I quit in 1992 through injury. I wore canvas pads and steel toed kickers, the cane pads and soft SC Mason kickers, then DFV first one piece foam kickers covered in leather then the first foam Slazenger kickers in 1988 and the foam pads before I quit. Happy to chat through stuff I bought a chest protector before I wore a helmet an dthen only wore it for PCs Panda

I remember when forwards were allowed to swing at an overhead into the circle on the full, like a baseball swing. In fact at one stage one of our opposition teams had an Australian baseballer playing for them which made it interesting considering although I wore a helmet I only wore a thin chestplate for protection, no padded shorts and leather padded gloves (yes with individual fingers). You weren't allowed to propel the ball with your hand, catch and drop only. I was also the first junior to wear a helmet in my state and when playing a match against the Victorian U15s they refused to take the field as I was potentially a danger to the forwards should they collide with me (what the?????). I could go on with things like the starting bully, rolling the ball in from the sideline, long corners just like a short corner only taken out wide, stopping the ball with your hand for the short corner striker, painting your pads white after each match (all in one pads and kicker combo), non healing grazes from sliding with short shorts on dirt patches, soaking your stick in linseed oil to make it supple. Wow the memories!

Cane pads and leather kickers indeed ! Erhard (German Brand) was the best choice. However cane's did break occasionaly and when it was raining it all became very heavy. As far as technique is concerned : we were tought to keep the ball as close as possible after stopping it (no rebound). Afther that you could kick or hit the ball to the side. Besides the legguards the rest of the protection was at a minimal level: no special pants, not even a body protector and a plastic mask as shown in the picture below. In order not ot get bruised all the time, you'd better be very skillfull and courageous. Jan Lelieveldt that's me a long long time ago

and no wheelie bag to cart your kit home after the game. Kit that weighed at least twice as much after a game in the rain (which in North Lancashire was pretty much every game)

I was golkeeper here in Mexico, in the year of 1984 we used to play without halmet, just a few of proteccition, now i have the oportunidty to play with the new equipment too light and safe, hockey give me a lot of memories it´s a great sport