Abstract: A body part protective guard is configured to overlie a body part to be protected. The guard includes an outer layer made of a force resistant, resiliently deformable material and having a backing layer made from an impact absorbing material coupled thereto for padding the outer layer. The outer layer includes a central strip portion, first and second integrally formed step portions located on opposite sides of the central strip portion, a first side portion formed integrally with the first step portion, and a second side portion formed integrally with the second step portion. The first and second step portions are each configured to provide a resilient flexure coupling between the central strip portion and the first and second side portions, respectively, to transfer an impact force occurring on the central strip portion to the first and second side portions, thereby reducing the magnitude of the impact force transferred to a portion of the backing layer adjacent the central strip portion.