J Clays

The poor man's physio, 9 Nov 2012

I bought one of these on the recommendation of my fitness trainer after picking up a knee injury London Marathon training.

Having had to wear a knee strap since the injury I questioned how much impact a tube of foam could have but at £13 it was worth a punt.

The first time you use one of these things is a deeply unpleasant experience. My next door neighbours possibly wonder why the bloke next door can be heard screaming intermittently during the day, but if you use it over a rug or carpet it does seems to lessen the horribleness.

Stay with it though and it soon gets better. I've got into the habit of using it before and after every run, either with or… Read more

Offer good protection and very durable, 29 Dec 2011

I play 5-a-side in goals every week and bought these so that I can dive properly with a bit of extra protection. I've used them pretty much every week since I bought them (2 yrs ago?) and they still offer great protection and seem to be very durable.

I've got a spare set that got damaged in the tumble dryer that I now use for my hips and bought the elbow version too.

I wouldn't want to use them on any surface much harder than a proper 5-a-side pitch or a hard grass pitch in Summer as I think it'd still hurt too much but for my purposes I'm very pleased with them.

Great fun but be careful, 29 Dec 2011

I bought two of these guns for my children to play with, thinking it'd be great fun for us all to have shootouts, which it is.

The whistler darts make near misses feel perilously close, the range is decent at around 30 ft and the gun rarely jams, but when it does it usually means you just need to push the dart more firmly into the chamber.

A word of warning though: on the first day of owning these my youngest accidentally shot himself in the face when looking down the barrel.

Having put the guns away for while and recently re-introduced them, he now only plays under strict supervision and for longer range battles with some kind of cover like a bean bag. I… Read more