Firstly I should point out that I wear hockey skates. I’m asking this question because I’ve had no luck on a hockey forum, and I know some of you are very knowledgeable. I had lessons over several years from a figure skating coach so I’m a decent skater.
I wore some hockey skates for over five years, and always had trouble with my left foot. The blade would sometimes skid e.g. when doing CW crossovers. My figure skating coach thought I was turning my toe out, so I worked on turning it in, with a lot of success. However, moves like powerpulls were always difficult and I never managed forwards inside edge three turns on my left foot. I always assumed I was a slow learner.
Recently I bought new skates, and the left foot issues have gone. I find edgework so much easier. Powerpulls are now easy, I can get nice deep edges, and do the whole rink length with ease. Crossrolls are much easier, I can get deeper edges, and hold them more easily. Every edgework drill that I try is significantly easier, and less tiring. Clearly I wasn’t a slow learner.
My question is why can I skate so much better with the new skates?
The old ones were custom skates. That means they size each skate individually, then use heat and pressure to mould each skate to a plastic cast of the foot. So they should be a perfect fit. I did have a comment that I seemed to be skating on my heels, and I would sometimes fall backwards.
The new skates are off the shelf, but fit much more tightly round the heel providing more support. They are made from thermformable carbon fibre, hence can mould nicely. They have more forward pitch, and the blades are 1 cm shorter. I use a 1” hollow, and still have lots of grip.
I realise you won’t know in any detail about hockey skates, but many principles are shared, and you might have seen something similar with figure skates. Is there something that can explain what I experienced? As far as I know the blade holders on the old skates are not misaligned, they were at one point replaced by a skate tech who knows his onions.