Mild knee pain

I was out on the ice today for pick-up hockey. Second time this year. I did better this time. Fortunately, there was only one other goalie so I got to play the entire time. Probably saved about 70 to 75% this time.
I didn't pull my groin today so that's another plus.

My knees kind of mildly hurt. I didn't hit the ice with my knees. I used toe-ties today. I put the skate laces back on the sliding toe bridges and put in knots for about two inches of slack. I think the pain is related to the toe ties. The plus side is that I've dialed in my straps so that the pads rotate and don't get stuck. I put the boot strap through the middle opening in the cowling of the skates.
They didn't slide down, but I had to get used to the inner boot section hitting the ice when I skated forward.

My butterfly kind of sucks. My skate blades are more perpendicular to the ice than parallel. Anyone else got this issue?

Originally Posted by synesthete

1. Are you recovering from your butterfly correctly? Remember that when you get up from your butterfly or a half butterfly, you want to push with the leg opposite of the side on which you're getting up. You don't want to put one knee up and then hoist yourself up on it like they used to do back in the stand up days.

I don't remember which leg I recover with.

Originally Posted by synesthete

2. You said you got the pads dialed in so that they rotate and don't get stuck, but I'm just wondering if they might still be a little too tight. If you wear them too tight and go down in the butterfly or half butterfly, it can put a bit of torque on your knee.

Anyway, just a couple things to consider.

I have the boot strap loose, so I have the lowest leg strap semi-tight so the leg pad doesn't drop too low. The remaining leg straps are all loose. I have the elastic leg locks on tight so the landing gear doesn't get away from my knees.
I can't tighten the other leg straps down anyway. I have short legs so the thigh rises press down on the pants and thigh boards if I start cranking down on the other leg straps. And, that results in mobility problems. I'm not even trying to work in an s-curve either. The pads I have are pretty stiff so I store them upright.

I'm guessing it's the toe ties because my foot is trying to point with toes downward but the toe ties are prevent them from rotating further.


Just to add, I couldn't video tape myself which I want to do for self-review because I don't have anyone to tape me. I'll try to bring my Flip video camera next time I go out.