Some times slipping on quick starts

[tenfour 1]

Hello guys!

About 1/3 of the time when doing a quick start (stressed in-game) I'm slipping with my skates off the ice, not getting any grip at all. I'm generally one of the fastest guys on the team but some times I just cant get proper strides when opportunities arise.

I'm running with a channel-40 skate radius which should be European equivalent to FBV and I generally do not have any grip issues when doing quick turns or cross overs.

Is there anything that can be done here skate wise? Another profile? I have never experimented with profiles before so I guess I'm running with the default LightSpeed2 profile. Any other advice?

Thanks

[chippa13 1844]

First thing I'd check is to make sure your edges are level. If they are then maybe you'll want to try a longer radius that will give you a little more blade contact.

[Ps12 11]

You're referring to z-channel sharpening?

For me I'm on my inside edges on my toes for quick starts. When was the last time you had your skates sharpened?

Definitely check and see if they're level but see if the edges are more rounded off on the toe area on the inside edges.

[Vet88 674]

Cross overs and turns are mid blade to heel driven, starts are from the toe of the blade. As the 2 previous posters said, check the inside edges of the toe area. Do you practice toe starts? I've seen a lot of players who slip because of poor technique, their foot folds under them and or balance point is wrong and the toe slides sideways and backwards instead of digging in for grip, this gives them the feeling of it slipping. You can see this if you practice some starts on a clean bit of ice, where the toe of the blade bites into the ice for the first 2 or 3 steps there shouldn't be any track leading away from this point.

[ktang 34]

First thing I'd check is to make sure your edges are level. If they are then maybe you'll want to try a longer radius that will give you a little more blade contact.

About the radius; I find that a shorter radius lets me dig deeper into the ice. Less blade contact = more pressure (force per unit area).

[tenfour 1]

Thanks for all the tips guys!

Yes, this is a z-channel sharpen in 40 radius hollow.

I get them sharpened at the best shop for miles around, and they specialise in sharpening so I have great confidence that they do their job. However I have not told them I'm slipping :-) I tried to analyse my blades but I'm not really sure how it should be looking. Attaching a few pictures if anyone wants to look but I realise it's hard to see / make any conclusions: http://imgur.com/a/DFsdn

I do not practice toe starts but maybe I should - this might very well be my skating technique :-)

[ktang 34]

Are you slipping along the line of the blades, across them, or both?

_{Looking at the fronts of your blades, there is a nice section where the blade starts to curve up. Is this the point that your are pushing against when you are doing your quick starts?}

_{How much do you turn your skates out when you do your toe starts?}

[tenfour 1]

Are you slipping along the line of the blades, across them, or both?

_{Looking at the fronts of your blades, there is a nice section where the blade starts to curve up. Is this the point that your are pushing against when you are doing your quick starts?}

_{How much do you turn your skates out when you do your toe starts?}

I'm not really sure where I'm slipping. I have never put very much thought into how I skate (and never had any teacher).. I just skate.

I guess I turn my blades between 45-60 degrees from 0 and then push off with the front part of the blade. I do not start with the toes dug into the ice.

[ktang 34]

Maybe try to turn your blades closer to 60 degrees, and get your centre of gravity ahead of the blades. In my mind's eye, you are slipping along the blades and not across them. If you look at the 500 metre speed skaters, they do their starts with their blades turned out as much as possible.

[Vet88 674]

I'm not really sure where I'm slipping. I have never put very much thought into how I skate (and never had any teacher).. I just skate.

I guess I turn my blades between 45-60 degrees from 0 and then push off with the front part of the blade. I do not start with the toes dug into the ice.

Google is your friend here, there is a lot of info out there that you can watch and take into a practice. A couple of good ones are the itrain series, these 2 are quite good for forward strides and drills to help get you on your toes (along with a lot of other good stuff), take some time out to have a look.

or this one that shows how you come up onto your toes to start and accelerate from a V start.

http://howtohockey.com/how-to-improve-skating-acceleration

and watch from the 21 minute mark of the following as Besa works with NHL players to get them on their toes for starts.

[Chadd 916]

I'm not really sure where I'm slipping. I have never put very much thought into how I skate (and never had any teacher).. I just skate.

A few lessons with qualified teachers would probably help more than anything else and well worth the cost. The vast majority of the time, issues like this are related to technique and not equipment. Without a qualified coach, you may end up picking up more bad habits than good ones from internet videos.

[tenfour 1]

A few lessons with qualified teachers would probably help more than anything else and well worth the cost. The vast majority of the time, issues like this are related to technique and not equipment. Without a qualified coach, you may end up picking up more bad habits than good ones from internet videos.

Yea I suppose. I will review my technique based on videos and see what I can do. I just wondered if there is anything magic to skate profiling. Being located in Sweden without any professional team makes it very hard and very very expensive to get a qualified skate coach I'm afraid. :(

[ktang 34]

Yea I suppose. I will review my technique based on videos and see what I can do. I just wondered if there is anything magic to skate profiling. Being located in Sweden without any professional team makes it very hard and very very expensive to get a qualified skate coach I'm afraid. :(

You will have to use the videos and try things for yourself, then. It can be done, and asking questions to get some answers will help. In the end, though, you will have to decide what answers work for you.

I think in the John Wild book editions, he talked about how she had a student who did everything nearly perfectly, so he asked him if he had taken his course before since he didn't recognize the student. The student replied that he had taught himself from the book. Nowadays, with videos, it is still hard to do this, but not as hard.

[Chadd 916]

Yea I suppose. I will review my technique based on videos and see what I can do. I just wondered if there is anything magic to skate profiling. Being located in Sweden without any professional team makes it very hard and very very expensive to get a qualified skate coach I'm afraid. :(

If there are any youth hockey organizations around you, they probably have someone that can help. Since you are saying that it doesn't happen all of the time, I think it's unlikely to be a profiling issue. It may even be something as simple as focusing on putting more pressure down instead of pushing away.