Vet88

Anyone tried these? https://www.gelstx.com/Hockey.html

+1 on this. My step brother is part of the Kings organisation and the same thing is happening there. If it's happening at 2 organisations then you can bet your house on it happening all over the league.

It's really an admission that previous Bauer steel was crap. Now Bauer think they have a competing product with their Pulse range it will be interesting to see what the pros think of it. Is Bauer really going to say no to the pro who wants to stay with Step? Bauer skates with aftermarket (eg Step) holders would be a marketing nightmare.

The zero plus senior from https://hockeyfaceshields.com/ I'm waiting for the senior version to be released. I've talked to a couple of guys who tested them and they say they are as good as Boulder claim.

+1 for this, as high speed as possible then slowmo it, this will tell you if it's hardware related or technique. Ideally try to catch him head on or from behind as he wipes out, you are wanting to look at the angles of the feet / knee / hips / core / shoulders / head.

They should have done an ultrasound (as well as the xray), that will show any tears or disruption / inflammation to the lcl or surrounding tissue. An mri is the next level of resolution if the ultrasound and xray cannot identify the issue.

I don't have access to that anymore and our Bauer in country ordering is done out of Europe. Hopefully someone local to you will read this and be able to guide you to a US or Canada online source.

There are 2 widths you can get in a skate, the forefoot width and the heel width. Retail skates have a set heel width which is why the sizing is only D or E, customs can be ordered with a separate forefoot width and heel width (or should be able to eg Bauer custom ordering process where you specify the heel width you want).

It was for FT2 customs.

Making material move inwards is never a good idea, it has memory and any outward pressure on it always makes it want to move back out. But material that is small in the first place resists outward movement a lot more. If I want a narrow heel that is where I want to start, not something that is oversized and then squeezed downward to fit.

Something I have just seen that came from CCM. If you want a narrow heel then CCM customs may not be your best bet, CCM no longer make heel sizes under a D width. So if you want a B or a C etc heel width then you are sol. I'm willing to stand corrected but this came direct from CCM.

These: https://www.icewarehouse.com/Drymax_Hockey_Skate_Socks/catpage-DRYMAXSOCK.html They tick every box I think you are after, they are one of their best sellers and my favourite after I tried nearly everything IW sell.

How is anyone going to be able to comment on this without seeing you skate? You say they didn't hurt when you walked in them at home but did when you skate (in specific circumstances). These are 2 completely different scenarios, at home and standing still most people will supinate in the skate, they pull it more under their hip for balance and the foot muscles are doing very little work. However when skating this can turn into a pronation and the foot muscles are working overtime during the stride. How your general bio mechanics work are specific to you, it's something you could work out yourself but you have said in another thread you want something fast to get on the ice as opposed to working on it by dropping eyelets. I think your best solution is to find someone like a reputable figure skating coach who understands skating bio mechanics to look at you whilst you skate and figure out what may be wrong. Then you can go from there and address each point they raise to see if it makes things better for you.

Does his 70k skates have 10 or 11 eyelets? Retail version have 10 so if he is skipping the 10th eyelet it means he either has custom facings or it's something like the 50k facing on a 70k frame?

Regardless of how the skate fits, the fit does not correct your bio mechanics.Lets say you pronate, a perfect fitting skate will straighten your ankle and help to reduce the amount it pronates but your foot STILL wants to pronate in the skate. Over time the pressure the foot places against the inner wall will eventually cause the inner rear quarter of the skate to open up, which allows the foot to rotate a little more, which places more pressure on the inner rear wall etc etc. A self fullfilling prophecy. Also a skate with extra stiffness causes other issues, even with a perfect fit. Your foot still wants to pronate but it is now leaning up against an unforgiving wall and keeps banging against this with every step you take. I have seen many examples where this has lead to blisters and irritated tendons. You either adjust the skate to suit your bio mechanics or you retrain as I have done and many others are successfully doing, the skate itself doesn't fix anything.

It's not the strength, it's the alignment. This muscle memory transfers over to playing games laced up. Red Dog hockey is also doing the same thing, it just takes a different approach.

The following is from the other side of the fence, something I doubt very few of you have ever seen. Pardon the length but it's relevant. Around a month ago I was at the rink training during a public skate (I adjust my work day so I can skate during the day). A family turned up, the 2 boys hopped on the ice. One of them came up to me and asked for some tips on how to skate. I took one look at how he was standing and thought hmm, this could be interesting. He was from New Caledonia and on holiday visiting our country, ice skating was on the bucket list. He had never skated / skateboard / ski in anything before yet there he stood in crappy plastic / no edge / blunt rink rentals and he was balanced perfectly over the skates. 1 hour later and he could: cross over both sides, 2 foot stop both sides, had an outside edge on corners (the first time I showed him his outside edge he got so deep he fell into it and to the ice) and we were working on his backward crossovers when he had to go. This kid was skating dna on steroids. It didn't matter what I showed him, he got it immediately. To him it was as natural as walking. If I could have signed him up I would have on the spot. He was skating better in one hour than other skaters I know who have been skating for years. Why? Because he was perfectly aligned over the skates blades. It wasn't his skates, it wasn't his strength, it wasn't his skating skill set, it was all down to how naturally he was aligned and balanced over the skate blades. Very rarely do you see someone like this and I have coached thousands of skaters over the years. So the next time you go for a skate in your 2S Pros or you are having a debate as to which stiffness of skate you should buy, have a think about about where your skating ability really sits. As I said in my first post, it's not about the skate.....

No, you wouldn't skate unlaced in a game. If you read my comments, I have always said that skating laced up provides more support and allows you to skate better. Boot stiffness is part of this. To reiterate - why train laces undone? Primarily balance, to develop your balance over the skate blade at ALL times, for every move you make - ergo deeper edges, tighter turns. Get this right and then you get maximum power into the blade - ergo more speed. You also build a broader muscle memory set, this allows you to control the skate better thru any type of position or play you may get involved in.

Prior to this research I am in I'd have agreed with you. Recently we added an observation test because of a request from a podiatrist. It's an observation only with very limited parameters but I think what it alludes to is important enough to be explored in it's own. What he wanted to see was what impact the muscle training had on skates that had holders in a different position to the control skate. 5 of us skated in a blind test with no laces (straight line one and two foot glides only that were measured with video analysis) using a range of skates from CCM and Bauer that had been randomly selected. The instant we stood on the ice we could immediately tell if the holder deviated left or right from our control skate, regardless of brand of skate we were in. Laser measurement of the skate then confirmed the observations. However the most pertinent observation was that the longer we spent in the skate the less the holder deviation mattered, until after around 20 minutes of skating you basically forgot about it. Note that holder deviation was less than 2mm to either side. In a nutshell - the podiatrist proposed that because there is no boot support, the holder alignment - to a point - isn't as critical for body alignment. With the ability for the foot and ankle to adapt to the holder position, this reduces the knee and hip deviation from the center line. The video analysis supported this. This is an observation only, it requires a proper project to evaluate it correctly but based on our experience so far I do not disagree with his theory. If you train with laces undone the holder position becomes less important, the critical component is the activation of your muscle groups to control the skate blade without any boot support. I'd like to take this further. For skaters that have medium to severe pronation, I'd like to test the impact on moving the holder outward, not inward. What happens to the muscle groups when an unlaced skater is forced to over compensate, how the range of holder deviation impacts on alignment, how does it change the foot structure and muscle strength, changes to knee and hip alignment etc etc. But this is for another day and another project. Ideally the holder position would always be centered for a skater (sorry CCM and Bauer but I think there is something really amiss in your manufacturing process when it seems every skate you make has the holder in a different position relative to the center line of the skate) but for most people and LHS's / online stores this is just a dream with how skates are currently made. However skating with laces undone does appear to allow the body to compensate for holder alignment to a degree.

Try this - lace up and go for a skate and concentrate on what your feet are telling you. My bet is it is bugger all, you aren't getting any feedback from the blade and the way it is working under your foot. Now go for a skate with your laces undone, every little twist, edge, catch in the ice is felt. We are genetically designed to do anything as energy efficient as we possibly can BUT... the brain has to know what is going on so it can work out how to be energy efficient. Laced up and you are still skating so the brain thinks this is ok, the only thing it's got to compare with is how you walk and run, it knows no different. Unlaced and now your muscles are having to work to not only control your balance over the blade but also how you put power INTO the blade - this part is really important. Maximum transfer of energy without the crutch of the boot. Your foot can't fold, you will feel it immediately. Your alignment straightens up, it has to as your brain demands it because it now knows what it is costing you to skate unbalanced over the blade. I skate every day, 1 - 2 hours a day (and always with no laces) so it's hard for me to give a figure for someone who skates once or twice a week. But skaters I have coached show literally immediate results during a single lesson. Yes, you are skating slow but the way you start balancing over the blade is immediately noticeable. That wobble is important, your brain is now working out how to use your muscles in the most efficient manner to control the edge. Every time you skate you are improving. Video yourself, especially from front or behind so you can see how your blade starts to straighten up under your foot. For those who are fortunate to have skating dna then this will be just a tune up but for the other 95% of the population out there (that is the number who pronate / supinate / have alignment issues) then this becomes a revelation. there is always something in the way you skate that needs improving and skating with laces undone brutally exposes it. For me one of the key things about this is it isn't dependent on the skate you are in, a coach who is training you or even how long you have skated. It's all about you, your body alignment and how well you can control the skate blade. Teach yourself with built in auto correction (your brain).

When I started I was slow as hell, any attempt to stride out caused my heel to lift. I used to lace all the way up for games. Over time the way my feet worked in the boot changed and my push became much smoother, harder and flatter and my heel stopped lifting. I now prefer to skate laces untied over laced up, as others have commented it becomes about as natural as walking. Performance wise it's been bloody hard, pushing hard and feeling your ankles collapse under you is really really frustrating but over time my ankle has got stronger and my control of the blade has improved to the point I can now go flat out with no laces and no thoughts about heel lock etc The 4 eyelets lock my forefoot into place, provides a little more stability and is game compliant (once I managed to get the national head ref controller to approve it). But I do wear skate fenders, the space where the tongue lifts out of the boot and leaves the foot exposed is not something I will risk in a game..

And I had this discussion a while ago with other coaches at a seminar. It's not in US LTP programme, we have never heard about it, that's not what I was taught etc etc are the excuses. Me - Why are you telling the to tie their laces tight? Reply - Oh, because it makes them more stable. Me - Yes - but it doesn't fix the problem..... Yet ask them about a skater who drops 1 eyelet. this is perfectly acceptable. What about a skater who drops 2? Or 3? Or 4? When does this become "I've never heard of that"? Tell that to the young elite NHL skaters coming thru atm and are dropping eyelets. Bottom line is you either give it a go or not, I'm not trying to sell anyone snake oil here or ask you to sign up for a service or training programme or try to take your money. It's free advice based on hard experience and been involved in a (so far) 3 year long varsity research project looking into specifically this issue. And this is the consistent thing, the deniers are those who have NEVER tried it yet everyone who I have had try it (from beginner to experienced) has never said it didn't help..The degrees of improvement are based on your bio mechanics..

Yes, it's a training technique, not a game situation. Putting aside the safety risk, IIHF rules state you must have laces but you can tie them in any manner you want (this includes how many eyelets you may want to lace up, I only do the bottom 4 now for games). When you first start you may feel like your skates are going to come off, especially when you try to accelerate (heel is lifting out of the pocket). However over time your body learns to readjust and stop doing "walking / running" motions with the feet and do ice skating specific motions. Your skating becomes much more smoother. I often train with skates 2 sizes too big for me (no heel lock, very sloppy fit) and no laces, specifically for proprioception training, it's all in the stride.

And you touch on a valid point. Ask someone who has never had a problem in their skates about pronation or feet that don't feel right in the skates or why I can't stop on one side etc etc and 99% of the time they just look at you blankly. They can't understand why you have issues. As the saying goes, "what you don't know you don't know".It's just your skates, you need to skate more, you need a deeper hollow and so it goes Lets look at a another sport, running. There is a huge industry built around addressing your bio mechanics as you run, even for the casual runner of once or twice a week. Most decent shops that sell running shoes will offer a gait analysis process in store and suggest fixes such as orthotics or different shoes to what you were looking at / using. Ice skates are much more complex yet what does the ice hockey world do about this? Zilch. Except those who actually know it is problem (@OldTrainerGuy and the work he does to make sure the skates you have purchased will work for you). It's a general industry problem and if it doesn't get addressed when you purchase the skates you carry on blissfully unaware of the issue until it begins to bite you in the ass with lace bite, sore feet, bunions, bumps, etc and why you still suck at skating 2 years later yet the guy next to you who started at the same time is light years ahead of you.....

I'm a level 2 certified coach, been coaching ice and inline for 15 years. But I didn't invent this, other much better qualified coaches than me have done this. For example look at this . Wally Kozak is one of the most respected coaches out there.