Making the Transition

[Guest phillyfan]

Every player has their own number or pattern for profiling their skate blades. I remember seeing a Coatseys' Corner, and they interviewd the Flyers Equipment Manager, and were talking about Seidenbergs t-blades. They eventually got talking about how each player has their own settings, so no, it is not uncommon.

[Chadd 916]

It is uncommon for a non-pro player to get his/her blades profiled like that? Is it difficult to do?

Most people have to pay to have their skates profiles so it end up costing them $30 or more each time they want to try a different setting. I'd say 90-95% of non-pros use the stock profile and adapt to whatever it is, maybe more. I'd also think that less than 1% of non-pro players use a hybrid radius.

[MDE3 0]

The biggest thing I saw while running power skating clinics for both roller and ice, other than the stopping, was that so many inline skaters never developed a "toe kick" when they learned to skate inline first. When they came to ice it was common to see these skaters almost kicking themselves in the butt as they finished every stride. Correcting these habits was the toughest part of converting skaters from inline to ice. Also in inline skating the weight shift becomes even more important than in ice, where it really helps to get your weight over your wheels while driving or power turning..to enhance your grip.

So it becomes more important to swing the hips back and forth skating inline to maximize the duration of the "push", actually making the recovered lead foot in the stride come back across the centerline of your body. IIn inline it is important to learn the correct angle of thrust, which is different...in order to be able to execute a toe push. When turning, to try to keep the shoulders level , while angling the legs from the waist down, rather than "leaning" your body in a straight line. This not only get's more weight over the skates, but allows the shoulders to be level for better facility stickhandling. Also because hockey is a contact sport...leading your turn more with your hip, than upper body,,means you have a lower center of gravity ready to make contact, so better leverage is afforded.

[MDE3 0]

Also stopping in inline as quickly as ice is achievable, but requires some serious practice. There are some surface/wheel combinations where it is almost impossible to not slide playing inline, but on Sport Court or similar (Spider and Ice Court) it is very achievable. If you get a chance to watch some Piha or MLRH, Narch Platinum, Tournament Pro etc. you will see that the majority can stop on a dime even on a single foot.

First thing is having enough grip, which means good wheels. If you are playing at a competitive level, you often need to change your wheels before they begin to "look worn", as they have lost their grip. Rink Rats do seem to maintain their grip the longest from what we have seen in Major League and Piha, as well as the Tournament Pro series'.

Again it is a question of applied weight to use the grip available. We used to teach kids the "jump stop" where we had kids place their sticks on the rink, and skate to them, jumping over the stick and turning right or left, and then coming down at ninety degrees to the direction of travel. Obviously full body armour was required, as falling will occur. When you land on both feet, let your legs flex, bending at the knees, and then come up, using your leg drive to accentuate the weight and gain more grip. Eventually you will not need to actually leave the floor, but more or less pivot on the front wheel(s), weighting and unweighting similar to ice hockey. Its the amount of force you apply that is different, without the edge of an ice skate, and depends on how much grip your wheels have.

Eventualy these players even learn to stop on the lead or trailing foot alone.

Actually for most inline hockey, it is the length of the stopping which has differentiated the game from ice(at least as far aas the skating skills go)..even at a lot of the intermediate and advanced levels. At the top of the elite levels however, you will see a game which is as fast in transition as ice hockey, because players can reverse direction as fast in inline as ice now..in great part due to the new wheel technologies, and correctly learned techniques.