Radius / Profile change for kids

[noupf 43]

Hey all, I know we have some profiling gurus on here and I am trying to help my son who just turned 8.  He's been skating for a couple years now and plays on a local AA travel team.  His skating ability is good and is on par ( not phenomenal ) compared to his teammates, but he looks stuck in the mud when he needs to get up and go during games.  He's very tall for his age and solid ( about 85-90 lbs ).  I have him on 5/8th regular hollow and he's currently in a size 1.5 Bauer Supreme M4 Junior skates that has removable steel.  The steel is the Bauer 13' radius "balance blades" and he's been on those 13' radius blades since he started skating a few years back.  I grabbed his next pair of supremes on clearance ( also Bauer Supreme M4's ) in size 2 and they too have the 13" balance blades but are 221mm.  My question is, should i get him out of the 13" radius and if so, what radius would be ok for him to transition too?  Or do i explore the profiling route?

I do know quite a bit about profiling for adult size skates and how it works and the potential benefits ( i'm using an ellipse profile on my CCM 100k Pro skates and loved it from day 1 ), but i know little with regards to kids size stee bc the steel is so short.  is there a benefit or specific route to go for kids sizes?  Runner length is 212mm

Thanks !! 

Edited 2 hours ago by noupf

[cougarscaptain87 13]

My son is somewhat the opposite of your son, he's short and sturdy, he's muscular and has a wide base at 4'10" and 95 lbs. He's a 2013 plays AAA in Michigan and plays defense. We used to have him on 8'/9' profile with a 5/8" hollow and he was a good skater but being shorter I was always trying to find ways to make his stride longer. After a lot of discussion we moved him to a 9'/10' profile still on 5/8" hollow also on the 212mm blades (1.5EE Supreme boots) he spends most of his days at home in roller blades which have 4 wheels and a longer feel on the ground than an ice skate will have, he's comfortable with transitions on longer profiles and in the spring I'm going to drop him down to 11/16" hollow and see how shallow we can go without losing agility and cornering ability. I am curious on some of these blended or more advanced profiles available but he has 4 sets of steel and I don't want to change too many variables at one time on him. I know from my older son when they grow a lot it seems to be good to keep as much consistent as possible due to their bodies changing and already feeling awkward but if he is staying consistent I think experimenting with different profiles can't hurt anything. With all of that being said, one of the best skaters my son used to play with always skated on the stock 13' profile from Bauer, I used to ask his dad about it specifically because his agility was surprising based on my preconceived notion of what a 13' profile would do to a youth skater, but dad said it is all that he has known and sees no reason to change it. Everyone is going to have their own preferences, when I change my sons I do not tell him and watch to see if there are any indicators if it isn't a good fit for him, he knows we maintain his skates but has no idea about his profile or any specifics.