New Skates!

[Kit kat]

soooo i got new skates today.. but the toepicks are kinda smaller than i thougth they would be.. they're Riedell Silver Medallion 220
They're supposed to be good up to freestyle 5.. are those the right skates?]

o the blades are wilson Excel .. i heard those are for Alpha, beta ect.

[skippyjoy_207]

I thought those were up to Delta.

Check here:
http://riedellskates.com/ice/popups/popup-220.html#sizes

Silver Stars are the ones that last up to FS , assuming your rink is part of ISI.

Could be, I'm wrong.

[skippyjoy_207]

What kind of skates did you have before?

[Kit kat]

oh man.. i think i made a big mistake.

[Kit kat]

What kind of skates did you have before?

i had jackson Mystyics.

[skippyjoy_207]

Ehh.. Don't sweat too much over it. My friend has Bronze Medallions, and she's doing axels in them. Like everyone says, it's more technique than your skates.

But if you wanted to get another pair, you can always check to see if your pro shop, or wherever you bought them, accepts refunds.

[Kit kat]

yeah, im not too worried about the jumps.. but about the spins. I was worried about the blades. Because i got new skates to get of my toe pick when i spin.

[skippyjoy_207]

Hmm... Maybe if your boots are heavier than your old ones, they'll still give you the control to get better at spins? If you're not planning on returning them, tell us how it goes! :)

[Kit kat]

well. i think i might get new blades or return them . Cause my coach said i need a bigger toe pick to stay on the ball of my blade. so i hope everything goes well!

[stardust skies]

Well, you're not going to get off your toepick when you spin by switching blades. You're going to get off your toepick when you spin by learning correct technique and working hard on correcting your bad habit (which MANY people have, including elites).

Don't worry about the size of your toepick. Can you do everything in them? How do they feel? If they feel good and they aren't hindering you or holding you back in anyway, then you got the right skates. :)

[stardust skies]

well. i think i might get new blades or return them . Cause my coach said i need a bigger toe pick to stay on the ball of my blade. so i hope everything goes well!

You posted this after I started posting my reply. This is such a load of crap. A bigger toepick isn't going to help you stay on the ball of your foot when you spin. Think this way: the object is to not BE on the toepick when you spin. Not at ALL. So....the size and shape of the toepick is NOT going to affect any part of your spin if you're doing it right. And if you're doing it wrong, then that's your fault, not the blade's.

[Kit kat]

oh..
i thought that if the rocker is bigger or something then it will help you stay on the ball of the blade.
cause my old ones were very round and i barely had a toepick at all!!
well thank you for your advice!

[skippyjoy_207]

If you do get them returned, you should try out the Jackson Competitors. I used to have Jackson Mystiques and couldn't spin on them either. It might've been cause they didn't fit too well, but anyway, when I got my Competitors about a week ago, my spins got a lot better, after I broke them in. With the Club 2000 blades, they're about $210, I think. They should last up to FS 5, I think. Jacksons are cheaper in price, but in my opinion, they're better than Riedells.

[stardust skies]

oh..
i thought that if the rocker is bigger or something then it will help you stay on the ball of the blade.
cause my old ones were very round and i barely had a toepick at all!!
well thank you for your advice!


Hey- I do *not* mean this in a condescending way at all...but if you are going to be the one making your own decision about which blades (or boots for that matter) to buy, you NEED to educate yourself on what options are available and what the terms mean. There's a good thread sticky-posted on this board about blades. A rocker has NOTHING to do with the toepick. A rocker determines how much curve your blade has. The smaller the rocker number (usually you choose between 7 FT or 8 FT, although some blades are 8.5 FT), the easier spins are, but the slower the blade. The bigger rocker sizes are harder to spin on at first (though I never noticed a difference but I was pretty advanced in spins before switching) but they go faster and have a few other differences about them. If your old blades were very "round", then they had a smaller rocker, and they were supposed to be easier to spin on. And a toepick has nothing to do with spins. Except maybe hooking a camel spin, and you're probably not doing those. It affects some hookings of later spins. But you should be able to do scratch and back scratch spins in basically any blade if you do it right. And either way, being on your toepick has to do with nothing other than you being on the wrong place with your foot.

It takes TIME, all of us have been there. Switching equipment until you see an improvement in technique will only, ironically, set you back. Just be patient, and learn more about your sport's equipment.

[icedancer2]

And a toepick has nothing to do with spins. Except maybe hooking a camel spin, and you're probably not doing those. It affects some hookings of later spins. But you should be able to do scratch and back scratch spins in basically any blade if you do it right. And either way, being on your toepick has to do with nothing other than you being on the wrong place with your foot.

It takes TIME, all of us have been there. Switching equipment until you see an improvement in technique will only, ironically, set you back. Just be patient, and learn more about your sport's equipment.

Actually, I have found spinning in dance blades (the MK and the Wilson Super Dance 99) very difficult and I think it's because of where the bottom pick is placed, the fact that it is very small also that it is rounded. I am pretty sure that if I put some Coronation Ace or something like that on my current boots I would be able to spin just fine (except for the middle-age dizziness factor LOL).

So, depending on those factors on her blades (which I am not familiar with) maybe it would be hard to spin. Here is a link to the boots that she mentioned -- those picks do look pretty small!

http://www.skatesonthenet.com/dpp.asp?cat=3&scat=2&pg=2&iskey=1043&section=

But I do agree that a person should be able to do a spin with just about any kind of "normal" blade -- but this goes back to the discussion about which blade is right for each level.

I still would go with Coronation Ace (the blade I grew up on, basically).

Good luck with your skating.

[Kit kat]

Except maybe hooking a camel spin, and you're probably not doing those. It affects some hookings of later spins.
.

im working on the camel.

[stardust skies]

im working on the camel.

Ok, well if you are working on the camel, you should, if your coach is working in any kind of logical order, have all or at least most of your single jumps (at least up to flip/loop). If this is the case, you should be in either MK professionals or John Wilson Coronation Aces. You should NOT be in blades that come pre-attached with the boots. Who reccommended this for you? It is all wrong for your skill level. It says in the link to the description "it is a very popular model for selective recreational skaters." The boots are not meant to be used very often, very long, or for harder jumps and spins. And the toepick isn't adequate to do good jumps. It shouldn't hinder a scratch spin, though. But realistically speaking, good toe pick or not, these blades are recreational low-end blades. Even if they had a gigantic toepick, you couldn't spin well in them. They aren't meant to. It looks like these skates are meant for basic skills. I urge you to go and have a little talk with whomever suggested these for you.

[Kit kat]

Silver Stars are the ones that last up to FS , assuming your rink is part of ISI.

Could be, I'm wrong.

i think you're right. I'll talk to my coach about it. thanks! :)

[Kit kat]

THEY MADE A MISTAKE !! YAY!!
it wasnt supposed to be silver medallion.
soo i will just get differnt skates. thanks for your advice everyone! ill make sure that i get skates that are better for ME this time! .. actaully my mom and coach will do that for me. but THANK YOU GUYS AGAIN!.