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[imran75]

George, care to go into a bit more technical detail as to why Poron is not a good material for Gloves? Both Chad and I would be interested.

My take on it is that the way it works is to be impacted by the projectile and then distribute the force into the material on the other side of the Poron. The effect of this in gloves would be similar to the issue we talked about at the oval with the Foxy pads. When it's a finger on the other side there is very little to absorb the (now distributed) force, resulting in it having little useful effect.

But I might be barking up entirely the wrong tree.

I'd be interested too. My thoughts, for what they're worth: If Poron (i keep missing out the second "o") does distribute force into the material on the other side of it, couldn't you layer a force-absorbing material underneath it? You could, for example, layer it over traditional glove padding material, which might enable that layer of padding to be thinner than on standard gloves and make the glove lighter overall? Or have I missed the point?

[tim2000s]

I'd be interested too. My thoughts, for what they're worth: If Poron (i keep missing out the second "o") does distribute force into the material on the other side of it, couldn't you layer a force-absorbing material underneath it? You could, for example, layer it over traditional glove padding material, which might enable that layer of padding to be thinner than on standard gloves and make the glove lighter overall? Or have I missed the point?

The issue is that your fingers have little to zero padding, so what you need the glove to do is create a crumple zone to remove the energy from the impacting ball.


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[imran75]

The issue is that your fingers have little to zero padding, so what you need the glove to do is create a crumple zone to remove the energy from the impacting ball.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yep, I think I remember Foxy talking about this at the Oval.

If you could make a crumple zone / padded area out of material similar to padding currently used in gloves and then layer the poron on top of that (on the side furthest from the finger), would that (theoretically) work? One would think that the crumple zone would not need to be as thick as current padding on gloves, meaning that the Poron/crumple zone gloves would be thinner and lighter.

Not sure I'm making much sense. Been a long day.

[GarrettJ]

isnt the problem with gloves the fact that the palm of your finger is against the rock solid handle, unprotected, so it effectively gets crushed as their is no give? Putting padding on the palm would result in a loss of feel so its a no go unless mr Lekka has something up his sleeve?

[StrettonFox Sports]

GarrettJ you've hit the nail on the head (or glove on the finger! sorry it had to be said !!)

Thanks very much for the kind words everyone, it's a very tricky subject hence why both independent and big international companies are still working out possible ways to improve products like gloves.

Basically (if basically is possible !) Foams designed to slow down the impact of something hitting it are great, but the energy dump/weight/force is still there and travelling through to whatever medium is connected on the other side. So fingers being connected in gloves are still therefore receiving huge amounts of impact.

Some foams are however designed to rebound/repel which thus can return energy to where it came (a % of anyway).

Both situations can be assisted by various additional materials designed/implemented to remove the initial shock or pinpoint of impact. Remembering that a cricket ball although quite big, is actually a projectile of about 5-9mm hitting you with the weight of the whole ball x speed behind it, obviously this is why it bloomin hurts !

There is a Fox glove in the pipeline, the science behind is completely different to the current Stretton Fox thigh pads and takes a very different approach to "managing" impact. But i cant say more as the solution isn't protected properly yet.

Anyone purchasing gloves I would just recommend the obvious following... get a mallet and hit your hands and see which one hurts the least. Some peoples receptivity to pain and reaction to impacts are very different so some gloves may seem to work better than others. Just find out for yourselves and see which ones work best, they are designed to do one primary function and yet so few people actually really test an impact before buying, then wonder why it hurts when they get hit. Fit is also really important so get em on and have a go !!

[thecord]

I wonder what they chaps at my local cricket shop would think if I went in and started whacking my own hands with a mallet to test out all their gloves, will have to try it and find out!

[StrettonFox Sports]

Go for it !

[ajmw89]

I reckon all protection must be mallet test approved!  Especially after seeing in Foxy show of his own protection...  More danger of hitting the spectators than hurting himself!

[GarrettJ]

GarrettJ you've hit the nail on the head (or glove on the finger! sorry it had to be said !!)

Thanks very much for the kind words everyone, it's a very tricky subject hence why both independent and big international companies are still working out possible ways to improve products like gloves.

Basically (if basically is possible !) Foams designed to slow down the impact of something hitting it are great, but the energy dump/weight/force is still there and travelling through to whatever medium is connected on the other side. So fingers being connected in gloves are still therefore receiving huge amounts of impact.

Some foams are however designed to rebound/repel which thus can return energy to where it came (a % of anyway).

Both situations can be assisted by various additional materials designed/implemented to remove the initial shock or pinpoint of impact. Remembering that a cricket ball although quite big, is actually a projectile of about 5-9mm hitting you with the weight of the whole ball x speed behind it, obviously this is why it bloomin hurts !

There is a Fox glove in the pipeline, the science behind is completely different to the current Stretton Fox thigh pads and takes a very different approach to "managing" impact. But i cant say more as the solution isn't protected properly yet.

Anyone purchasing gloves I would just recommend the obvious following... get a mallet and hit your hands and see which one hurts the least. Some peoples receptivity to pain and reaction to impacts are very different so some gloves may seem to work better than others. Just find out for yourselves and see which ones work best, they are designed to do one primary function and yet so few people actually really test an impact before buying, then wonder why it hurts when they get hit. Fit is also really important so get em on and have a go !!

I've been hammered a few times on the top hand by some very fast bowlers so know all about getting my fingers crushed

Mr Stretton, here is something for you to work on.

I also keep wicket and i find that the thimbles in the end of the gloves are a serious problem, in fact they cause injury. If you dont catch it right and it hits your finger towards the end the thimble bends back and effectively knackers your finger at the bottom of the thimble/the end joint. My fingers look like they are on the wrong hands due to this jarring/bending from the thimble.

I have thought for some time a sort of overlapping shark tooth design protection would be better. The shark tooths would over lap and go all the way down your finger and stop it bending back at the end joint which is vunerable. As its a shark tooth you would be able to bend your fingers freely.

I must admit this isnt 100% my own idea, i was talking to my brother who is a former pro goalkeeper and he said that some brands of goalkeeping gloves have this on the "pointing" and "up yours" fingers as they are vunerable.

Good idea or totally mental (like me)?

[Number 11]

GarrettJ, I think you and your brother have got a great idea for improving keepers gloves. Could well be a worthwhile project to collaborate with SF. Every one I know that has kept wicket ends up mashing fingers, worst is definitely when the ball hits end on the finger tip. The cup usually bends back carving into the back of the finger.

[StrettonFox Sports]

GarrettJ thats very interesting to read, genuine feedback is always the best !

Sorry to hear about the fingers pointing the wrong way I bet you have a nightmare telling fielders where to go )

There is a very big plan in the pipeline for a lot of equipment that hopefully I will be able to tell you all about next year, Keepers certainly get the short straw and this is something I intend on spending a lot of time on. You've probably seen the video for the "Leg System" on youtube, we've got it up to sledgehammer level protection and its still very close to the legs for running diving, all the usual requirements !

Your points for existing gloves are absolutely valid, the thought on a design I have is very different and i'm not sure if 100% legal (nothing to do with baseball mits, very different). Maybe we'll have to have a "People's Glove !"

[Ayrtek Cricket]

The armadillo type glove design type is used in goalkeepers gloves in football to help prevent over flexion of the fingers.

Having written a dissertation on the cricket glove design way back in 2004 not much has evolved since bar the intro of materials such as Poron and d3o materials but I haven't seen any quantative data that shows the benefits of introducing these materials over just the stock ones that are used.

Our shark tooth design we use in the elite glove was made I avoid exposures finger joints as this was the most common area of feature due to their exposure when gripping the bat. This is why the majority of pros used to use sausage/kapok stuffed gloves as they don't have joints. Designs have moved forward since I wrote my final year project but I know its on the ICC's list of interests to look into!