Have you ever tried hockey skates?

[treesprite]

On a regular basis, like every time I work at the rink, I have to explain the difference between hockey skates and figure skates to people.

I actually own a pair of hockey skates, but only skated on them briefly a few times. I keep them where my fellow figure skater rink guards can play with them if they want (there is a place where most of the guards keep their skates - I would not dare keep my real skates there). One co-worker there used them because her coach wanted her to practice stroking in hockey skates, to learn how to not push with toe picks.

The blades are shorter, are thinner, are curved differently, and of course have no toe picks. They move with greater ease, but are harder to control as they seem to move on their own, and pick up speed more easily.

The front of my shins really feel the difference in hockey skates. I have to stand differently. I tend to step onto the ice on a toe pick, which will get you hurt if you try it in hockey skates. I am afraid that if I fall in hockey skates, I won't be able to get back up, since I always push up on a toe pick.

The first time I skated in hockey skates, when I put my figure skates back on, I thought there was something on my blades because my feet didn't move when I got on the ice. Then I realized that figure skates take a lot more effort to get and keep moving.

At the rink's rental skate exchange, we tell rental customers to get figure skates instead, until they are sure of their balance on the ice in figure skates. About 65% of the time, the ones who didn't listen, come back to trade for figure skates.

I have seen some amazing things done on hockey skates. I wish the rink would encourage hockey skaters to participate in the shows, because there are some cool things that can't be done on figure skates. Maybe there is concern that they will mess up the ice which will affect any figure skaters performing after the hockey, but then, the hockey skaters could be put last.

I almost forgot to say that the worst thing about hockey skates, is that good skaters rip up the ice in them. Even the rink guards who use hockey skates can't resist putting curved ruts into the ice, it's just part of skating to them. I'm sure most of us feel very annoyed about those ruts. Sometimes if your blade gets stuck in a long one, you have no choice but to ride it out!

 

[treesprite]

Hockey skates are WAY easier to sharpen. I can go through twice as many in a row as I can figure skates (talking about rental skates... we have over 800 pairs of rental skates, so keeping up the sharpening is impossible, which is why most places have dull rental skates; at my rink, I will sharpen specific rental skates for group lesson students if they use a certain pair every time and ask me to sharpen them, and have sharpened rentals on the spot for public session skaters).

 

[SherryL]

Yes, I tried hockey skates for the first time in college so I could do intramural hockey with friends. I’ve only been in figure skate before, and still prefer them now. Agreed, hockey skates do feel different, and takes some getting used to. Hockey skate blades are more curved, and have no toe picks. I’m grateful for the experience, and am now comfortable in both types of skates.

Figure skates are definitely easier for beginners, which is why all my kids started out skating in them. I did get all my kids to at least try both figure and hockey skates when they were really young, so that they get to experience different types of skating.

I think I saw more damage on the ice from figure skaters doing toe jumps than from hockey skaters. Those numerous big holes (especially in the lutz corners) can be just as annoying as the ruts.

 

[FSWer]

Hockey Skates were my first Skates,and I needed to go Figure,before I ended up falling with everyone and their Mother at my Rink. LOL.

 

[purple skates]

Be very careful if you try twizzles in hockey skates. They can be painful (yes, I fell hard).

 

[treesprite]

Be very careful if you try twizzles in hockey skates. They can be painful (yes, I fell hard).

There are some guys here who do them fairly easily. I like how fluid hockey skate footwork looks; figure skate footwork is rarely good enough to match that fluidity.

 

[EmpressAriana]

I'm a little late to this, but I used to work in the skate rental of my local ice arena for about 3 years because as an employee I didn't have to pay for ice time. So when sessions were really dead and our boss wasn't working, we'd convince our coworkers who played hockey (there were 7 of us, and two were figure skaters) to try on figure skates and vice versa.

The hockey skates felt uncomfortably loose from my ankle up, like my ankles were flopping around in them, and the shorter blade wasn't as bad as I thought (I have shorter dance blades,) but the lack of toepick ruined me. When I skate backwards I usually casually roll up onto my bottom picks to slow down or stop because I'm lazy, but every time I was skating backwards in hockey skates, I'd forget about that and end up faceplanting.

 

[made_in_canada]

Hockey skates and figure skates are sooooooo different. I didn't try hockey skates until I took a power skating coaching course. I did okay, though didn't feel super comfortable. We were running through some more advanced drills on the second day of the course and I was getting more confident and sure enough wiped out hard. What I find most difficult to adjust to is the rocker being in the middle of the blade instead underneath the ball of the foot. I taught power skating for a few years and definitely got more comfortable but it still feels weird to me.

 

[deltask8er]

Once I reached the ISI Delta level (hence the name deltask8er) I was curious how different hockey skates are. After renting a pair once, I bought a pair of CCMs on sale. Then I took hockey skating lessons. I made it up to level 3. http://www.usfsa.org/Content/HockeyCurriculum.pdf

When I skated in hockey skates I, 1) wore thicker socks, 2) wore serious knee pads or shin guards, 3) remembered to stop backwards by doing a reverse snowplow stop.

I liked how much lighter the skates felt, and that I could wiggle my toes in them. I noticed the balance point on the blade is in the center, not under the ball of the foot like figure skates. And while blade noise is discouraged in figure skating (a sign you are not hitting the sweet spot of the blade), noise from hockey blades are encouraged.

For a year or so I alternated between figure skates and hockey skates (bi-skate-ual? ). I never truly felt comfortable on hockey skates, but trying them gave me more courage to try new things whenever I returned to figure skates. It helped me get in touch with my skating masculine side, at least , and give me a better understanding as to which NHL players were the better skaters.

I remember one day my 3-year-old nephew asked me, "Are you going eye kating today? Are you going to wear your white kate or your black kate? Why don't you wear one white kate and one black kate? "

That would have been a sure way to get injured

 

[treesprite]

One of my blades is weird, so I'm now afraid to use my hockey skates. I didn't notice until I sharpened them to make the hollow deeper. The edges of one blade are even at the front and even at the back, but uneven in the middle. The manager said he has only ever seen one other skate blade with that problem. My rink coworker borrowed them to guard because she forgot hers, and said she had no problem, so maybe it isn't bad enough to be noticeable on the ice. I was wanting to get used to them so I wouldn't have to use my new skates for guarding.