Author Topic: Old skates  (Read 2157 times)

WednesdayMarch

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #11 on: December 18, 2018, 04:26:23 pm »
In that case you don't want to know how much my boots cost. Blades last 6 months, and cost £100 a pop. Helmet, stick and pads cost ~£1,000.

So hockey boots and blades come separately, then?  I always thought they came as a unit! 

I have no idea what hockey boots cost.  Not a clue.  I know that figure boots (minus blades) start at about £120.  I think mine are supposed to retail at about £400, so I was seriously chuffed to find them at £110, with an option to return them if they didn't fit.  The skate fitter/shop I asked about them said they weren't willing to order them in for me.

It's a fraught business, this skating...
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

Leif

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #12 on: December 18, 2018, 10:42:54 pm »
So hockey boots and blades come separately, then?  I always thought they came as a unit! 

I have no idea what hockey boots cost.  Not a clue.  I know that figure boots (minus blades) start at about £120.  I think mine are supposed to retail at about £400, so I was seriously chuffed to find them at £110, with an option to return them if they didn't fit.  The skate fitter/shop I asked about them said they weren't willing to order them in for me.

It's a fraught business, this skating...

Hockey blades can and do break in a game, and they wear down in months, so they need to be replaceable. I can replace mine in seconds as they have a trigger mechanism in the plastic holder. Hockey skates cost from £50 to £780 and high end ones are made from carbon fibre.However, you can sometimes buy the top end ones at about half price when new models come in.

WednesdayMarch

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #13 on: December 18, 2018, 11:22:46 pm »
Hockey blades can and do break in a game, and they wear down in months, so they need to be replaceable. I can replace mine in seconds as they have a trigger mechanism in the plastic holder. Hockey skates cost from £50 to £780 and high end ones are made from carbon fibre.However, you can sometimes buy the top end ones at about half price when new models come in.

Well I never...!  So, can they be adjusted to cope with individual skating, eg pronation?  Or is it a case of one position suits all?
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

Leif

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #14 on: December 19, 2018, 09:59:53 am »
Well I never...!  So, can they be adjusted to cope with individual skating, eg pronation?  Or is it a case of one position suits all?

The trigger mechanism simply locks the runners (blades) in place. Some people have shims placed between the boot and the holder to correct for pronation etc. And as you know orthotics are available. I have heat mouldable insoles, which support my arches, although the base of my skates is actually moulded to my arches anyway.

Surely part of skating is learning to control your ankles in order to get the correct blade to ice angle?

WednesdayMarch

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #15 on: December 19, 2018, 11:10:23 am »
The trigger mechanism simply locks the runners (blades) in place. Some people have shims placed between the boot and the holder to correct for pronation etc. And as you know orthotics are available. I have heat mouldable insoles, which support my arches, although the base of my skates is actually moulded to my arches anyway.

And to think that I'd always considered the newer style of hockey skates to be glorified death wellies...  ;D  I honestly thought that you must just throw them away and get a new pair when the blades wore out.  Or that maybe the blades didn't really wear out because hockey skaters don't work as hard as figure skaters...  <makes popcorn and waits for reaction>  :D

Surely part of skating is learning to control your ankles in order to get the correct blade to ice angle?

You'd think...

Some people really do require orthotics to correct problems that come from the foot or further up the leg.  It's not just the ankle.  Others, well...   One of the hardest parts of teaching is getting people to concentrate on that ankle control.  Another hard part is getting them to understand that the basis of all skating is edges.  Very few people actually really work on edges before they move on to the more ""exciting" things, such as turns and spins.  Usually it's spins.  Then they forget about the edges once they've been "signed off".  I'm constantly taking people back to edges in order to sort out their three turns.   But that's completely off topic and one of my personal rants!
Returned to the ice in Sept 2017 after a major leg injury in 1999. Skating in Jackson Elite Pro & MK Vision Syncro. Still scary after all these years.

Leif

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Re: Old skates
« Reply #16 on: December 19, 2018, 01:29:23 pm »
And to think that I'd always considered the newer style of hockey skates to be glorified death wellies...  ;D  I honestly thought that you must just throw them away and get a new pair when the blades wore out.  Or that maybe the blades didn't really wear out because hockey skaters don't work as hard as figure skaters...  <makes popcorn and waits for reaction>  :D

Many hockey skaters don't put in the effort to practice skating drills, they just want to play hockey. I am always amazed at how fast figure skaters go, they seem to be elegantly sliding along in their pretty little way (intentional sexist stereotype warning ... ) but in reality they are at warp speed and well beyond Earth's gravitational escape velocity.

Cheap skates are thrown away but they're not supportive enough for hockey. And at the top level apparently boots can wear out in one season, in part because the stench would put Novichok to shame.


You'd think...

Some people really do require orthotics to correct problems that come from the foot or further up the leg.  It's not just the ankle.  Others, well...   One of the hardest parts of teaching is getting people to concentrate on that ankle control.  Another hard part is getting them to understand that the basis of all skating is edges.  Very few people actually really work on edges before they move on to the more ""exciting" things, such as turns and spins.  Usually it's spins.  Then they forget about the edges once they've been "signed off".  I'm constantly taking people back to edges in order to sort out their three turns.   But that's completely off topic and one of my personal rants!

To be honest I wish I'd learnt about edges and done edge drills at the outset, rather than trying to learn complex skills such as hockey stops. What I really like about my new skates is that I can really feel the edges. Oddly enough some good hockey skaters seem not to understand edges. I once did a one foot outside edge hockey stop (sliding forwards with one foot at right angles and on the outside edge) and a really good hockey player told me my skates needed sharpening as I was sliding sideways.  ;D
« Last Edit: December 19, 2018, 01:31:00 pm by Leif »



 

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