Stiffer skates for large beginner?

[yesido 0]

I’m curious about your take on this: My cousin is very much a beginner skater, and his ankles still tend to turn in sometimes when he glides. He is 6'3 and 235 pounds and skates in CCM V06's. He plays once a week. Given his large size and current skating ability, do you think that a stiffer, more expensive skate would give him more ankle support and help his skating, or do you think the V06's are enough skate given his weak level of skating and that his ankle issue will fix itself with experience? Thanks.

[romdj 26]

• How old are the skates?
  
• check the laces tightening as well, they need to really be pulled around that ankle area to give support
  
• non-waxed laces can lose their tension leading to a loose skate after 5 min of skating
  
• footbed could be a factor as well: undistributed weight onto the skates
  
• holder alignment could be too much on the outside
  
• skate stiffness could be an issue indeed, but if some of the problems mentioned above remain true, the stiffer skate will dig into his skin.
  

imho video is one of the best way to understand an issue.

[vince57 4]

had a guy at our local rec team, must be at least mid 40's joined up as his son had started playing, a real big guy never really skated before, soon was nicknamed frankenstein on ice. he had bottom end graf and you could see they were struggling to hold him up on the ankles, he relatively quickly upgraded to top end graf, there was relatively little improvement in skating due to the new skates but the boots looked under less pressure.

Encourage him to stand on the footbed/blade rather than have the boots hold him up. never really tried on ice but i can skate (albeit not very well) on my inlines with the laces totally loose and untied but with noticably more input required through the sole/footbed

it is important to support oneself on the ice rather than hang on the ankle support would suggest some drills/excercises that involve using both inside and outside edges and tell him when he is hanging on the ankles,

check the grind, a well maintained modest grind 14mm or 9/16 perhaps shallower 16mm 5/8 or even 19mm/3/4 due to his weight will make things easier often excessive edge is used by beginners if the edges are in poor shape . would have expected a v06 to be adequate for a beginner unless its mega worn out mega boots wont make him a fantastic skater and may hinder skill development and edge control due to their very stiff construction.