How thick are skate blades?
The skate blades are typically made of tempered carbon steel, coated with a high-quality chrome. Lightweight aluminum and stainless steel blades are becoming more popular with skaters. Blades are about 3⁄16 in (4.8 mm) thick and may have a slightly tapered cross-section.
Hockey skate blades are sharp enough to cut someone when swung at high speeds but also dull enough that you could softly run your fingers across without even breaking the skin. In fact, it is common for skate sharpeners to use their finger to feel the edge of the blade to make sure the skates are properly sharpened.
Blades are made of high-tempered carbon steel and range in length from 40 to 48 centimeters (about 16 to 19 inches) and are about 1.1 millimeters thick (about 0.04 inches).
What is the width of a hockey skate blade? The width of a regular hockey player's skate blade (or runner) is about ⅛" wide. Note that goalie blades are generally wider than this.
Glide and bite are determined by the amount of blade cutting into the ice. 1/2 inch is our standard hollow, a 3/8 would provide more bite, a 5/8 would provide less bite.
These blades were most commonly made of tempered carbon steel coated with chrome, but lighter materials such as stainless steel are becoming more common. At the professional level, many athletes wear skates with high-grade steels that are much more expensive than common skates.
You just stick a tampon up there," she says, adding that exercising on the ice during her period tends to be therapeutic. "Periods can induce cramps for me, which I find exercise helps [alleviate]." She likens cramps to an elite athlete's muscle soreness — both suck, but you get used to them.
Figure skating blades aren't like knives.
The blades also have two edges with a grooved, concave center. This means that the female skaters' weight is distributed over a slightly larger area than if the blades had a single, super-thin edge, like knives do.
Why do figure skaters hit their legs? To wake up their legs (just like Olympic swimmers) and to remind themselves to focus.
To help keep them safe, they wear helmets and cut-proof suits under their racing skins. “Those blades are extremely sharp, so they need to take precautions to prevent lacerations,” Gee says. Tight corners mean that skaters need to stay in an asymmetric, leaned-over body position throughout the race.
Are ice skate blades flat?
Every skate blade has an inside and outside edge and a groove between the edges, called the "flat" of the blade. The sole function of the flat of the blade is to glide straight forward and straight backward.
More Videos. BEIJING, China — The fastest speedskaters at the Olympics don't wear any socks. Speedskaters have custom boots that fit so tight to their feet, there's no room to put on a sock when they're out on the ice.
1) The bottom of your blade is not flat, but rather concave. (See blade cross-section figure) This creates a hollow which allows your skate to cut into the ice. If you've ever put on a pair of skates out of the box (they don't come sharpened), you've learned this the hard way. No hollow = No bite = Sore butt.
There are several different types of hollows to choose from, but pro shops will commonly use 1/2” as their “standard” cut. The 1/2” hollow offers a respectable mix of glide and control for most players but adjusting the depth of the hollow can offer several benefits when done correctly.
You can get your skates sharpened anywhere from 1/8th of an inch to one inch. 1/8th would be the sharpest, and one inch would be the least sharp. The majority of pros use something with a shallower hollow, but preference does widely vary.
Hockey player and goalie skates are often sharpened with a ROH from 3/8” up to 1-1/2”.
It's a 3-millimeter-wide piece of steel hollowed out down the middle in an inverted U to create two edges. An NHL player uses both edges on both skates, like a skier shifting weight from side to side during turns. Most recreational players just want their skates sharpened.
One of the first NHL teams to be using the flat bottom v skate sharpening method was the St. Louis blues, now over 20 NHL teams are using this method, quite a bold statement for a technique that just took off at the beginning of the year!
Jochen Hecht of the Buffalo Sabres, Dennis Seidenberg of the New York Islanders, Marcel Goc of the Nashville Predators, and Christian Ehrhoff of the Buffalo Sabres are NHL players who use T-Blade skates.
The larger the radius, the better the straight line, top-end speed and stability. The shorter the radius, the better the maneuverability. The blade can also be contoured with a forward lean or a backward lean — the former enhancing speed, the latter stability. More than two-thirds of NHL players wear Bauer skates.
What steel do most NHL players use?
Hundreds of NHL players use Ls4 and Ls3 steel, it is the highest grade of steel offered on the Bauer light speed edge holders which is being heavily recommended and borderline mandatory on some teams. Players include Jamie Benn and Steven Stamkos. CCM hockey stock steel has taken major leaps forward in recent years.
In addition to the style, wearing tights over figure skates serves a practical purpose -- to keep the figure skater from tripping over her own laces, which could be as painful as it would be embarrassing during an Olympics competition.
Summary. Amenorrhoea is the absence of menstrual periods. Women who are elite athletes or who exercise excessively on a regular basis are at risk of developing athletic amenorrhoea. Causes are thought to include low levels of body fat and the effects of exercise-related hormones on the menstrual cycle.
Some athletes monitor their periods to ensure they are able to train and compete at optimum times in their cycle. In a short film interview with Women's Health, Lioness and Chelsea FC football player Fran Kirby said her team uses the “Fit For Women” monitoring app to track their cycles and train accordingly.
Sometimes male skaters might wear protective padding, too.
Olympic figure skaters execute all kinds of gravity-defying tricks, but there's one skill that seems downright impossible.
It turns out there's actually a pretty practical explanation for why skating fans hurl teddy bears and other plush toys at competitors: They're soft enough to toss onto the ice without damaging it and causing a safety hazard for the skaters. Throwing things onto the ice wasn't always the norm.
The conservation of angular momentum explains why ice skaters start to spin faster when they suddenly draw their arms inward, or why divers or gymnasts who decrease their moment of inertia by going into the tuck position start to flip or twist at a faster rate.
During competition, some wear them and some do not. Skating outfits are quite form-fitting, so many smaller-busted skaters receive sufficient support from the costumes themselves and find bras unnecessary. Those women with larger busts do wear bras.
Wearing gloves helps skaters keep their hands warm while out on the ice. They also offer a layer of protection in case of a fall, or if a skater performs a tricky move that requires them to grab their blade with their hand.
To wake up their legs (just like Olympic swimmers) and to remind themselves to focus. “I do it to get my blood going again and especially going into competition, there's a lot of adrenaline going on, so I like to re-center and refocus myself by waking up my muscles and giving them just a little kickstart,” says Nagasu.
Why are ice skaters hands so red?
Cold-induced dermatoses experienced by ice-skating athletes result from specific physiological effects of cold exposure on the skin. These conditions include physiological livedo reticularis, chilblains (pernio), Raynaud phenomenon, cold panniculitis, frostnip and frostbite.
The blades on figure skates are sharp enough to cut the skin on a person's face and can even slice deeper, resulting in some serious injuries.
If sharpening is done properly, blades will actually be sharp regardless of the radius of hollow but they'll feel differently. Most figure skaters get their skates sharpened with a radius of hollow in a range between flatter 10/16 (or 5/8) and deeper 6/16 (or 3/8) of an inch.
While your skates can never be too sharp, they can certainly be too dull and that can take a whole lot of fun out of the game. For those skaters who do feel their skates are too sharp at times, we recommend reviewing our post on selecting an ROH. You should experiment with a slightly shallower radius.
No one should ever skate on dull or unsharpened blades. Your skating edge will help you turn and maneuver, as well as keep your balance. The second is that people with weak ankles cannot skate. This actually has more to do with the skate, than the skater.
The ice melting means there is a little bit of water under the metal blades. This thin layer of water is slippery enough for our skates to glide easily, which lets use skate fast without a whole lot of effort. Answer 2: Metal skates are good for ice skating because both metal and ice are slippery.
Short track speed skaters have to wear a cut-resistant protective layer under their bodysuits, but other athletes do not. That under-layer is often made of Kevlar or Spectra and is designed to protect short-track speed skaters when the razor sharp skating blades of their opponents kick them.
Like in bike and swim sport, most of speed skaters shave their legs.
''The hinge on a clap skate lengthens your stride, so you get more power,'' Blair said. ''That helps on the last lap of a race when you get tired and your form starts to break down. '' The first clap skates were developed in the Netherlands during the early 1980's.
Some players will sharpen very frequently, such as every 2-3 hours of ice time, while others go for an entire season without sharpening. If you're unsure of where to start, try getting them sharpened after 10 hours of ice time, and then adjust as you feel is necessary.
How often should you sharpen hockey skates?
Skates should typically be sharpened after 8-10 hours of use on an indoor rink. This timeframe shrinks when skating outdoors. If you find yourself struggling to skate smoothly or falling down doing a typical skill you'd be comfortable with it is a sign that you may need to get your blades checked.
In this video, the Penguins' equipment manager talks about Crosby's skate sharpening preferences. Around 3:44, he mentions that Crosby used to prefer a deeper hollow, but now uses a 1/2" hollow.
| Wayne Gretzky - 1/2" | Sidney Crosby - 9/16" |
|---|---|
| Joe Sakic - 5/8" | Evgeni Malkin - 11/16" |
| Chris Pronger - 7/8" | Jordan Staal - 5/8" |
| Mark Messier - 1" | Sergei Gonchar - 1-1/4" |
| Paul Coffey - 1" to 2" | Alex Ovechkin - 1/2" |
5/8 (Shallow) grind is what most figure skaters skate on. This gives you a good flowing edge and has little friction on the ice.
The most common radius of hollow cuts are ½” and 5/8” for skate sharpening shops because it provides the best balance between edge depth and glide speed.
A quick test for a sharp edge is to hold the skate upside down, place one thumbnail on the edge of the blade and gently pull down and away from the blade on three or four parts of the blade. A good, sharp blade will easily scrape a layer of your thumbnail, leaving the remnants on the blade.
Skate Sharpening & Skate Care
Skates need to be sharp even if the skater is young. Most often children's skates require sharpening every 2 months depending on how much they skate.
A short-track speed skater would have problems making quick turns wearing long track skates. Luge blades are not polished enough for bobsledders. Here's a comparison of the different blades used in the skating events and on the bobsled and luge: FIGURE SKATES Thickness: 3 mm to 4 mm (0.12 inches to 0.16 inches).
The rule of thumb is that you want to get a blade that is 1/4 " or smaller then the length of the sole. It should not be any shorter than that, but typically anywhere from 1/4" to 1/14" shorter than the sole length.
Every skate blade has an inside and outside edge and a groove between the edges, called the "flat" of the blade. The sole function of the flat of the blade is to glide straight forward and straight backward.
How tall should skate blades be?
what profile is best? A smaller profile (7′) will make less contact with the ice than a larger profile (13′). Less ice contact (7′) allows for greater maneuverability and acceleration, but also digs into the ice more than a larger profile (13′), which means slower top speeds and increased fatigue.
There are several different types of hollows to choose from, but pro shops will commonly use 1/2” as their “standard” cut. The 1/2” hollow offers a respectable mix of glide and control for most players but adjusting the depth of the hollow can offer several benefits when done correctly.
The ice melting means there is a little bit of water under the metal blades. This thin layer of water is slippery enough for our skates to glide easily, which lets use skate fast without a whole lot of effort. Answer 2: Metal skates are good for ice skating because both metal and ice are slippery.
1) The bottom of your blade is not flat, but rather concave. (See blade cross-section figure) This creates a hollow which allows your skate to cut into the ice. If you've ever put on a pair of skates out of the box (they don't come sharpened), you've learned this the hard way. No hollow = No bite = Sore butt.
Yes. Huge difference. Invest in good blades. Not only will they hold a sharpening better, better blades are made with higher quality steel which gives you better speed/flow across the ice and also makes it easier to hold an edge.
What kind of skates do Olympic figure skaters wear? While the brand of skate an Olympic figure skater uses is up to their own discretion, the most commonly used skates in the Olympics are Edea. The Edea brand is also the most commonly used skates at other events, like national and world championships.
Remember, bearings only need to be cleaned about once every two to three months depending on the environment you are skating in.
While your skates can never be too sharp, they can certainly be too dull and that can take a whole lot of fun out of the game. For those skaters who do feel their skates are too sharp at times, we recommend reviewing our post on selecting an ROH. You should experiment with a slightly shallower radius.
If sharpening is done properly, blades will actually be sharp regardless of the radius of hollow but they'll feel differently. Most figure skaters get their skates sharpened with a radius of hollow in a range between flatter 10/16 (or 5/8) and deeper 6/16 (or 3/8) of an inch.
Skates should typically be sharpened after 8-10 hours of use on an indoor rink. This timeframe shrinks when skating outdoors. If you find yourself struggling to skate smoothly or falling down doing a typical skill you'd be comfortable with it is a sign that you may need to get your blades checked.
How long do hockey blades last?
It depends on the blade, the skill level, the skater, etc. Done frequently enough, a blade should last 5 to 8 years for the average recreational skater.
In the NHL, however, the most common cut is much shallower, between 5/8” and 3/4″. Players in the NHL also get their skate profiles customized 100% of the time. Obviously they are very persnickety about their skates, as this is their livelihood.
Factors. A skaters weight can be a factor when selecting and edge. The heavier a skater is the more their edges will sink into the ice.
