Heel lifts

[mxpowder 1]

Ok I tried searching and found a lot of topics about heel lifts and forward pitch. My question is, if I felt equally comfortable with or without a heel lift, which would offer me the ability to skate faster?

I've found that stock pitch on Bauer skates makes me feel too far backwards. When I recently purchased some custom XXXX skates, I had them put on 3mm heel lifts. The skates felt perfect. After about 2 years on these skates, sometimes I feel like I'm just a hair too far forward on my toes?

I'm thinking about changing out my heel lifts to around a 1/16 inch lift, and was hoping this might give me just a little more of a stride. What do you guys think? Or is the oposite true, by being further forward I should have a faster stride? Thanks, sometimes feels like I could use just a little more toe before I finish my stride.

[SolarWind 23]

so far the only thing that have been consistently refered as counter productive was a negative pitch, everything else is a fair game.

somewhere just recently (discussion on MLX skates here I think) someone refered to neutral profile being "the best"?

it's all personal preference at the end, but that's what worked for me through trial & error, so I'd say try it - it doesn't take that long to adjust for most people.

[jimmy 194]

I find that most don't skate best with a neutral pitch. Forward pitch improves balance, gives a deeper knee bend and better stride, and also allows the skater to get faster starts because the toe engages in the push sooner giving more power during the leg extension, e.g faster stride. Most skaters can benefit from pitch, some more than others. Defenseman however can lose some backwards skating power and balance with too much forward pitch, so minimize it or keep it at neutral, depending on your particular style of skating. Start at neutral, add a lift or profile the steel. If it's better, then you are golden, if not remove the lift or re-profile. You have to experiment to see what's best for YOU.

[mxpowder 1]

Jimmy, so if I felt equally balanced with a 1/8th inch vs. 1/16th inch, which would offer more power/speed when sprinting? I was wondering if the 1/16th inch caused my ankle to be slightly less bent, it would offer more toe extension at the end of each stride.

Now that Im thinking about this more, maybe that does not make sence? <_<

[jimmy 194]

You should get faster more powerful starts, as more pitch is added. However at some point, the pitch is going to effect balance and backwards skating negatively. Each skater is different. If the 1/8" doesn't have any negative effects, you can stay with that. It should give you a bit more power than the 1/16.

[Lumberjack23 0]

Could I take the heel lifts from a pair of skates with size 272 tuuk LS2's and put them onto a pair of skates that are size 263 LS2's?

[Martin88 0]

No.. the heel lifts have different sizes for different size holders.