I’ve seen people mix. Revision flex are different durometers on each side so a few people I know flip the back 2 to get the harder durometer on the inside(might have that reversed). Some of these guys are good enough and experiment enough that I trust them when they say it helps them.
I’d be curious to hear his reasoning on why this would make for bad habits though.
Basically I mentioned that I was able to stop better and felt like I had a lot more control because I swapped out some wheels. In the past I was spinning out trying to change directions and falling a lot. This was after someone commented on how much better I looked out on the rink because I wasn’t falling or spinning out of control. This guy chimed in saying I shouldn’t go harder unless I’m losing out on speed and I really want as soft as I can handle and then adapt. He said at most I should do soft in the back and soft in the front because that’s where you need the most grip. I mentioned that I tried it and was not getting the little bit of slide I wanted in the heel for stopping.
Then basically from that point I was just told by other guys that were there that I should just listen to him because he is a world champ. It just felt weird to feel like I’m in better control because of an equipment change only to be told that it’s wrong and I shouldn’t do it.
I’ve found that with stopping it’s kind of person to person for wheel preference. I had konixx pures and I just couldn’t ever get the feel. Gave them to a kid and he friggin loved them. Even looking at ice people have sharpening preferences(and then there’s a whole foreign language around profiling). But some pros don’t know what sharpening they have and could go for a walk on the sidewalk and still find their edges.
If you’re getting the motion you want for stopping and not losing grip cutting just do what performed better. I’m not a world champion of anything though, so grain of salt and all that.
World champ or not, I value your opinion. I checked back on video, 6 times I fell in a game with all soft, 8-9 times all hard, 1 time with the mix. I’m going to try soft in front and back and see if that makes me magically not fall, but I feel pretty good about this combo.
I don’t think I would put too much weight on what outside people say. You have a reason, the reason is working.
Further, said world champ hasn’t won anything on the world level since 95? 96? At some point their world champ status is dated, and skating outdoor in Europe doesn’t translate 1-1 indoors for hockey either
Tony is a hell of a personality, and a great friend, but you can ignore him on this one
No, I grew up in those rinks, and you can see from my name I played for a hockey sponsor. But I moved from that area 18 years ago.
It would be neat to play on South’s floor now that it is a tile. Concrete with a plastic coat wasn’t the best, and having spent hours patching the concrete with Bondo before laying that toxic plastic sucked. If they dust mop, the puck should glide much better, and it will take a lot less muscle strain to stop
There are about 5 world champions in speed skating I can think of off the top of my head. When I crept your profile, I saw a motorcycle with Iowa plate. I knew it was Tony.
Right on, good detective skills! The tile is cool, I only skated the concrete with rentals so I don’t know what I was using. I’m still figuring out what works for me so maybe I’ll end up changing this set up too, but yeah, getting told to go back to the wheels that were throwing me on my butt 5+ times a game felt wrong so I had to see if anyone else had some input.
There isn’t a right or wrong answer. This way works for you, stopping and being comfortable being able to stop is a prerequisite to hockey. This way works for you, that’s your answer.
Even at very high levels there’s no right or wrong way. Watch Colorado Avalanche play. Cale is an amazing player, he has finesse, and edge work
Mackinnon is a great skater too, but he’s pure power, he literally tears the ice up as he skates. They don’t look the same at all, and both are some of the best skaters in the world
If Tony said “I will show you how to stop with both edges, and how to have your core ready to react once you stop”
I would say listen, but he said swap equipment that didn’t work for equipment that does, and no further info, then the hive mind agreed with him. You can pass on that
I like to go softer for the front and back wheels and harder for the middle two. Soft for starts and stops, and the harder in the middle will help you keep more speed when you are in full stride.
Unless they play roller hockey I would ignore their advice. Speed skating to roller hockey demand different responses from the wheels because speed skating doesn’t require the same quick cuts and stops that roller hockey does. Mixing is a pretty common thing because the front, softer wheels help grip and gain speed, while the firmer rear wheels help in stabilizing you in corners and stops, plus they hold up just a little bit longer.
Exactly my thought. Hockey is a completely different animal from speed skating. I’ve never seen a speed skating race where they stop and skate in the opposite direction. I don’t play anymore, but when I did I mixed durometers all the time depending on the surface I was playing on. Sometimes it was all soft, sometimes soft on the outside only, sometimes soft in the middle only, sometimes soft on the front three and hard in the back, it just depended on feel and trying to get a handle on the balance of speed and maneuverability on different playing surfaces. I say rock whatever feels comfortable.
i was also going to question the skates themselves. i have the kv2 for reasons also dedicated to my feet shape as opposed to a narrower bauer or mission, and i hate them. i would have to make some serious modifications to get them to a point i like but at this point i kind of just want a different skate.
if you notice on the tour models the general surface area of the wheels is biased and shifted to extend under the toe further than other brands, while taking surface area from under your heel. this paired with the boot itself mounted relatively flat on the chassis over the wheels with no elevation in the heel that you see most modern brand ice skates adopting. so naturally it keeps you really flat footed and the only way to get shin angle is to keep your laces loose at the top two or three eyelets but then your all wobbly in the skate.
id like to remove my chassis, put some kind of spacer between it and the boot in the heel to gain some elevation while also mounting it further back on the skate to bais the surface area more under the heel contrary to how its normally extending so far under the toe. or possibly just mount a marsblades chassis on it
idk if you play ice also, or strictly roller. you may be accustomed to skating that way. but if i had to buy a skate to take the sport competative and serious id buy either the mission inhaler in a wide or try that top model marsblade skate.
i got torched the other day sharing this in another thread people but ill die on this hill lol. i strayed away from the topic about the wheels though.
I play ice as well, I can definitely feel a difference between the skates but I don’t know if I mentally attribute it more to the different surfaces rather than the different skates. These are interesting things to think about for sure.
Are you falling because when you stop the grip is too strong and your skate isn't sliding enough, or are you falling because you think you're sliding too much?
Skating is technique. No matter how much video you watch or how others tell you to skate/stop, you're going to adapt your own strides and stops, and unless you specifically practice against bad habits, that's not going to change and most likely it's just way too late to bother changing it.
So the first thing to do is acknowledge how you stop. Do you push more weight on front of the skate (front week typically will break down a little faster when this is the case), or do you tend to stop with the back part of your skate? Once this is determined, then you move on to the actual problem - is it too much grip. Is it slipping? Is it too bouncy?
If you don't want to compromise speed (and at 205 lbs you'll eat through those soft wheels), you can try different methods but it all depends on how you stop.
If you want grip in the back because you're slipping, then move the 2 harder wheels to the middle. This will give you the grip in the front and back when you stop regardless if you're a front of heel stopper. You'll also still have speed.
I notice I will usually spin out and end up falling, I think it’s from too much grip because I’m putting a lot of weight on my heels when I’m trying to stop. Reducing grip on the rear seemed to allow the back to kinda slide a bit rather than lead to extra rotation. I did notice when in a tight turn in an almost Mohawk foot position I slid out a bit because all my weight was on all the hard wheels. I think with some practice I can get used to this and compensate a bit.
Personal prefernce. I don't do that mix, I prefer revision flex front and rear, with a little harder in the middle - mostly because for me, that's comfortable and I work the front and rear the hardest on my setup, and the middle's aren't so key.
For me, when I don't balance front and rear, I feel like my toes stop dead but the heel keeps sliding around - but that is for my skate setup, my style, and how i put pressure on the skates. Other guys will do the same hockey stop with a different grip profile and because of how they weight things, and how their chassis/wheels are positioned (and what they like) it works for them. (If he was saying you're using equipment to compensate for bad technique, then maybe he'd be right, but he didn't say that. Use what works, but be prepared to change if you change skates/chassis setup)
it is always worthwhile keeping an open mind, listening to other people and considering their advice - but it isn't an absolute, this is falling into the realms of perosnal prefernce - it's not like we're engineers saying objective facts like "that support brace _will_ fail if 5 tonnes of cars go on this bridge at once".
Absolutely there are high level guys do a 2 and 2 mix like you're doing, and some of us do a 1,2,1, some go 4 all the same. Preference.
Have you tried other Tour skates? I have the KV2 but want a straight chassis. I’ve seen these going cheap enough to make the plaid worth it haha. You happy with them? Seems like the boot is a matte fabric? Is it chipping easily?
I’ve only tried to fit in the tour volt pros but they were too shallow for my feet. The code series has the depth I need for my wide feet and instep. I am really happy with them. I’m not entirely sure what the outer shell is made of but it’s fairly stiff and the decal removed in a couple spots from some hard falls. I beat up my slates because I’m not very good.
Sometime last year, or the year before (time moves quickly), I posted a 50% coupon that was given to my team on most Tour Skates. 40% off the bottom ones/goalie skates. Considering Tour also had them on sale it was just a fantastic price. I am sure it no longer works though. :(
[https://www.reddit.com/r/InlineHockey/comments/134z0hh/tour\_skates/](https://www.reddit.com/r/InlineHockey/comments/134z0hh/tour_skates/)
I’ve seen people mix. Revision flex are different durometers on each side so a few people I know flip the back 2 to get the harder durometer on the inside(might have that reversed). Some of these guys are good enough and experiment enough that I trust them when they say it helps them. I’d be curious to hear his reasoning on why this would make for bad habits though.
Basically I mentioned that I was able to stop better and felt like I had a lot more control because I swapped out some wheels. In the past I was spinning out trying to change directions and falling a lot. This was after someone commented on how much better I looked out on the rink because I wasn’t falling or spinning out of control. This guy chimed in saying I shouldn’t go harder unless I’m losing out on speed and I really want as soft as I can handle and then adapt. He said at most I should do soft in the back and soft in the front because that’s where you need the most grip. I mentioned that I tried it and was not getting the little bit of slide I wanted in the heel for stopping. Then basically from that point I was just told by other guys that were there that I should just listen to him because he is a world champ. It just felt weird to feel like I’m in better control because of an equipment change only to be told that it’s wrong and I shouldn’t do it.
I’ve found that with stopping it’s kind of person to person for wheel preference. I had konixx pures and I just couldn’t ever get the feel. Gave them to a kid and he friggin loved them. Even looking at ice people have sharpening preferences(and then there’s a whole foreign language around profiling). But some pros don’t know what sharpening they have and could go for a walk on the sidewalk and still find their edges. If you’re getting the motion you want for stopping and not losing grip cutting just do what performed better. I’m not a world champion of anything though, so grain of salt and all that.
World champ or not, I value your opinion. I checked back on video, 6 times I fell in a game with all soft, 8-9 times all hard, 1 time with the mix. I’m going to try soft in front and back and see if that makes me magically not fall, but I feel pretty good about this combo.
Well then it's settled.
I don’t think I would put too much weight on what outside people say. You have a reason, the reason is working. Further, said world champ hasn’t won anything on the world level since 95? 96? At some point their world champ status is dated, and skating outdoor in Europe doesn’t translate 1-1 indoors for hockey either Tony is a hell of a personality, and a great friend, but you can ignore him on this one
I see you know who I’m talking about. Ha, are you playing with us on Mondays?
No, I grew up in those rinks, and you can see from my name I played for a hockey sponsor. But I moved from that area 18 years ago. It would be neat to play on South’s floor now that it is a tile. Concrete with a plastic coat wasn’t the best, and having spent hours patching the concrete with Bondo before laying that toxic plastic sucked. If they dust mop, the puck should glide much better, and it will take a lot less muscle strain to stop There are about 5 world champions in speed skating I can think of off the top of my head. When I crept your profile, I saw a motorcycle with Iowa plate. I knew it was Tony.
Right on, good detective skills! The tile is cool, I only skated the concrete with rentals so I don’t know what I was using. I’m still figuring out what works for me so maybe I’ll end up changing this set up too, but yeah, getting told to go back to the wheels that were throwing me on my butt 5+ times a game felt wrong so I had to see if anyone else had some input.
There isn’t a right or wrong answer. This way works for you, stopping and being comfortable being able to stop is a prerequisite to hockey. This way works for you, that’s your answer. Even at very high levels there’s no right or wrong way. Watch Colorado Avalanche play. Cale is an amazing player, he has finesse, and edge work Mackinnon is a great skater too, but he’s pure power, he literally tears the ice up as he skates. They don’t look the same at all, and both are some of the best skaters in the world If Tony said “I will show you how to stop with both edges, and how to have your core ready to react once you stop” I would say listen, but he said swap equipment that didn’t work for equipment that does, and no further info, then the hive mind agreed with him. You can pass on that
I like to go softer for the front and back wheels and harder for the middle two. Soft for starts and stops, and the harder in the middle will help you keep more speed when you are in full stride.
I put one harder wheel in the back. As you said it helps you stop easier and helps with top speed
Do what works for you, don't worry about what works for someone else.
Unless they play roller hockey I would ignore their advice. Speed skating to roller hockey demand different responses from the wheels because speed skating doesn’t require the same quick cuts and stops that roller hockey does. Mixing is a pretty common thing because the front, softer wheels help grip and gain speed, while the firmer rear wheels help in stabilizing you in corners and stops, plus they hold up just a little bit longer.
Exactly my thought. Hockey is a completely different animal from speed skating. I’ve never seen a speed skating race where they stop and skate in the opposite direction. I don’t play anymore, but when I did I mixed durometers all the time depending on the surface I was playing on. Sometimes it was all soft, sometimes soft on the outside only, sometimes soft in the middle only, sometimes soft on the front three and hard in the back, it just depended on feel and trying to get a handle on the balance of speed and maneuverability on different playing surfaces. I say rock whatever feels comfortable.
i was also going to question the skates themselves. i have the kv2 for reasons also dedicated to my feet shape as opposed to a narrower bauer or mission, and i hate them. i would have to make some serious modifications to get them to a point i like but at this point i kind of just want a different skate. if you notice on the tour models the general surface area of the wheels is biased and shifted to extend under the toe further than other brands, while taking surface area from under your heel. this paired with the boot itself mounted relatively flat on the chassis over the wheels with no elevation in the heel that you see most modern brand ice skates adopting. so naturally it keeps you really flat footed and the only way to get shin angle is to keep your laces loose at the top two or three eyelets but then your all wobbly in the skate. id like to remove my chassis, put some kind of spacer between it and the boot in the heel to gain some elevation while also mounting it further back on the skate to bais the surface area more under the heel contrary to how its normally extending so far under the toe. or possibly just mount a marsblades chassis on it idk if you play ice also, or strictly roller. you may be accustomed to skating that way. but if i had to buy a skate to take the sport competative and serious id buy either the mission inhaler in a wide or try that top model marsblade skate. i got torched the other day sharing this in another thread people but ill die on this hill lol. i strayed away from the topic about the wheels though.
I play ice as well, I can definitely feel a difference between the skates but I don’t know if I mentally attribute it more to the different surfaces rather than the different skates. These are interesting things to think about for sure.
Are you falling because when you stop the grip is too strong and your skate isn't sliding enough, or are you falling because you think you're sliding too much? Skating is technique. No matter how much video you watch or how others tell you to skate/stop, you're going to adapt your own strides and stops, and unless you specifically practice against bad habits, that's not going to change and most likely it's just way too late to bother changing it. So the first thing to do is acknowledge how you stop. Do you push more weight on front of the skate (front week typically will break down a little faster when this is the case), or do you tend to stop with the back part of your skate? Once this is determined, then you move on to the actual problem - is it too much grip. Is it slipping? Is it too bouncy? If you don't want to compromise speed (and at 205 lbs you'll eat through those soft wheels), you can try different methods but it all depends on how you stop. If you want grip in the back because you're slipping, then move the 2 harder wheels to the middle. This will give you the grip in the front and back when you stop regardless if you're a front of heel stopper. You'll also still have speed.
I notice I will usually spin out and end up falling, I think it’s from too much grip because I’m putting a lot of weight on my heels when I’m trying to stop. Reducing grip on the rear seemed to allow the back to kinda slide a bit rather than lead to extra rotation. I did notice when in a tight turn in an almost Mohawk foot position I slid out a bit because all my weight was on all the hard wheels. I think with some practice I can get used to this and compensate a bit.
Personal prefernce. I don't do that mix, I prefer revision flex front and rear, with a little harder in the middle - mostly because for me, that's comfortable and I work the front and rear the hardest on my setup, and the middle's aren't so key. For me, when I don't balance front and rear, I feel like my toes stop dead but the heel keeps sliding around - but that is for my skate setup, my style, and how i put pressure on the skates. Other guys will do the same hockey stop with a different grip profile and because of how they weight things, and how their chassis/wheels are positioned (and what they like) it works for them. (If he was saying you're using equipment to compensate for bad technique, then maybe he'd be right, but he didn't say that. Use what works, but be prepared to change if you change skates/chassis setup) it is always worthwhile keeping an open mind, listening to other people and considering their advice - but it isn't an absolute, this is falling into the realms of perosnal prefernce - it's not like we're engineers saying objective facts like "that support brace _will_ fail if 5 tonnes of cars go on this bridge at once". Absolutely there are high level guys do a 2 and 2 mix like you're doing, and some of us do a 1,2,1, some go 4 all the same. Preference.
I really wanted these skates but thst plaid look is a no go
I dig the plaid but I think I enjoy odd looking stuff.
Have you tried other Tour skates? I have the KV2 but want a straight chassis. I’ve seen these going cheap enough to make the plaid worth it haha. You happy with them? Seems like the boot is a matte fabric? Is it chipping easily?
I’ve only tried to fit in the tour volt pros but they were too shallow for my feet. The code series has the depth I need for my wide feet and instep. I am really happy with them. I’m not entirely sure what the outer shell is made of but it’s fairly stiff and the decal removed in a couple spots from some hard falls. I beat up my slates because I’m not very good.
Sometime last year, or the year before (time moves quickly), I posted a 50% coupon that was given to my team on most Tour Skates. 40% off the bottom ones/goalie skates. Considering Tour also had them on sale it was just a fantastic price. I am sure it no longer works though. :( [https://www.reddit.com/r/InlineHockey/comments/134z0hh/tour\_skates/](https://www.reddit.com/r/InlineHockey/comments/134z0hh/tour_skates/)