An essential item of ice hockey equipment for any player, is a pair of ice hockey skates. It is important that your hockey skates are comfortable to ensure that you can concentrate on your game.
As you may expect there is a wide choice of ice hockey skates for sale to choose from at many different levels of performance depending on what each individuals’ requirement is. There are different brands to choose from such as Bauer, Nike, CCM, Reebok, Easton, SBK and Graf to name a few.
The cheap ice hockey skates are the entry level of hockey skates ideal for more recretional skating and beginners to the ice hockey game, such as CCM ice hockey skates. The more advanced you become, the more you may look at the higher levels of ice hockey skates which may give better performance, more comfort and benefit from the latest advances in technology and materials, such as bauer ice hockey skates.
Skates are made from three basic parts, the inside padding of the boot, the exterior plastic part of the boot and the blade. Depending on the level of skate you are purchasing, these different areas will be made from different materials and have different advantages depending on the price range you are looking at.
It is important that your hockey skates give support at the ankle. The cheaper ice hockey skates usually have a padded ankle the more advanced hockey skate could have gel padding in this area or the Reebok ice hockey skates that have air pump, whereby you fill the area around the ankle with the amount of air required for the individual.
As mentioned, it is important that you find a hockey skate which fits you well and will be comfortable to play in. Your feet should fit snugly into the boot of the skate, there should not be too much room for the foot to move around and you should be able to wiggle your toes freely. When you put your foot into the skate you should push your feet forward and you should be able to slip your fingers down between the heel and the boot. Obviously fitting of a skate will become an individual choice. It is best to try on different brands of skates, to ensure that you get the correct fitting as the sizing may differ between them. It is best, especially if you are new to buying skates and unsure of sizing and feel, that you go and try skates on to find the best feel. When you try them on you should crouch into a playing position to ensure that the skates fit and are comfortable around the ankle. It is also a good idea to walk around on them for say 10 minutes to ensure that they do feel comfortable. You will find that youth ice hockey skates or junior ice hockey skates come in sizes from size 2 to 5. Senior ice hockey skates can be found from size 6 upwards to size 11.
The more advanced higher hockey skates are able to be heated moulded to your fit. You can specifically get them heated and then you pop your feet in and then cool down to the shape of your feet thus giving a more comfortable fit for your own feet.
As a hockey player you need to ensure that your skates are sharpened and kept sharp to get the optium performance and prevent any slipping and falling over. When purchasing your skates, they may come unsharpened. It is important that you find a good reliable person/outlet to sharpen your skates as uneven sharpening can affect the lines and edges on the skates that can affect your skating ability.
We have been talking about player hockey skates, but there are also a specific ranger of goalie hockey skates. Ice hockey goalie skates for goalies are cut lower at the ankle for comfort as well as some other changes. Ice hockey goalie skates also lower to the icegiving a lower centre of gravity with a slightly longer blade and less of rocker to assist the goalie to move from side to side.
