my protective gear above the waist plus my leg guards. I generally watch from the bench for the first 15 minutes and try to pick up any information that may be useful, such as the movement of their strikers through the opposition forward line or variations in their PCA set-up.
With about 20 minutes to go I will repeat elements of my warm-up, with some run-throughs, stretching and range of movement activities. With five minutes left I get all my gear back on and then take a bag of balls out to the circle at the half time whistle for the 17th and 18th players to hit at me before coming on in the second half. It’s useful if one of those players is a drag flicker so they can be incorporated into the hit-up, but unfortunately this is not always the case.
Please excuse the lack of picture again, I am having real trouble adding images to my posts since writing from our Hamburg hotel.
Cheers, Ross.
PS…. Just got back from game 2 so I thought I’d quickly add in the result to this post:
We suffered another close loss to Germany today, this time going down 2-1. While both of the games we have played against the Olympic Champions are essentially warm-up fixtures prior to the Hamburg Masters, they are still test matches and any loss is disappointing. Jason Wilson converted a drag flick from a penalty corner after the final siren, but by then the result was beyond doubt. I played the first half and was happy with my performance and very encouraged by the team’s efforts even though we couldn’t quite get the result we were after.
Sometimes when moving around goal and focusing on the play around you, you can forget where you are in relation to the post and lose your angles; ‘tapping’ the post is a simple way of getting round this.
To help you gage where you are when you cialis 5mg move on or off the post, you can use your hands effectively to help you out: the further you are away from the post, the further you have to reach back to find out where you are in relation to the goal and your angles. Once you’ve found the goal post, you should be able to step backwards successfully onto the post, ready to cut off a possible shot. This allows you to reset your angles and set your positioning for a potential save or block: aware of where you are in relation to the amount of net space you cover (by standing over or away from the post) according to the expected shot; ready to move off, into a save off and outside the post, if the shooter decides to target that area instead.
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Knowing your angles is essential to finding your whereabouts in order to move around the posts in order to make saves. If you happen to watch GB’s current no. 1, Alistair MacGregor of Loughborough Students, you’ll notice this is a technique he has perfected down to a tee.
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‘Tapping’ the posts
When moving off your glove side goal post to step out into the play, you can reach back and out with your glove arm; tapping the post with your glove to check your positioning in relation to the goal. Just like soccer goalkeepers that ‘punch’ the post with the side of their bunched up fist, or tapping with their fingers, you can tap the inside post with top of your glove, or push against it with your palm. You can basically ‘feel’ your way around to work out where you should be standing. This way, you are able to find where you are in relation to the post (and goal in general) and then reset your angles accordingly to deal with the action around you.
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For movement onto and off your right post, you can use a similar technique to find the goal post with your stick; swinging it round to tap against the post to check the line of angle. Like ice hockey goalies who regularly tap their posts to check their bearings, you can use your stick actively; pushing out to tap the post. Check the noise made; the louder, the better. Theoretically, the louder the sound is, the closer the post is (helpful if you are too busy focusing on the play to look at the post itself), whereas the quieter it is, the further away the post is. The distance you have to reach out with the stick will also tell you how far you are from the post – if you have to extend the stick to reach it, then you are too far away from it.
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First picture comes from England Hockey; the second is supplied by Alex Master’s action photos – www.alex-masters.com
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.
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.
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.
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.
After writing a review about the leg guards, I thought I should make one about the OGO kickers as well – because (as I said with the leg guards) OGO is sadly misunderstood…
In my other review I covered four major subjects; weight, rebound, protection and drawbacks. I’ll try to do the same with this review.
OGO Kickers
Weight:
Being one of the smallest pieces of your kit, it has always seemed to me like kicker weight makes practically no difference to a keeper’s game. Well, so far I’ve played around 15 games with these kickers and I think now I can safely say I’ve changed my mind.
Kicking is arguably the most important part of goalkeeping and I believe that, no matter what level you play, there is always room for improvement in this area.
Because of my OGOs’ light weight, I’ve noticed I’m actually growing substantially more agile on my feet, allowing more controlled foot saves and quicker, easier running.
Rebound:
Well, what can I say? I remember on my very first save with these kickers I was amazed by their great rebound, which sent the ball away from the goal with almost the same speed as it came in with.
Needless to say, good rebound is an extremely helpful aspect of foot, leg and hand saves because it means that clearing a moving ball does not require a whopping great kick/punch.
Protection:
I play under fifteens, and during a club game I have never once been hurt through the kickers. I say club, because to tell the truth I have once or twice experienced a bit of pain from the occasional shot during southern and state training. But hey, that’s part of goalkeeping. Let me know what you think about this…
With my old kickers, I would often find (usually after running) that the strap at the back would slip down underneath my foot, allowing the kicker to slip forward, and expose my ankle. I can remember numerous times when I have been hit in the ankle due to this.
Well, I don’t know why, but this has never happened with the OGOs… Whether this is because of some amazing technology, or simply because they fit me better, I can’t tell you how much more confidence this has given me in the goal.
Drawbacks:
One problem I’ve found with the kickers (which, after reading other reviews, I know other people are familiar with as well), is that after a bit of action the front strap will slip in between the kicker and my shoe, actually raising the kicker high enough to expose my toes.
I asked OBO in NZ if there was anything I could do to stop this from occurring, and they got back to me quickly with three great suggestions, one of which is working beautifully (Figure eights).
figure 8
I love this integrated locking system, although one problem I’ve been having is that the tongue tends to digs into my foot, which can be a bit awkward and sometimes slightly painful.
One solution for this is to wear shin pads underneath your leg guards, which I like to do because it makes my leg guards in general more comfortable. Another solution involves over-bending the tongue forward, holding it forward with tape, and blowing hot air on the inside of the tongue.
-Detailed instructions on how to do this on second page of PDF. [Link]
In conclusion, I’d like to say that some people will like these kickers and some people won’t (I think most people will). Personally, because I prefer to play a more agile, attacking game, I like them.
I hope this review has changed your perspective of OGO, like one training session changed mine.
My Robo Bodi Arma
