I am a bit worried about how much I may be spending on DD figure skates this summer. She just passed freeskate 6 and will be testing Prepreliminary over the summer. She is currently working on the Axel. The skates she has right now were something like 220.00. They have a good boot with a very inexpensive blade. These skates have not held her back at all considering that most of the kids in her fs 5 and fs 6 all seemed to be already skating on skates that ran in the 600.00 range. Do we really need to spend that much ?
Do any of you work with children or have children working on Axel that have not spent this much on skates.....is it working? DD takes 1 private a week and then practices two other days a week. This is recreational for us - we have decided to do the testing track and maybe 1 or no competitions a year.
I can really only afford to spend a total of around 450.00 on skates. Any advice is appreciated.

It's not worth buying more boot or blade than she needs right now, and if her present combination is working well, I would stick with it. Her coach will undoubtedly let you know if and when she needs to upgrade. You might find it worth upgrading to a good all-round blade like Coronation Ace or MK Pro, neither of which will totally break the bank, but apart from that, she should be fine.

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Mrs Redboots
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Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Go with what works...if she can still comfortably do her jumps in the type of skate she is in, then keep going with them. As Mrs. Redboots said, you may want to upgrade the blade slightly, if her coach agrees that that would help, but I find it better not to make drastic changes...

I would either check with your coach for a recommendation or go to a GOOD bootfitter. A lot of it depends on the skills your DD is working on, her weight/height, how often she skates, and how hard she is on her boots (i.e. does she really bend her knees a lot?).

Good luck! I feel your pain having just paid about $1,000 for my new boots/blades...

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Skating Dreams

"All your life you are told the things you cannot do. All your life they will say you're not good enough or strong enough or talented enough; they will say you're the wrong height or the wrong weight or the wrong type to play this or be this or achieve this. THEY WILL TELL YOU NO, a thousand times no, until all the no's become meaningless. All your life they will tell you no, quite firmly and very quickly. AND YOU WILL TELL THEM YES." --Nike

Don't change skates too soon before the test session. They need time to break in.

Did you know that you can have leather skates stretched by the pro shop? (Some charge a small fee) If they're getting tight, that'll buy a little more time before they have to be replaced. Might give you time to shop around for a good buy.

Sounds like what you have now is fine, but I agree with Mrs Redboots - you might want to upgrade the blade a notch since she's stepping up to Pre-Prel.

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I am not a coach, but I can tell you that my daughter's friend who has also completed Freeskate 6 and is working on her axel, skates in Riedell Gold Medallions with MK professional blades. She was in Gold Medallions with an Wilson Excel Blade before buying her newest pair of Gold Medallions. She was in Freeskate 3 or so when she got her new skates. The skating director at our rink said there was no need to upgrade her boot since she hadn't broken down her old boot. She's been in the new boots since October and her new boots are holding up very well and are not breaking down.

My dd just moved up to Freeskate 1 and her coach has told us she thinks DD will be landing all of her single jumps(except the axel, of coarse!) by the end of the summer. She's currently wearing Riedell Bronze Medallion boots(with an MK 21 blade). She has not broken her boots down yet. We'll see what happens when she is doing more jumps this summer. I'm not planning on moving her boot up any higher then a Gold Medallion. I'll upgrade the blade if her coach wants me to. FWIW, my daughter just turned 10 and weighs 56 pounds, so she is not very heavy. My dd was taking one private and one LTS class and skating 1-2 other times a week. LTS just ended and starting next week, she will be taking private lessons twice a week and practicing 1-2 times a week.

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$600 skates for kids still doing basic skills testing? That's a waste of money - the boots are probably too stiff, the kids could develop some nasty tendencies or injuries, and they will outgrow the skates before they even break them in, IMO. Of course they can resell them, but you'd never get your money back on them.

My 17 yr old is in $650 skates, and she's testing novice moves next month. She's 5'7" and 115 lbs. The skates give her enough support, but aren't so stiff that she can't bend at the ankle. For her weight and height she couldn't go with anything thinner, but since she is more of a synchro skater, only doing single jumps, they are the perfect skates for her. Thinking of a little featherweight of a kid in the same skates makes me shake my head and wonder what the skate pro was thinking. Most likely he was thinking $$$$

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and her latest skates were probably in the $400 range. She 'just' got a better blade, but if the skates had still fit, I'd have waited.

Yep!! Cost of skates doesnt make one a better skater!!

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