BenBreeg

I have been trying the Pearsox Ultralite and Thinees. The Thinees are soft like cotton but still synthetic. The do pill a bit but doesn’t affect performance The Pearsox are standard nylon like cheap dress socks. They can feel a little rough but seem to be softening a bit. Their sizing is out of whack though. I am 6’3” with an 11 1/2 foot. The adult size comes halfway up my thigh. I can wear the intermediate but the youth also fits fine. The mite is too big for my son, too much material in the foot for his size 2 1/2 foot so he wears the Thinees.

Oh, so pros can get an older style constructed boot made to look like a modern model?

Dumb question but what is a tech mesh skate?

STX Surgeon line is worth a look as well.

In that pic in caveman’s post his 70ks have 11.

Another point is that your skating biomechanics encompass your whole body. The alignment of everything from your head to your shoulders, hips and knees plays a huge part in how force is transmitted through the foot into the skate and then the blade to the ice. So the foot is kind of the last part of this chain. With a stiff skate, given perfect biomechanics up to that point allows efficient and controlled energy transfer to the ice, but it doesn’t fix flaws. The thing the no lace skating gives you in addition to the strengthening already discussed is feedback, magnified responses to adjustments you make as you do drills. Move your knee a little bit, change how you rotate your shoulders, etc. Here is a related article that references how Miro Heiskanen ties his skates. https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/2019/08/20/finland-loose-laces-and-dull-blades-how-stars-defenseman-miro-heiskanen-developed-into-an-elite-skater/ Again, once you have all those components, a stiffer boot can ensure nothing is being lost because of the boot, but it is not the cure. Here is an Athletic article talking mainly about forward flex but also about potential energy leak from lateral sloppiness, although there aren’t any real citations for the work they did, maybe I will Google and see if those are publicly available. https://theathletic.com/696003/2018/12/07/the-nhls-best-young-skaters-all-have-something-in-common-how-they-tie-their-skates/

Certainly could be, I just thought it interesting that she brought it up almost 20 years ago.

Some interesting points, Laura Stamm has an article on her website way back in 2001 cautioning against the general skater getting in too stiff a boot. As for the pros using stiff skates, getting back to the car analogy- Once you are a great driver you can squeeze every bit of performance out of a 900 HP F1 car but if you or I got in it would be a hinderance to learn the skills of racing and driving. Better skaters like pros have good edge control and can leverage the modern boot.

Yeah, you are right, each has their own goals. But the OP did inquire about the ideal stiffness of skates which I would assume implies that the ideal stiffness would lead to better skating. So the response led to something along the lines of the dominant variable not being the skate but the path to quickest improvement would be concentrating on technique. Like you said, to each his own. I love breaking things down in anything I do and really getting into the details. Others may not.

I would say this about the analogy, nobody said crap skates, but the relative minutiae between one good enough pair of skates and another good enough pair of skates isn’t going to matter much to a beginner. i think the better analogy may be, given a basic vehicle that is good enough, the better driver is going to win the race.

From my perspective from someone who does this periodically, you are going to learn something that first lap out. You will get feedback on how you are placing you weight on each skate (good chance it isn’t perfectly equal). You will start to understand better how the different muscles of the foot contribute to controlling the skate and applying pressure within. If you have a specific issue, like turning one way or the other or a certain edge, it will make it worse but you will get magnified feedback on where things are going wrong.

What is odd about addressing things fundamentally first?

Out of curiosity, why not just use more copper rivets as a matter of course? I am sure there is a price difference relative to non-copper rivets but it is a drop in the bucket when compared to high end skate cost.

No, you have biomechanics, can’t be avoided. They are either contributing to or detracting from your skating. We all have dominant sides, habits that we have developed over the years. My right foot pronates AND i am left leg dominant. Even off the ice if I am standing I tend to default to weight on my left foot. I skate unlaced at public skate now. If you pay attention to whats going on when you do this you will make quick improvements. I am 45 and have been skating since I was about 10 and was able to ID several issues right off the bat. You get feedback that a tight, stiff skate laced up will hide. I have seen improvement after only doing this only a handful of times, can’t imagine what I could do if I did it once or twice a week. I am still in an old Bauer Supreme 7000 which by this point is probably a fraction of the stiffness of these new skates and don’t feel it is holding me back, although I will be forced into new skates soon since they are literally starting to fall apart. Just because everyone doesn't teach a certain thing doesn’t it is or isnt valid. Laces undone has been done for a very long time.

This scenario, it seems....familiar.... 🙂

Best wishes and hope everything works out for the best. Great that you were able to move down there and be close.

Rationalization is a beautiful thing.

Learn the players’ personalities (you probably have a leg up there). Know which players respond to overt criticism and which ones need to be coached in a private side conversation. As mentioned, be valuable to the coach. Do all the little things on and off the ice that lets him focus on his core coaching responsibilities. i was in a somewhat similar situation when I was assistant for a college club team. Expectations weren’t explicit so I just defined it myself. I started running dryland and all S&C activities including designing the program and creating a web site for it. I put up bars in the office to hang the jerseys, took them home and washed them after every game (my wife lovvved that...), put together a first aid kit with spare helmet parts, designed and ordered helmet stickers and game pucks, delivered the line up to the scorer before the game, etc.

No need to stay with a line, mix and match. Don’t leave out STX, I think they provide great value and have multiple price points.

I would say their percentages on sales are more accurate than the number of people that fit in a given line. The two not lining up exactly isn’t surprising.

Yeah, the muscles atrophy. I remember getting a full leg cast off as a kid and my knee maybe had 15-20 degrees ROM. The wrist has a lot going on inside. Keep at it and hope to see you back on the ice ASAP!

There is plenty of pick-up around, stick time is generally reserved for 18 and under though. I don’t know of any place that rents gear. There is a Pure Hockey in north Pittsburgh and a Ko Sports in the south. Pure is probably like any other Pure, Ko is bigger. It is a Source for Sports franchise somit will have SMU stuff but dont think pro stock. There is also a Peranis but I havent been there for years. if you know where you are staying that would help.

The post does nothing to explain how this would help. The lace in inside out lacing and the lace in outside in lacing both cross the tongue with half the lace crossing from the top (or outside) of the facing and the other end exiting from the bottom (or inside) of the facing. Changing how you lace it is just reversing the order it enters and exits, not the amount of pressure on the tongue.

Gotta be placebo because it will be alternating “high-low” and “low-high” as it crisscrosses so really no difference.

Sorry to hear that, at least you got a positive diagnosis though.