Why don't skates and blades have lower heels, smaller rocker, and a longer roll to the toepick?
I've been trying to analyze why I have had so much trouble with my Ultima blades. In the process, I am beginning to question whether the way any figure skates and blades have been shaped makes any sense at all.
My main problem with the Ultima blades is that there is such a change at the spin rocker: it takes a lot of strength to overcome the resistance of the 8' rocker, which suddenly changes at the spin rocker, and there is very little distance between the start of the spin rocker and the toe pick. So when I reach the spin rocker, I rock all the way to the toepick unless I fight it very hard.
My twizzles have 3 turn tracings even if the toe pick doesn't touch, I guess because of the high resistance. I can do twizzles further back on the 8' rocker length - but it is awkward to rotate on such a large rocker.
The flat section at the tail is also too long and flat, driving my weight back and making it even harder to roll forwards through that part of the blade.
(Ultima and Wilson blades do not actually have a fixed rocker radius on any part of the blade - they vary gradually throughout, flat at the tail, and curved at the front. Most MK blades have a close to fixed rocker radius through most of the length, and do not have a very flat tail. This makes a huge difference between how blades skate, yet is not discussed when companies like Ultima say their blades are comparable to MK's blades.)
I can easily change the blade shape - but have been hesitant to make too large a change (e.g., change to 7' rocker), because it wastes so much metal on expensive blades to make large changes.
It seems to me that it would be easier to do almost everything if one could roll more through figure skating blades. It would be easier to control exactly where your weight was centered, and there would be more momentum for jumps.
For that to be true, one would want a lower heel - maybe level with the toe, an insole shape that did not bend the ball of the foot up (maybe the bent foot is to shift the weight forward to accommodate the high heel?). That would give the foot more range of motion, and make it easier to point more to place one's full weight on the full toe pick for jumps as well.
I know people have said the high heels are to press the chest forward and curve the back backwards, a pose that many people like.
They also say one bumps into the toepicks accidentally too much with lower heels, but that is actually because the blades are shaped to match the high heels.
One would also want a somewhat smaller (more curved) rocker radius, and a toe pick which didn't touch until our weight was centered over a point substantially further forwards on the foot than the ball.
A smaller rocker radius would glide with slightly more friction, but being able to roll more through the skate would let you push more strongly. Maybe the 7' rocker blades have that about right, or maybe 6 or 6.5' would be closer to allowing efficient pushing.
I also like Sid Broadbent ideas of a detachable adjustable height toepick
http://www.iceskateology.com/Skateology/Goldquest.htmlbecause it would let people adjust height to their exact range of motion, and the skating characteristics need not change with sharpening.
(A non-proprietary alternative might be to shape toe picks so one could retain the initial profile shape as the blade wears and sharpening cut metal away - i.e., the teeth could be angled less forward and more vertical.)
The Ultima blades, like some others, also have assymetric teeth, which are cut angled to be higher on one side. I'm not sure if that makes any sense. I guess the Ultima blades are shaped that way to favor one direction spins, because the first tooth is longer on that side, but I don't think their is any real benefit.
Any thoughts?