puckpilot

I encourage you to stick to your guns. The good news is you know it isn't just you or your kid. And at least your kid knows you got his back, and you know he still loves hockey. Don't know what's going to happen as you move up the food chain, but the nuclear option is probably being really frank about the coach with the higher ups, and if that falls on deaf ears, tell them either you kid gets moved or your kid sits out. Because sending a kid into a crappy situation like that is not a healthy option. Also, I know this is going to sound sneaky, but I'd start recording phone conversations if possible, just so you don't get into a he-said-she-said situation.

Ummmm wtf is with that coach? To give a different view of things, my nephew is a couple years ahead of your kid, and he's on the rep A team, with paid coaches, which I believe is about as high as you can go. All last year I took him to practice at least once a week--he has three a week on top of games--and I saw kids mess up drills all the time, and I've never seen or heard of the coach yell at a kid for doing so. If a kid keeps messing up the drill, the coach stops and explains it to the kid. If they still don't get it, the coach has them sit out and watch those who do understand run through a few times. That usually fixes things. Usually at the end of practice, the coach has a mini game drill as a treat for the kids to keep things fun. Though, I've heard my nephew talk about bag skates after games in which they didn't listen to the coach and didn't do well. But my nephew hasn't ever complained about having to going to the rink, so I'm sure bag skate doesn't mean what it typically means. After games, the coach has a private talk with the team before parents are allowed in. Regardless of win or lose, I've never gone into the dressing room and felt that the kids were beat down. They're always laughing, even if they blew a 4 goal lead in the third. I don't know what your options are, but if you can shift your kid to another team, that might be a good thing. When my nephew was your son's age, the focus was more on skills development so everyone got to play different positions. There weren't any systems. Now this isn't to say, I didn't see other teams play systems, but I didn't see the point. Any way, my 2 cents. It's worth what you paid. And best of luck to you and your kid.

FYI, there are 55 flex intermediates. Also, how tall are you? I'm 5'5 and I use 52" junior sticks. Some of them I add plugs to. Some are just perfect uncut. Just recently with True and with Bauer's 2N pro, the 50 flex junior sticks are made long. True's sticks are 54" and the new 2N pro is 53". Generally intermediate sticks are around 57" uncut. In addition with the 2N, the blade size and shaft dimensions are the same as an intermediate stick. As far as I know, this is the only junior stick that's like this. The rest have smaller shaft dimensions. Some significantly smaller, others, like CCM only slightly.

It's all personal preference. But there's always give and takes. A lower lie may help you keep your blade flatter, but it may make it more difficult to get your weight over the stick to take a shot. Etc. With that said, there's a simple solution to getting all of your blade on the ice without changing your lie or the length of your stick. Simply rotate your wrist and close the blade face. When you catch a pass, you really don't want your blade to be completely vertical. You want to close the blade and cup it. My 2 cents.

Was at stick and puck today and saw some guys wearing VH skates. One of them had their laces wrapped around the ankles, strangling the outside of the boot. I wanted to cry. :(

In terms of arches, from my experience, the Nexus and Supremes are quite similar. I really don't have much of an arch, and when I was last shopping for skates, these were the two skates I narrowed it down to. The differences is that the Nexus has more volume, so more space in the toe box, the fore foot, and the heel. If the Supremes work for you, you're not missing anything with the Nexus. Also, if I were to guess, CCM Tacks won't work for you. When I tried them on, it was like my arches were sitting on top of pyramids. I didn't even have to tie them up to know they weren't for me.

I'm in the same sized steel as you, and for the first time in 30 plus years of my hockey life, I got my skates profiled. I'm on size 4.5 N9000s, and I was running stock LS3 on stock profile, with a 3/8ths hollow. I followed Nicholas G's recommendation of a 12' single radius to start with. He also recommended a neutral pitch, but I went with a +1 and 5/8ths hollow. I specifically bought new LS3 steel to experiment on, because I'm in the middle of playoffs right now and wanted to be able to turn back if I had to. One of my biggest issues was my underpush slipping out on me when I tried to drive into it. Always thought it was user error, but after a few minutes on my profiled steel, I knew I made the right decision. It felt like every aspect of my skating had levelled up. For 4.5 hours I was trying everything from stop-starts to tight turns to one-foot slaloms, but most of all, I was working the crossovers. It all seemed to be clicking. I was able to push things so hard on turns and stop-starts, one of my laces broke. After 4.5hrs, I still didn't want to leave the rink because I was so excited about trying stuff just to see if I could do it. I'm usually a center but from time-to-time I fill in at defense. One of the things that I'd dread was the forward stop transitioning into the backward's crossover. It was always 50/50 whether the inside leg would slip out from under me. With the new profile, my leg wasn't slipping, and the only time I blew a tire was when I was trying to see how far I could push before it blew. For me, I didn't notice any detriment to my agility or turns. I think it might be in part to me feeling steadier on crossovers and hard turns. Or maybe it's because of the small runners. I'm liking it so much, I'm considering going up to a 13' radius, and maybe in time, I'll consider something more complex. Now, this isn't to say that I'm suddenly Connor McDavid. Not even close. I'm just saying that before, parts of my skating seemed to be stagnant. I wasn't making any progress no matter how much I practised or how much I studied technique. But making this adjustment feels like it pushed me free of that stagnation, and now, doors to being better are open. Any way my 2 cents. It's worth what you paid for it.

I've been mulling over changing the profile in my skates. This is an area that I've paid zero attention to, so I was wondering if someone could give me some recommendations. Right now I'm in LS3 with stock profiling with a 3/8 hollow. I'm in Nexus N9000s so I'm assuming they're 9' or 10' radius. One of the issues I'm running into now is the under-push on my crossovers. It's slipping out on me a bit when I try to drive into it and extend out, and I'm losing power and stability. Now, over the last while, I've been assuming it's user error. I'm older, less flexable, and a few years ago I got sick and lost a good chunk of muscle. But I've been really focused working on that for the last few months, youtube videos studying technique, hip stretches, one leg squats, and hours and hours and hours of ice time just working my edges and crossovers with the top three eyelets undone, but I can't seem to make any progress. So now, I'm wondering if it could be my skates. I'm 175lbs, and I'm in size 4.5 skates, so I'm wondering if it could be an issue involving not enough blade on the ice or rather not enough of a flat. I'm not sure if a smaller runner has less of a flat than a larger runner with the same radius. While googling, I found a rule of thumb calculation that said if you take your weight in kg and divided by 6.28 which is 2Pi, it will give you the ball park of what your profile radius should be. My calculation comes up with a 13' radius, which seems a bit crazy. Any way, any recommendations/suggestions are welcome.

Hahhah. A high level player on one of my teams says that eating a banana helps with this. Something in the banana makes your bowels tighten up so uhhh... less sloshing in around. I find my trigger is having a little too much liquid before or during the game.

Can't help you with the insoles, but I got a small trick for the blister in the mean time. Just take a strip of duct tape and place it over the skin on the area where the blister forms. At the very least, it will reduce the size and severity of the blister. Best cast, it will prevent the blister from forming. I've even use this for a preexisting blisters in the past. I find it reduces the pain when I skate, and prevents it from getting worse. BUT, oh boy, if you're not careful, taking it off can be painful.

Yeah, I agree. When a guy shows up wearing old, worn out gear, they're usually the ones to watch out for. They're usually the ones skating circles around everyone else. As for what you witnessed, yeah, F those guys. Their moms and pops need to bend them over and show them some old-time corporal punishment. Or maybe someone needs to go into the corner with one of them and take a stomp down on their high end stick.

I find that with new skates, it takes a lot more effort to close the area around the ankle. I found as they break in, it becomes easier, but then again, I have less of a reliance on lateral support from the skate, so what's good support for me may not be enough for someone else. I sometimes train without tying the top three eyelets. One thing I used to do was use two sets of laces for each skate. What I mean by this is I would have my bottom eyelets threaded with one lace, and then I would thread the top two or three eyelets with a second lace. This separated the skate lacing into two zones. I could keep the bottom of the skate snug but comfortable, and if I needed to, I could really yank on the top lacing to close the boot for more lateral support without crushing my forefoot or instep.

For me, it's less about eating. Don't get me wrong, some carbs and/or a little something something a couple of hours before does me some good. BUT for me, the most important thing is getting a nice warm up before I hit the ice. Get the blood flowing, muscles moving, etc. I try to get to the rink at least 45 min before a game--idealy and hour. I do some stickhandling with a ball, and then I do some foot work, cariokas, a few lunges, jumping jacks anything that gets my feet moving, so I get a light sweat and can feel my heart pumping.. Five minutes of warm up on the ice is not enough for me. With that limited time, the engine is cold and definitely not ready to go.

I got the QX on release day. I was using a Super Tacks 2.0 and compared to that the QX blade felt definitely softer. Heck, the whole stick felt a bit soft. But CCM has IMHO one of the stiffest, if not the most stiff, blades and shafts on the market. But after a few ice times fooling around with the QX, I liked it more and more. Yeah, the blade doesn't have as much pop as say the Super Tacks 2.0, but I find I can shoot just as hard if not harder. And the blade doesn't affect my accuracy at all. Definitely doesn't feel like its opening up.

Ditto on the wide head. I went with a Warrior Krown. It's adjustable in all four directions. No more headaches during or after games. I think at least one other brand has a helmet that can adjust in all directions, but I don't recall which.

Wow, I just skimmed through this thread, and it's pretty cool to see you make progress. Boo on the nay sayers. As someone who when through some health issues a few years back and had to literally relearn how to skate, shoot, and stick handle I empathise a lot with your struggles. As I was skimming through this thread, I took notice of something about your stick handling, and I thought this video I found on youtube might help. It was extremely helpful to me in not only getting me back to where I was before my health issues. It helped me surpass my previous skill level. The instructor works with a lot of NHL players, and is I believe a skills coach for the Maple Leafs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgEHrq59czk Oh, if you're looking for open ice in Vancouver, check out Richmond Ice Center. They usually have stick and puck every day from 9am-3pm. Cheers.

Nertz... the per stick price is reasonable enough, but I was hoping I could experiment with different specs. Oh well. Thanks for the response. Saved me a trip down to the shop to ask.

Was thinking about maybe trying a Warrior custom. Do the custom sticks cost more than buying stock?