Hello!
I am new to the sport (and the forums), and I'm curious if people can give recommendations on proper breaking in of new skates and then using the ones that I have. My boots have already arrived and my blades should be here today or tomorrow, so I expect that I'll have the skates on Thursday or Friday. I posted an intro with a few questions, but I suspect that section doesn't get a whole lot of traffic so I'll ask my boot and blade related questions again here and expand a little on them.
Breaking in New BootsMy coach suggested that I wear them in the house while bending my knees to break them in, but I've heard some people say that you should
not wear your skates in the house because they will be broken in as if they were intended for walking instead of skating. I personally don't have a strong opinion whether to start at home, or just reserve them for the ice at the moment, I just want to do what will be the most helpful/effective for my skating.
Any suggestions?
Over Booting and BladingI'd like some information on what I should be cautious about when coming into the sport over booted and bladed. Unfortunately upon having my feet measured, it was discovered that I apparently have mutant feet compared to most figure skaters, and required custom boots to accommodate a size of 8.5EE. The lowest level boot the shop could order for me was the Jackson Premier and so I went ahead and ordered it.
I have mixed feelings about it because on one hand I'm glad that we learned about my big feet now and not before trying to learn in super uncomfortable boots, but at the same time start up equipment was even more expensive than i'd anticipated going in. I will say however that this made a lot of things make sense to me that didn't before. For example my big toes always went numb or tingly while skiing, and my "normal" shoe sizes are quite varied.
When it comes to blades, I considered a number of models but ultimately decided on the Ultima Matrix Legacy (
http://www.usaskates.com/figureskateblades/jmx7050.html ) because I suspect I will get a lot more use out of them than some other blades. I would have been more cautious about buying a blade that is too advanced for one thing except that I know from experience that my learning style is one that demands that I jump into things with both feed forward. In foreign language, for example, I learn pretty slowly in a classroom environment, however when I break down the language into it's basic structure and particle components then jump right into blogging by using friends who speak the language or a good dictionary to supplement my vocabulary I learn the language surprisingly quickly.
I am aware that the huge toe picks (compared to normal beginners blades) are going to cause me to fall a lot in the beginning, but I also know that kissing the ice enough times will be a powerful motivator to not catch those picks in the future. My hope is that I will also not have the chance to develop habits of doing things that are possible on normal beginners blades, that shouldn't done on advanced ones. Ultimately my coach and I decided on this blade together and I think she has a pretty good sense of my "trial by fire" and kinesthetic learning style.
I have limited experience with inline skating, however I often stopped doing it because I didn't have skates that properly fit me. Much like with my ski boots of old, my big toes would be numb within about 30 minutes or my foot would move around so much inside the skate that I'd develop blisters all over my feet from friction. That said, when I did dabble with inline skating I could move around a little, and found the motions to be somewhat reminiscent of skiing - especially when going down hills. I mostly only fell when I hit pine cones or cracks in the pavement.
At this point my skates aren't going to change, so I would like to know what advice and cautions people can give in the way of technique, posture, and motion that might help me take to the ice more readily with blades that are intended for skaters that are more advanced than I am.
Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice and help you can give!
- Justin