Skate Tips
Sharpening
If you don't like sharp skates, you don't have a guy who knows
how to sharpen skates. I've heard a lot of goalies say they
prefer a dull blade because it's easier to do X thing or exicute Y move.
However the only thing that's predictable about a dull blade is
the lack of bite when you need it. With a sharp skate there is
a certain level of consistancy... if the guy that sharpens your
skates knows the rink conditions, they can even adjust for that
to keep everything consistant. Tell me that you don't like a
sharp skate because it bites too much when you shuffle, they can
fix that... not enough bite when you push off, they can fix that...
you like to use the heal of your skate for control when you're on
the ice, they have a cut for that too, soft ice, hard ice, lack
of balance, you get tired when you stand in one place??? It
might just be how your skates are sharpened. Be warned, trial
and error is how you will determine what's best for you. Taking
more than one set of blades to the rink that have different adjustment
to the way they are sharpened is a good way to compare your options.
Profiles
profile info - goalie skates are more flat on the bottom
than player skates... increased ice surface contact...
stability... 2ndary zones of ice contact... lenght of blade...
height of blade (angle vs ankle stability)...
Hollows
Starting on the left the first skate looking head on at the
toe is showing what a 1 inch hollow looks like, if you look
at your skates they might seem flat across the bottom but
there is actually a little dip in the middle that runs from
front to back (the hollow) the 1 inch is the radius of the
cut... the next skate has a much smaller radius 3/8 inch and
you will notice that the hollow is much deeper in the middle
making the edges taller, sharper, and more easily damaged...
hence when you here them talking about blowing out an edge,
it's that taller pointy part that's breaking off or mashing
down. Now the radius of the hallow has to do with personal
preference, ice conditions and size of the goalie... a good
skate sharpener will be able to tell you the conditions of
the different local rinks, which are hard ice, which are soft
and you can actually have them fine tuned for a specific arena
/ ice type.
Now players normally have this hollow in the middle of the
blade because they use both the insides and outsides of the
blade equally... goalie as we know are special. When you move
the center of the hollow towards the outside of the skate,
and look closely you will notice the edge on the inside is
taller and the outside is much shorter. So now as you go
through the goalies movement and angle the skates it will
cause benefits and draw backs depending on what they are
trying to do.
When looking at a shuffle for example... from the goalies
right to left to. As the right knee comes
in to push off, the right skate angles into the ice and that
taller side
really digs into to get a good push... now if the goalie can
hold the left skate in a vertical position while sliding, the
short side of the blade is all that's offering resistance, it
almost acts like a ramp and pushes the ice with less effort
under the skate allowing him to glide more easily to the
outside. Some goalies like a less sharp skate for this
reason... basically what you are making is a skate with one
side that is less sharp and wont dig in... without having dull skates.
Another perk is you get a little more bite when you are
working on butterfly pushes, t-pushes, anything that uses
that inside blade to push. The draw backs are a lopsided
blade that doesn't glide as nice or straight on the ice...
anything that uses the outside of your blade like skating in
a circles, the foot on the inside of the circle has very
little bite... frankly for a goalie the pros far outweigh the
cons.
Oh and currently we are at about a 5/8" grind with (I think)
about a 10 deg tilt on that blade... they get the offset by
putting the skate in the holder on the grinder tilted to one
side. So you will notice the drawing is not to scale and the
angles are off so you can see the difference more clearly.
If you look hard on your skates after they are done you can
see the difference, but it's not a lot.
Tilt
tilt info - goalie skates don't have as much forward
tilt as player skates... stability... ready position...
potential energy... details in progress...