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I mean...no frills here and this kid seems to be making the most of what he’s got.

Hey Kris, I guess sarcasm doesn't come through in this medium. I was just poking fun at the situation since I essentially got raked over the coals for a post with a similar sentiment. that being said, in all seriousness, the sentence in bold hits home. At this point, it's not even just about development, my kid is kind of depressed right now. He's never had this much time with no ice and it's really getting to him. Skating, just skating, let alone the other stuff is his release and he doesn't have that right now. With regard to your second paragraph, you don't have to justify your position to me. My motives have never been about getting my kid to the NHL, just about giving him the best opportunities to pursue something that makes him happy as far as that takes him (actually both kids, but my son is more passionate about hockey than my daughter, but she's AAA too). I would probably do it if he was a house player. So, you're preaching to the choir. That being said, we intentionally avoided AAA at that age to keep ti fun as long as possible without the stresses that come along with SOME AAAs. That is certainly a personal decision though and if he's made AAA at that age and is having fun, then roll with it (sorry you have to deal with the politics though 😉 My daughter forced us into it by making us go that route now for 12U. Now to your question.... that's a tricky one. At that age, I think good synthetic can be ok. My kids both spent a fair bit of time on it at that age (not ours, sorry, there are limits to my funds) and the time probably helped their development. That being said, if it's about doing things at home, I honestly think inlines would be better. Here are a couple thoughts as to why... 1) My main objective is always about keeping it fun, especially at that age. Being outside in the off season, messing around with friends (or Dad) while playing hockey has a higher fun coefficient than being in the basement on fake ice. 2) Although I commented on keeping the hcokey specific skills as sharp as possible, again at 10, it's a slightly different story to me. There are a lot of really really good hockey players who played roller growing up. In fact, one of my good friends just rollerskated until he was a freshman in high school where he tried out for his high school ice team and ended up going to ice and ultimately AAA and juniors/college. Roller players always seem to have fantastic hands (he does) and it teaches different skating skills than ice (e.g. mohawks and continued movement as oppposed to stops/starts). There are lots of observations that are just that, observations, not hard data. Anyway, at 10, I think developing more diverse abilities is still important. The "bad habits" that come from roller are actually broader development skills which contribute to greater tools to call on later when on ice. 3) Getting back to 1) putting in 2 hr in the driveway with friends will develop skills (hands and skating) more than 30 - 60 min doing more specific things in the basement. To USA Hockey's ADM point, the former would be akin spending hours on the pond, which kids don't do any more. It would develop vision, creativity etc etc etc...... Anyway, if I had unlimited funds, I'd probably do both. If I'm debating between synthetic in the basement and good inlines for the driveway, I'd probably go with inlines to keep it fun and develop more things than just very specific skating/on-ice skills. That's my $0.02, I guess. Good luck and enjoy the journey.

His kids' 10 and nobody's going to hammer him about worrying too much about skating in the off season? Sheesh....

Tacki Mac Pro Ribbed aka Kane grip. It's the thinnest version with the smallest knob and provides good feel, reduces glove wear and is much cheaper than other non-tape options. Edit: the rocketgrip looks exactly like sniper skin https://www.prohockeylife.com/collections/hockey-stick-grips/products/fox40-sniper-skin-hockey-stick-grips?variant=21193324789837

Thanks all. Maybe I lost my mind for a bit. Hockey doomsday prepping. LOL! I tend to overthink stuff, just ask my wife. For now I have some roller hockey skates on the way in the right size (we had to stretch his ice boots at the end of the season to get the last month or so out of them). I tried some adjustable size recreational rollerblades that he was not digging, I think the extended wheelbase made them feel like skis compared to what he is used to. If he is really uncomfortable in the new roller hockey skates... I'll explore the Marsblades and some Vapor boots. If all else fails... I'll look at Can-Ice.

I've heard the NBA is eyeing July 15th or August 1st

Gotcha, makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. Looks great btw

I chose 6-32 T-Nuts to limit the size of the holes in the outsole, and because they are more than strong enough. I suggest you get truss head screws since the head has a bigger diameter and negates the need to add washers which I would recommend if you used typical machine screws with smaller heads. If you can get stainless steel screws and/or T-Nuts, that would be a plus to avoid rust but not a must. I also felt that the pitch didn't match my ice holders so I added a shim on the heel as you can see as the white piece of plastic in this photo.

For indoor inline I either tape like I normally would for ice and then use an exacto knife to cut off the bottom strip of tape (I cut carefully along both sides of the blade a touch about the bottom and then peel off the bottom strip) or I'll just put a few horizontal strips of overlapping tape across the front and back if I'm feeling too lazy to use the exacto knife. I hate the feeling of tape on the bottom of the stick for inline, but some people actually play like that. Outdoors it wears off very quickly and then feels usable, but on a smooth indoor surface it won't really wear off and I definitely notice the increased friction. Bottom line; I think you're fine taping as usual if you don't mind spending a little time with the extra friction, but when you retape you could get rid of the bottom strip of tape before even using it.

I have always had my conversions done at a LHS with rivets, but the key for a Sprung mount is that the chassis needs to be mounted 1/4" more to the rear of the boot (with most other chassis the mount is centered). You can find the full installation instructions here: https://modsquadhockey.com/forums/topic/65472-sprung-question/?do=findComment&comment=994730 There's also this thread about converting inlines that mentions the use of t-nuts https://modsquadhockey.com/forums/topic/44573-how-to-do-a-ice-to-roller-conversion/?do=findComment&comment=652410

Howdy, Ok, I ordered a True A6.0SBP shaft with a Sherwood T20 ABS PP26 blade from IW. $102 total If this is stupid, someone tell me and I'll call them and change it. 🙂 Mark