Hey Puckmugger - I need help picking skates for my daughter
Nov 07 '07
The Bottom Line Bad skates can hurt and good skates can help, but there's no substitute for practice which leads to skill.
Hey Puckmugger,
I am about to purchase another pair of skates for my daughter and could really use your advice! She is a powerful centre, at 5' 6" and about 150 lbs and on the ice 5-6x/week winter and 2-3x in summer. She is a smart player at the A level (equivilent to AA boys') and once her skating is fixed she'll easily move up to the top AA level in girls' hockey (equiv to boys AAA). We're from Canada - and the joke about 10 months of hockey – 2 months of bad ice is TRUE!
She does NOT have perfect technique (yet) and still tends to slide one foot under in crossovers rather than pushing hard with the edge. So sometimes the side of her boot hits the ice. She is working hard on agility and quickness this year and perfecting skating technique and edges. I need to find a skate that will help her in this important transition year.
The questions? How much stiffness is enough or too much? Will a boot with a bit more stiffness help her in perfecting her skating technique? Does stiffness lessen her ability to be a quick and agile player? Can a boot be too flexible? Specifically, the Graf 707 says it should be used by skaters with excellent technique - I am assuming because it offers so much more flexibility.
Many of the recent Graf and Mission skates are talking about lower boot stiffness to allow for good support and increased flexibility. Does this give enough ankle support?
We'll buy either Graf or Mission - depending on fit. She's been in Mission skates for 6 of 8 years. As soon as I figure out the balance between flexibility and stiffness I'm going to catch these great summer sales!!!
I would really appreciate any advice you can give!!!
Thanks,
Mary
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Mary,
I'll be happy to help although you've given me a pretty tough question to answer. I think in order to figure out what she needs, it's important to back up and understand what causes her issues on crossovers. Essentially there are several factors that are normally contributors to the problem you've described.
For the sake of argument we will ignore skating technique. While this is a possibility, it's certainly nothing I can diagnose or fix by email. It also sounds as if she is already working on technique.
The first, and most common, is wearing skates that are either too long or wide. Length is very easy to check by simply pulling out her insoles and having her stand on them. Her toes should come very close to the end. In fact if she is 13 or over, her feet may have already stopped growing and right to the end is perfect. Girls feet typically stop growing around 12 to 14 years of age (although they often get taller after that age range).
If the length is good, it's very important for her heels to be locked in the skates and to have a tight fit on the ball of the feet. Mission is a good choice for women's skate because they run fairly narrow. Women often have a hard time finding skates as they usually have more slender feet. The Graf line is a good choice as well since most of their skates are available in narrow widths. The 735 and 703 would be good skates to start with as they are among the narrowest fitting skates in the line.
Another factor that could contribute to her crossover problems is the blade alignment. This is a much trickier problem to diagnose. However to put it as simply as possible, the skate blades aren't always centered and square to the player's foot in the boot. (It's really hard to tell if you haven't looked at about 200 pair of skates to learn what to look for). Also, different players have different tendencies to pronate or supinate when walking and skating.
You can look at an older pair of her shoes to see if they have worn evenly on the outsole as a basic indicator of this. If they have worn more toward the inside or outside of the feet a quick fix would be a pair of custom insoles such as superfeet in her skates. You can find locations for superfeet at http://www.superfeet.com/content/dealer-search.html. The insoles for ski boots work well in skates.
Lastly, broken down skates would offer less support and could contribute to a loss of edge control. This brings us right back to the question of which skate. Unfortunately it isn’t a question that I can really answer completely via email. From the little that I know about her situation, she probably won’t have any issues with the 700 series Graf skates or the Mission L7 as far as stiffness goes. She is skating often and at a high level to offset her weight is not likely to cause issues in a top-level skate.
I wouldn’t recommend the 707 skate. Not only is it a wider fitting skate, but due to it’s unique design it is more likely to exacerbate the issues she’s having than fix them. Instead, stick with the Mission L7 or S500 if the fit is good. If not, try the Graf 735 or 703. These are just starting points though. Keep in mind, proper fit is the most important factor in any skate. If you do opt for custom insoles and new skates, take the insoles with you to try with the new skates. They can change the way a skate feels quite a bit.
To sum up, make sure she is in a skate that fits well in both length and width. Make sure in new skates that the boot locks her heels in place and there is good pressure on the balls of her feet. Check her wear patterns on shoes to see if she naturally pronates or supinates. Don’t worry about a boot being too stiff. She’s skating often enough and at a high enough level to break in any skate at her size. I hope that helps you out.
Best of luck!
Scott
© 2007 Scott Noble – All rights reserved. Unauthorized use prohibited.
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