Accuracy of these factory blades however can vary depending on the blade manufacturing process. In order to find out what profile is currently on your blades, there are a couple different tools that can be used:. The exact center point of your blade rocker lowest point of the blade is referred to as the balance point. It is most common for the balance point to be in the center, but the balance point can be moved towards the toe or heel of the blade to change the pitch or lean of the skater.
Profiling for goalie skates is a relatively new service available to the general public. Goalies who play in the pros have had access to limited goalie-specific profiles for quite some time. The needs of a goalie differ significantly from those of a forward or defenseman, but most shops in the retail environment do not have the expertise and equipment necessary to meet the needs of a modern goaltender. A hockey skate profile is measured as the radius of an imaginary circle illustrated below, typically in feet.
If you were to draw a large circle with a 9-foot radius and then match the side profile of the steel to that circle, you would create a 9-foot radius profile on that steel. Goalies have a large profile to provide a flatter surface, whereas youth skates for players require a much smaller radius.
This is a stark change from the old days where goalies wanted their steel as flat as possible. Goaltending techniques have significantly shifted over the years, and extreme mobility has become the pinnacle of the position. How could they possibly select a skate profile that is best for you and everyone else who buys the same skate? My friend is a lb defenseman, and I am a lb forward who loves to fly through center ice, and we both wear a size 10 skate.
We use very different profiles, of course! Fun fact: your skate profile is not the same as it was. Your left and right skates are probably not even the same. Pictured above is a tool that is used for measuring the skate profile.
This particular blade has just over a 15 foot profile as indicated by the dial gauge. It uses two calibrated pins along a beam with a micrometer in the middle. A flat line would show both pins and the micrometer as having zero difference along the flat plane. The distance in the middle between the two pins shows us an average radius.
Surprisingly, we see significant variations even on new skates due to manufacturing tolerances. Proper skating technique says that the skater should always be directly over the middle of the blade. Speed skaters have no toe or heel to roll onto. Figure skaters have a toe pick up front and a square heel, neither of which they can skate on. Hockey players want the speed of a speed skater and the agility of a figure skater.
There is 3 possible solutions: 1 bend knees more and straighten back, 2 undo top eyelet of skate, or 3 move rocker point towards the heel. Many skaters complain of their skates not being sharp enough. A very deep hollow is not always the best answer for this problem. Technically sound skaters, Paul Coffey for instance, skate on 1.
The best method to solve this problem is to increase the amount of blade making contact with the ice. Be cautious of those who attempt to profile skates by hand. The very essence of profiling a skate is to have the exact same amount of blade making contact with the ice throughout the entire skateable area.
You might now be asking what a radius is and that is totally normal. A radius, in math terms, is the length of a line segment from the center of a circle to its perimeter. Simply put, the longer a radius the bigger the circle. Whether you're a recreational player or professional, an optimized radius will improve your on ice performance.
Depending on the profile you choose it can help with acceleration, more straight away speed, a quicker turning radius and increased agility - and there are additional benefits like greater stability and even a reduction muscle fatigue.
Increasing the amount of steel on the ice would increase the gliding speed you could achieve but decrease your turning ability.
Going with a shorter radius on the front and a longer on the back is a way of splitting the difference. Close search. Shop Sticks. Player Sticks. Goalie Sticks. Stick Components.
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