Unusual Blade Placement ?

[Rusty Blades]

(This is a question for any of you out there who skate with an unusual blade placement.)

A month ago I started working with a second coach, a VERY experienced senior competitive coach who has taken a lot of skaters to Nationals and above over the decades. She coaches the same sessions I have been skating for the past 2.5 years so she has been watching me for a long time.

When I started working with her, it was "back to basics" to try to clean up a few things she feels needed improvements - improving outside edges was one of the main things.

We worked a lot on body position and things before resorting to playing with blade placement and over the last few weeks have moved my blades to the inside of the boot as far as they will go without sticking out beyond the sole of the boot. (We are working with my spare pair, Jackson Elite, rather than my competition pair, Proflex.) Last week we added shims to tilt the blade even farther to the outside edges. That seems to have helped but really put dents in everything else LOL! - like learning turns, spins, etc. all over again.

I have never seen anyone skating with such a radical blade placement (full to the inside and shimmed toward the outside edge) but we are kind of at a loss as to why nothing else worked.

Has anyone else had to resort to unusual blade mounting?

[amyvw]

My left blade is pretty far to the inside and I still think it could stand to go more as I still feel that I need to fight tooth and nail to hit that left outside edge. I need to make another trip up to the skate guy to get the positioning tweaked again.

[Skate@Delaware]

My right blade is mounted as far to the inside as it will go, it does stick out a smidgen in the front. I don't care. I had thought maybe I could finally move it more to the right (i.e. a normal position) after all my rehab and strengthening but nope I'm going to leave it.

I have a right hip that is about 1/2-3/4" differently placed than my left one. Although my legs are the same length. I can't remember if it's more anterior or posterior; it's just different.

Are your joints in alignment? Have you been checked out for that? Look at the bottom of your shoes and look for abnormal wear, not just in the heel but in the ball of your foot-see if you are wearing abnormally there.

Are you skewing a lot when you do a true one-foot glide? Maybe it needs to be canted front/back as well (moved at an angle). I'm sure you will get it tweaked, tho. Sounds like a problem that you can solve!

[jp1andOnly]

I would also look at orthotics. Sometimes dropped arches will lead us to lean certain ways

[daisies]

My right blade is set all the way to the inside, and it also sticks out from the bottom of my sole in both the front and back. I have severe pronation that orthotics don't fix, at least in terms of skating. When I got a new pair of boots last year and put orthotics in them, the blades were set in the center because I was told the orthotic would fix the problem. It did not, and it caused me a lot of problems, including tendonitis in my knee -- and that was only after skating in them for three hours. I chucked the whole thing, did 8 weeks of PT, got a different pair of boots and set the blade where I knew it should go -- way inside -- and I have had no problems since. (Knock on wood!) However, I do use, and have always used, an arch support in both boots because I have very high arches.

[AgnesNitt]

My situation is identical to Daisie's, except my blade setting does not extend beyond the boot edge. Orthotics weren't enough, shimming the blades not enough. I've got all three.
I'm still in the adjustment phase, but I'm much more stable and don't have to hold my body in weird positions. Also, I can now do many maneuvers at a faster speed than I could before. Not only have my mohawks improved and I can do them at speed, but I can do them without feeling like I'm about to fall over.

If you want orthotics I suggest searching for a podiatrist or orthopedic surgeon specializing in feet who is also a skater. I'm lucky, I found a podiatrist that's a hockey coach. He built the orthotics in the skate. Not very expensive either.

[singerskates]

(This is a question for any of you out there who skate with an unusual blade placement.)

A month ago I started working with a second coach, a VERY experienced senior competitive coach who has taken a lot of skaters to Nationals and above over the decades. She coaches the same sessions I have been skating for the past 2.5 years so she has been watching me for a long time.

When I started working with her, it was "back to basics" to try to clean up a few things she feels needed improvements - improving outside edges was one of the main things.

We worked a lot on body position and things before resorting to playing with blade placement and over the last few weeks have moved my blades to the inside of the boot as far as they will go without sticking out beyond the sole of the boot. (We are working with my spare pair, Jackson Elite, rather than my competition pair, Proflex.) Last week we added shims to tilt the blade even farther to the outside edges. That seems to have helped but really put dents in everything else LOL! - like learning turns, spins, etc. all over again.

I have never seen anyone skating with such a radical blade placement (full to the inside and shimmed toward the outside edge) but we are kind of at a loss as to why nothing else worked.

Has anyone else had to resort to unusual blade mounting?

Yup, when you have to move the blade that much and add shims on top of moving the blade in all the way, you should look into getting orthotics made special for your skating boots.

[Rusty Blades]

... you should look into getting orthotics made special for your skating boots.

Sweetie, I skate barefoot - there isn't even room in my boots for tights LOL!

[Query]

I'm hesitant to reply, since you seem so expert at this, but:

Sweetie, I skate barefoot - there isn't even room in my boots for tights LOL!

Could you remove the current insoles, and replace them with something just thick enough to prevent the sewn seams from digging in? (Or sand down the current insoles, but that's hard work.)

If so, a little tape or moleskin (a cheap substitute for expensive orthotics) will do everything moving the blades will do, and avoid causing the foot pain or possibly scraping the side of the mounting plate on the ice on deep edges that off center mounts sometimes causes. (I had both problems when a fitter offset my blade that much.) If the change is big enough to alter the lean or height of the foot inside the boot, another heat mold may be in order too.

If you have to shim when you move the blade, it is possible you don't have a coplanar mount, so the new position caused the blade to not be vertical when you balance on one foot. You could demount the blade (I know you know enough to remount it right), place it on a belt sander so the entire mounting area is in one plane, and remount, then move the blade around to your heart's content. (Watch out - a few blades place the front and back mounting plates in different planes.) Sid Broadbent has pushed co-planar boot soles to simplify mounting, and he makes sense.

If you shim, be careful to not generate torques which slowly twist the blade or boot. I messed up some boots by an off-center mount (Don Klingbeil said their boots aren't made to take the stress of an off-center mount).

If you move the blade, of course you have to adjust body lean or body part placement to maintain good balance, especially spin balance, as you know.

BTW, many speed skaters move the blade to the edge of the skate, so they can lean more.