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I always try not to... but once the heavy wear areas get exposed I need to twist my own arm to retape.Just finished a game after a new tj (sorry everyone for using that term) and it's all ripped and torn. Like you, I'll do patch work

Power skating lessons from a figure skater really helped me. I am actually thinking of learning honest to goodness figure skating.

Yes. There's a reason why many skating coaches in the NHL are former professional figure skaters. Figure skaters, in broad terms, are very good at controlled mechanics and skating efficiency. (you have to be if you're going to skate for 3-5 plus minutes at full speed, meanwhile doing jumps, spins, etc) A lot of kids, growing up playing hockey only learn to get from point A to point B; who cares how you get there as long as you get there as fast as you can. Figure skaters get from point A to point B as fast as they can, with a great amount of control and efficiency. That's the big difference. I find the biggest issue with learning to figure skate with boys/men is the social stigma, but I see it less in hockey circles now with all these former figure skaters being hockey coaches. But still, there's many who are embarrassed to have themselves or their sons take figure lessons, and sadly a lot of hockey players would greatly benefit from them. There's some great videos on the web that showcase figures skaters dealing with hockey skating mechanics. Here's one with Barbara Underhill improving the efficiency of Brian Boyle's stride: Another of Barbara Underhill doing a demo for hockey coaches: And for fun, here's one with Bret Hedican (who was an excellent skater) and his wife Kristi Yamaguchi, and compared to Yamaguchi, you'd think Hedican couldn't skate. (I know...they're doing moves he's probably never done before and with practice, he'd probably be pretty good at them)