About 6 weeks ago I got new boots and blades. Although my skates weren't too terribly broken down, they had become too large. I went from wearing an 8D, 10 1/4" blade to a 7C 9 3/4 inch blade (same brands). It took about 3 weeks to break the boot in, and now they are pretty comfortable.

But my balance is completely off. I'm doing things I never used to do before. I'm breaking at the waist. I'm sticking my butt out. I'm rocking back and forth at odd moments. I'm catching my inside edge on spins. My 3turns and mohawks scratch like a beginners. I suspect this is all more or less due to the rocker being in a completely new place. And I'm wondering how long it's going to take me to get used to this new balance issue. Anybody else make a big change in boot/blade size and have such a hard time readusting?

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

I went to blades 1/4 inch smaller and had some of the same balance issues, but they resolved in a few weeks. Maybe you just need a bit more time because of the greater change in blade size.

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I went from a mid level blade to top of the line, along with new boots. Could do jumps right away but spins are a nightmare!!!! I lost all spins except the forward upright. My backspin has taken a couple of weeks to be working, although not as good as before. Camel spin has taken a vacation, though the sit/sit seems to work ok. FLying camel is so so. The rocker and the profile of the blade is so weird to me that it does take some adjusting. Due to the fact I also have new boots, it's taking me longer than I anticipated. Oh well...when I do get those flippin spins they are gonna be good

blades: I went from MK21 to coronation ace and broke my ankle getting my toepick stuck in the ice. I'm still struggling with the recovery for the ankle. Balance-wise the readjustment took me 2 lessons (3 hours), but the larger toepick was an unpleasant surprise.

boots: I also went from risport etoile to graf edmonton (like, beginners' skate to rock hard) and I'm not having that much difficulty with that, on the contrary, my jumps improved majorly and all my footsteps and edges and that stuff improved too. Except the sit spin. That was bad, and stayed bad.

I'd say the blades are the hardest to switch.

Oh I agree - my first blade was a basic Wilson Excell with a teensy toepick. I went from that to a basic Jackson blade with a much bigger toepick and whinged for at least a year about the bigger toe pick and my constant bellyflops due to said toepick!

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

Don't forget, not only are you adjusting to new blades, but as soon as you adjust to the combination of the new blade and the boot stiffness, the boots get a little more broken in and you are getting more ankle bend--putting your weight farther towards the front of the blade and requiring you to adjust your balance all over again. In other words, you may have to continue readjusting your balance from time to time until your boots are done breaking in.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I went from Wilson Excel to MK Pro and I had the same experience. The first time I skated on my new blades, I took a stroking class. We were doing russian stroking and I went down, hard, on one knee, without knee pads. That put me out of commission for a few weeks!

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Oh dear. That's depressing!

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3turn
The Great Skate Experiment

I hear you on readjusting. I use to skate in Graf Edmonton Specials (which were warped and forcing my calves to lean way forward) with Pattern 99's. The I switch my boot to Gam Ultra's (slightly softer boot, mid grade) and the Ultima Legacy Blade. I could not get use to the blade and had to return the Legacy for the Ultima Elite because it was more like my Pattern 99's in which I at one time was doing jumps upto a 2 salchow but not including the Axel before my work place injury during the spring of 2005. I'm still working my way back with my jumps and spins. The jumps and spins I've gotten back from starting out from scratch again after a year off the ice, tons of physio and chiro are much more solid than before but I'm still working on getting my camel and backspin back.

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When were you doing a 2 salchow? I thought you were still working on your loop, flip, and lutz back then.

Oh, no~! I didn't mean it to be discouraging at all. It sounds like you are probably nearing the end of your break-in period so it won't be long before all of this readjusting stuff will stop and you'll have all of your elements back!

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I feel you Sessy!!! This is why I chose Gold Seals over Pattern 99's. I saw the toe pick on a pattern and it made me cringe. My toe jumps aren't so bad that I need a toe pick that huge. I can't even imagine doing a sit spin on those things. I upgraded from a pair of Ultima Legacy's to Gold Seals and noticed a major difference in my skating. It took me a month to fully adjust to the blades. The sweet spot on Gold Seals was much bigger so spinning is easier but I found it harder to center the spin initially. I lost my toeloop flip and lutz for a few weeks but my edge jumps improved greatly especially the axel.

Changing/upgrading boots and blades can be a discouraging time. Trust me, you'll get all of your elements back plus interest.


BlackManSkating

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Goals
Pass my Silver Moves Test
Finish Choreography for Silver Program
Land a Clean Double Toe and Double Lutz
Work on Double Axel and Rockers
Speed up back Camel

Maybe you need to check how are your blades installed on the boots. The simplest and easiest way is to glide on each leg strait, e.g. - you push and glide. If you glide along the strait line, the install is OK; if you tend to go slightly left or right from the strait line (on the curve), the install is off, and you need to fix it. It is better to fix it than to adjust to the wrong install, because with the next blades you may have to adjust again. The position of the blade vs. boot (too far forward or opposite) may also be the cause.