Respect

[Umpirechick1]

Worked a JV dbl her last night & had first game plate. Made it all the way to the 6th with no problems. Wet field/plate, fast ball bounces off plate, right over the catcher' s leg and catches me on the upper inner thigh. ©¡#!& I just hang my head after my initial grunt of pain. The catcher feels horrible and goes to talk to the pitcher. I quickly brush off, suck it up and tell him I'm ready. After the 3rd out was made, the coach came out and said "Janet, I know that hurt and Dylan feels horrible, but the level of respect that the boys and I have for you just went up 2 notches." And now I have a lovely (and sore) badge of honor.

[T-Rav]

Get a pair of McDavid Hexpad shorts, you'll want to get hit in the thigh again! (Not quite, but it protects from a nasty bruise)

[Tksjewelry]

Sympathies. I had a doozie last year in the same spot from 14u TC that was throwing in the upper 80s. Right after that I bought the hexpad shorts that @T-Rav mentioned. I reserve them for upper level games as they can get hot.

[Majordave]

McDavid Hexpads do that very well.

Another alternative: football shorts with the thigh pads in the pockets. I did that first year when I was umpiring a lot more middle school and 13s games than high school level and being abused regularly. Took me about 5 or 6 deep inner thigh hits to learn. I was s high school football assistant coach then so access to the shorts and pads was a bit easier and free.

[Umpirechick1]

It's been a while since I thought about getting the hex pads but seems this is a good reminder of why I thought about getting them in the past.

[scrounge]

Actually I just bought a pair of hexpads a few weeks ago....and also just returned them.

 

They were alright, nothing wrong with them at all. But the bottom edge of the padding was lower than the relatively high top of my All-Star triple knee shin guards, which wasn't the most comfortable as they overlapped, and the top edge of the padding was only about 2 to 3 inches above that. There was still a decent amount of un-padded thigh at the very top and inside. So was it really worth $40 to protect about 2 x 6 inches of thigh? I decided for me, no.

 

Now if you've got single knee shins or shorter build where the hex padding may ride higher? I'd go for them. They didn't seem any hotter to me than just any other compression shorts, not with all the other stuff on. But the value just wasn't there for me in the end.