Now that our season is over, it's time to reflect on some of the things I didn't time to sort through during the season. A minor but annoying problem occurred occasionally when doing straight-line spirals on my right foot - I'd get a rapid oscillation of the skate from side-to-side. The left foot was always fine.
I've had skate oscillations before, and they never seem to go unstable, but the spiral wobble is coming close. Even my coach sees it happen and can't suggest a cure.
During the spiral, I've tried to shift my weight to the rear to help, and it may. Unfortunately I have no more ice with which to run further experiments (nor skates either ...I just sent them to Cooke's in Wilmington, MA for a tongue rebuild).
Has anyone else experienced skate wobble and found a sure-fire cure?
You are forward on the blade. You already figured it out, but I'm guessing you are not running a deep enough hollow, or you have a bad edge from landing jumps on your right skate. Jump landings will roll that inside edge over, and now it is slipping when you lean into it in the spiral ( same edge as landing checkout ). Test it by rubbing your finger up that edge. I'll bet it is burred, or maybe worse .. it is totally gone.
I think you have made a good point there, I can't jump at all, but at beginner level I was having trouble with control of the FO 3. I finally got a clue that it might be a blade issue when I slipped sideways out of one yesterday. I practice maybe a 100+ of these things each week, and no doubt the FO front half of my blades is blunted by that. Yet if you glance casually ath the blade, maybe from the other side it looks OK. Anyway I sharpened today and control on the 3 is tonight at another level altogether. It even stops dead if I fail to rotate the upper body properly now . Repeated use of one part of the blade can I think cause localised wear.
Steve
"johns" <johns123xxx@xxxmoscow.com> wrote:>You are forward on the blade. You already figured it>out, but I'm guessing you are not running a deep enough>hollow, or you have a bad edge from landing jumps on>your right skate. Jump landings will roll that inside edge>over, and now it is slipping when you lean into it in>the spiral ( same edge as landing checkout ). Test it by>rubbing your finger up that edge. I'll bet it is burred, or>maybe worse .. it is totally gone.>
William Schneider 17 April 2005 17:33:05 [ permanent link ]
You are forward on the blade. You already figured it
out, but I'm guessing you are not running a deep enough hollow,
The hollow is usually 3/8", although I'm having them sharpened to 7/16" during the boot rebuild. I expect that the 3/8" radius stone I use rocks sideways a bit in its holder when I hand sharpen and provides closer to 7/16 than 3/8".
Being forward on the blade is one thing that might be a contributing factor. That's where the rocker curves a little tighter than the back part of the blade. It puts a smaller contact patch on the ice, and that can certaily affect the dynamics.
I am going to try Sling's approach gliding on one foot at speed, but not in a full-fledged spiral. I will be able to rock forward or backward better than I can in a spiral to see how things go.
William Schneider 17 April 2005 17:33:05 [ permanent link ]
Yes, but more on an speed and glide exercise at the end of a coaching
session: accelerating crossovers around the end, step and glide the length of the rink on one foot to the next step of crossovers. Emphasis on speed.
Hmm, it sets up a similar scenario - fast gliding on one foot. I can see where I can experiment a bit without doing a full-fledge spiral. The spiral itself demands an additional set of variables that make sorting through this more complicated.
I hope to get my skates back within two weeks, and plan to make a journey to find ice sometime in May. I'll try to simulate your experiences then.
