I have a mini-goal that I use to practice sauce passes and snap shots in my basement, kind of like the Hockey Sauce kit (instructions to come in the near future), and I needed a backstop for it. Since it's only one foot square, it's easy to miss. I did have a piece of hardboard behind it, but pucks would just bounce off of it and rebound all over the place. What I needed was something to soften the bounce when the puck missed.
I cut three three-foot long pieces of 3/4" PVC pipe and connected them with 90 degree elbows into an upside down "U" shape. At the bottom of the "U", I put two more 90 degree elbows and connected one foot long pieces of PVC to give it a little stability.
I set it into place, then put the hardboard backstop on top of the legs. Then I took two old bath towels and wrapped them over the crossbar so they draped down to the ground. I used some clothespins to hold the towels in place. Like I said, very improv.
It works pretty well. Any pucks that missed the goal hit the towels. Mostly they were deadened and fell right to the ground, but occasionally they'd hit straight on and thump the hardboard backing.
I need to come up with a simple, cheap way to replace the clothespins... hmmm... sew a pocket along the top and down each side to slip over the frame? Maybe.
I like the towels because they're heavy and should be durable. A piece of plastic tarp would probably work too, but be a bit noisier. More netting would work too, but I don't have a piece that large and the towels were free.
If you try this, let me know how it works for you. If you have a better way, let me know!
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