Vet88

If you can resolve it that would be much appreciated, thank you for your response.

Well this sucks, the seller (in Australia) will not ship to New Zealand because they say it is in breach of their distribution licence even though no one sells your product here in New Zealand. And Canada is one of the most expensive places in the world for int'l shipping so it looks like I will have to pass until someone I know next visits the States. Shame as I had lined up a lot of players to try this.

I have just purchased some twin packs from your Australian agent, will post an update when they get here as I have a bunch of players who want to try them. All up, if they work as stated I think they will be a great and necessary tool to have in the bag. Initially I'll be using them as an edge "renewer" between sharpens and then will be seeing how long I can go before I need to do a sharpen on the machine. I skate between 15 - 20 hours each week so I currently machine sharpen twice a week. Do you have a recommendation for the number of passes in different circumstances? Yes I know that is a loaded question because of the different pressures people will apply but say you just want to refresh an edge, one light pass per side, or two etc (based on your experience)?

You can get those and others on android, just search in the play store. For example I've used CoachNow on a Nokia Sirrocco phone and the slow mo is good at 8:1, you can add feedback etc and then post to the space or group or player you are working with. If you want to clip the vid I use Lightworks on a pc and then can post to a lot of different media, it's free and does just about everything you would ever want to do when editing.

and if that screw ever locks up, how are you going to lever against it to get it to move??? At least with the Bauer trigger you could turn something against it and force it to move. Not that I'm against it btw, but a few years of wear and tear (if a puck hits it hard enough I think you would be screwed....) and there could be some potential operational issues.

I have always used superfeet and these stayed in when I went lace free. However recently I left them at home by mistake and had to borrow some flat insoles from a rental boot, I didn't notice that much difference. I also use powerfeet inserts and I believe these definitely help as they provide some lock for your forefoot. Other than that everything else is stock standard retail. Muscle strength and recovery has a lot to do with how well you skate on any given day. Even after all the practice I have done, yesterday I was in a 2 hour scrimmage with only 2 on the bench, today I found it really hard to keep my form correct. Tiredness has much more of an impact when lace free than laced up.

There isn't a lot of difference from 1 - 3 down, the boot is still supporting the ankle relatively well and the foot is still locked in. Given his age and the speed they learn at and that he was off and skating ok at 3 down I'd leave him there. That's where he is now beginning to hit some walls and he needs to work at these skills along with everything else that will rebuild / retune his base memory muscle control. As you drop eyelets heading towards lace free you will hit these walls all the time over the next few years, don't get discouraged about this. Just cast your mind back to what you were doing 3 or 6 months ago and realise how far you have come in that time. These walls stay there until you are lace free, going flat out and skating with control, only at that point does it start to go away. Even if it is just for your own satisfaction, I really do recommend that you take a video of him skating now and then again every 3 months or so. It gives you and him visual comparison points and these are really important in reinforcing what he is doing. On another note, if you ever put him in inlines later on I'd be willing to bet that he will notice very little difference (other than stopping) if he skates in them laces untied. Your body finds a natural balance point when the heel isn't jammed into the pocket and it doesn't matter if you are in ice or inline boots, the transition is relatively easy. As for your pronating foot, I know what you are going thru. I had to rebuild mine after surgery, you are having to relearn how to "walk" (ie skate) on that foot and get all the body alignment working properly. But it is worth the effort and there is, for me, almost no better feeling on the ice than when you find that deep outside edge. 2 foot slaloms are good, also skating in a tight circle (i do this with the stick and lean on the stick so it partially holds me up) and really concentrate on supinating on the outside edge, you want to go past the point of control (have your foot collapse on the ice) so you learn where the limit is and then keep pushing towards that limit.

Practices are next level hard compared to free skate, you are having to react to the puck (when it doesn't do what you want) and other players. This means edge transitions and until he begins to gain real control over his outside ankle muscles this edge transition is hard to do "at will". It comes, it just takes time. On the plus side he is young and will get there quick, 8 is a great age for him to be doing this. And if he wants to see someone actually training with laces undone, have him watch this: Wally Kozak knows his stuff, one of the most respected Canadian coaches out there.

Yes, that is right. He needs to find his optimal eyelet down point for games. For practices you want to try and mix it up, start practice with eyelets dropped then at some point during the practice lace back up to game mode eg at the end when they have a mini game / scrimmage. Keep working at dropping an eyelet every few months or so, his ultimate goal is to be able to practice with laces fully undone / none. You may need to talk to his coach so they understand what you are trying to achieve because there will be a performance hit as he practices this way until his skill set improves.

- As the ankle folds inwards, your weight transfers slightly forward. It's not your profile, it's your body finding a different balance point when taking into account the pronation. Your weight will transfer back towards the heel as you keep training, your alignment over the blade improves and your muscles strengthen / become more coordinated..You will be able to monitor this yourself as you do inside edge drills, the right will sound a little more thin and reedy compared to the left. - If you want a fantastic calf workout skate backwards for about 30 minutes with laces undone, it really loads the calves up. At first your heel will want to lift but as you keep practising your skating style will change and the heel lift will become much more reduced and eventually vanish. Backward crossovers are a very good way to load up the inside edge of the pronating foot and build strength. Because you are a little bit more balanced over the forefoot / mid section of the foot, the arch takes a lot more load. Any weakness there (typical of most pronators) means the ankle will fold inwards much more easily than skating forward. You have to focus really hard on keeping the ankle straight. - Sore muscles means your body is doing what it is meant to, using your muscles to stabilise the ankle / foot instead of relying on the boot and pulling the knee into the correct alignment. Congratulations, first steps to rebuilding your skating muscle memory. When you get to the 4th+ eyelet down then things start to get really interesting as you lose most of the boot ankle support. Keep at it. Also consider video taping your progress, you will see how it can make you a much smoother skater as your muscles start to optimise your skating style. If you want a control drill to validate how much things are changing, try one foot slaloms, if you can generate full power into both edges whilst doing 1 foot slaloms with no laces then you have nailed it. It will also allow you to track how much the right is improving compared to the left

Creating a pocket in the heel for a bump is really hard to do unless you have the right tools or the material on the inside of the heel has enough thickness to make a pocket. If not the latter (first skates I dd this on were pro spec apx2's that had very thin inner heel material), the heel is a very reinforced, circular area and it takes a lot of pressure to make it move. Typical punches don't work because they actually push the outer area of the punch inwards in the heel whilst you get a little bit of movement in the middle of the punch ergo no result. You need a punch that is shaped liked the heel for the punch to work or you can do this: I made a frame that clamped and locked the boot into the middle of it and attached another frame that sat outside the quarter panel where I wanted the punch to occur. Then I used a c clamp to pull the heel area at that spot out with heat added. You need a lot of pressure to get the heel to move so you have to be careful here with the heat and pressure or else you can distort the shape of the heel. This worked ok but it is a slow process. I now have access to a 3D printer and I print up a punch according to the boot size, heel shape and position of the punch. Good luck with the tissue process but I wouldn't be holding my breath, heat and pressure will most likely give you the best result.

Get them punched, as long as the lhs knows what it is doing it shouldn't be a problem. I have punched dozens of skates for an ankle pocket closer to the eyelets.

My AS1's are the same, the rivet pulls the sole down and the spaces in between are at the original height.

Then it sounds like the insert is digging into the forefoot area. These inserts are also a pita if you want to skate lace free, the tongue flop causes them to dig into the area of the foot just behind the toes so you need to skate with laces in but untied. The laces won't pull thru the lace lock regardless of how you tighten on either side of the lock. There are a number of reasons why speed hooks aren't allowed. They are a projection on the skate and could cause physical damage if they come into contact with another player. They will break if a puck hits them or you run into the boards, now your lace is coming loose and there are bits of metal either pinging around the ice or driven into your foot........ It is much easier to trip someone if your blade catches under the speed hook, they are trying to keep players on their feet, not off them.

Because they make mistakes, even after repeated attempts at remakes. He has every right to be concerned. What I don't get is why the customer is not more involved in the "remake" process, surely True want to get it right next time??? How hard would it be for True to tell you "we are going to do this, this and this, do you agree?" and the customer signs off on it. I'd rather have the remake take a little bit longer because of extra communication than have it done asap. But maybe that's just me showing my age and preferring to "do it once, do it right." Instead the remake disappears into a black hole and you just hope to god it comes out the other side ok. And to give True their credit, most of the time it does as long as the information they are receiving is correct AND correctly acted upon. But when it goes amiss you end up in situation like smu is in and its still not right after 3 attempts.

2 laces work but if you want to use one lace buy these or similar: https://www.hockeyworld.com/Reebok-Skate-Lock But it still means you can't lace up tight in the upper area, if you want to do that buy some eyelet extenders from here : http://www.greatsaves.org/skate_lace_extenders.html I'm not a great fan of these as they don't use eyelets in the lace holes (so I make my own) but they will stop your lace bite. Changing the tongue for something thinner may also work. Gel pads, lacing patterns and anything else that is inserted over the tendon (other than a Forsberg pad) is generally just a waste of time. You have to get the pressure OFF the tendon, end of story.

Avision have a new Zero Plus combo mask coming out soon, full 3" lens. It doesn't look the lightest but you will know it is rock solid in protection and the lens they use is good and the anti fog works well. http://hockeyfaceshields.com/

Hmm, he should be alright with that but maybe the tongue just doesn't suit him. A thinner tongue may work but if he wants to keep skating for now you need to ease the pressure on the tendon. I'd make him a forsberg pad for each foot (pm me if you don't know how) and get him to wear them for the next 6 weeks. that should give the tendon time to heal. In the meantime consider changing the tongue and or buying eyelet extenders. These are your simplest, get a result options that will also allow him to continue to skate.

Does he fail the pencil test across the 3 and 4th eyelets?

There isn't any way I can answer this fully in a short sentence or 2 so my apologies for the following post but I want to give you as much background that I think is relevant about this. It's something you CAN and SHOULD do but like anything in life, it's a matter of degrees. If you just want to be a weekend warrior and turn up and play a game or two then I'd say going lace free isn't for you. Be it work, cost or whatever reason that limits you to the occasional skate per week, it's not that you couldn't do it but the time you need to put in to get the results isn't available to you. Instead buy the best skates you can afford, lace up and go play and enjoy yourself. That's the paradox going on today: current skates will make you skate better but they will not "teach" you to skate better. If you want to be the best skater you possibly can be and you have time to train / skate then going lace free is one of the best, if not the best, training tool you will ever use. Why? Because quite simply there is no hiding any technical issues when you skate lace free. In today's ultra stiff boots, you have very little feeling and response coming from your feet once the boot is laced up. Ergo poor technique is just reinforced because there are no penalties as you skate (other than the blue line rising up and causing you to fall every now and then), you just don't realize you are doing it. And a coach could yell at you till they are blue in the face but if you don't feel it or understand what is going on under your feet, you are never going to get it. Skate lace free and you feel everything: you falling off the edge, how deep or shallow the edge is, where the center point of the blade is under your feet, how a subtle weight shift changes the pressures in your feet as you put more weight into the heel. Every single little nuance that effects how you skate feeds up into the brain and from this your muscle memory can be properly built. We are designed to do everything as energy efficient as we possibly can and when your brain realizes your feet are falling inwards on you as you accelerate or turn then it sets about trying to do it as efficiently as possible. Now leg and body alignment start to come into play as your brain attempts to get everything in a straight line from the blade at the bottom of your feet to the top of your head. Once your alignment issues start to get sorted and your base muscle memory gets established, you can then start working on power, edge transitions and speed. Is it for everyone? Again that's an answer with degrees. I've trained skaters who have near enough natural perfect alignment, they don't get a lot out of it and it's more about fine tuning and tweaks. But these skaters are 1 in 1000, the other 999 all need help. Are you one of the 999? It's easy enough to work out, undo your laces and just go for a gentle skate around the rink. ANYONE CAN DO THIS. If you feel unstable or unbalanced and or feel your feet falling inwards as you accelerate or cross over or turn then yes, you will benefit from skating lace free. How much you improve from this point can only be determined by you and the time and effort you put in.And if you do start, I wouldn't ask you to go lace free straight away. Drop one eyelet, tie your laces and skate. Keep dropping eyelets until it becomes uncomfortable. Stop there and practice like this for a few months then as you start to get used to it, drop another eyelet. Keep going until eventually you can take your laces out, that is if you want to go that far. A lot of players will just take the first 4 eyelets out and skate with laces as loose as they can. Is it for use in games? Simple answer is no but the work you put in skating lace free will improve your skating ability and this will flow thru when you lace up. And lets be really clear about one thing: lacing up will make you skate better, faster, sharper etc. Is it proven? Go ask the Soviets and other European countries who have used it for years. Ask just about any pro and they will have either used it or heard about it, whether or not they used it is generally dependent on the coaching systems they were in. A friend of mine was in Prague a while ago for the worlds figure champs, he wandered next door one morning (to a 2 rink complex) and watched the Czech and Finnish national teams (who were in town for a iihf tournament) run through their 2 hour morning practice with every player on the ice skating laces undone. At a training session I ran last year one of the attendees was an ex russian player plus his son. His son is 8 years old, has been skating since he was 2 and has never worn laces for training. His skating ability was off the chart.

So the ones he is wearing are the ones the 3D scan suggested?

and whenever someone says to me you can't skate lace free, I show them this - and no it's not me although in a few more years I will have about the same hairline lol, I wish my edges were this deep, just not quite there yet. aka Darryl Evans.

You mean so the skates stay on your feet? If they fit well enough they will stay on,if they are falling off as you stride then the fit is poor (and this is one of the reasons why I always asked players to pull the laces out of the boots when trying them on for fit) and or your stride technique isn't the best. If they aren't staying on, leave the laces in up till the 3rd or 4th eyelet down but untied. They will naturally hold the tongue in place which will keep the skates on your feet. However the difference between skating with a tongue siting on the top of your foot held in place by untied laces and skating with no laces is night and day. Note though, hard acceleration forward and backward will generally cause the heel to lift until your skating style adapts and you become more neutrally balanced. There is no reason why you couldn't use velcro, it's just that I have never had the need to even when I train in skates that are 2 sizes too big for me.I suppose if you were to use velcro then the bottom of the heel or under the sides of the ankle would be the logical place.

Short term the answer is no, long term the answer is maybe. think about it. Lace bite is inflammation of the tendon, it is micro damage of the tendon caused by the pressure of the laces and when the body cannot heal the damage quick enough inflammation and pain occur, ergo lace bite. Is a thicker tongue going to give more space and reduce the pressure on the tendon? This is also why gel pads generally don't work, do they reduce or increase the pressure on the tendon? So whist he has lace bite then a thicker tongue generally isn't the answer on it's own. If he is going to rest until the tendon has healed then a thicker tongue "may" be enough to slow down the micro damage allowing the body to heal between skates and not have lace bite appear. These are the guaranteed ways to stop lace bite that I know of. 1: Buy a boot that has enough volume. Hard to do in a retail skate that will also fit well everywhere else so you then have to consider the custom route. 2: Forsberg pads, make your own out of 1/2" pipe insulation. They work but the hassle is you have to tape them onto your ankle every time you skate. Note - gel pads that attach to the tongue and have a deep enough channel will also work but getting them fixed correctly in place on the tongue and making sure they stay there and that the tongue doesn't move is a hard ask. 3: Eyelet extenders, either buy them or make your own out of 5mm leather. 4: Option B laces, they work because they spread the pressure of the lace over a greater area but generally players will not wear them because of their appearance. 5: Don't lace up the last 3 or 4 eyelets or go lace free (this is what I do). 6: Stop skating....... Anything else is just window dressing the problem, yes this is a poke at those who think changing your lacing pattern is the fix. You MUST get the pressure off the tendon, end of story.

If you haven't seen it before, here are the options you have for custom ccm (thanks to Nicholas G for posting this): https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3A99faf809-3ff8-4da8-9215-a99efb416702