I'd like to hear from coaches who teach beginners (children or adult). Are they better starting off with 7' or 8' radius main rockers? At one time the major blade companies (namely MK and Wilson) had 7' rockers on their beginner blades. Then Ultima came along and introduced 8' rockers on their beginner blades. In 2015, MK (which previously had maintained 7' rockers throughout their entire line) and Wilson introduced beginner blades with 8' rockers, while still offerring beginner blades with 7' rockers. Their current lines of beginner blades offer 8' rockers only. On the flip side, the entire Ultima line used to comprise 8' rockers, but within the past year or so they introduced a 7' rocker intermediate blade and a 7' rocker advanced blade, but no 7' rocker beginner blade. To my knowledge, the only major manufacturer with 7' rocker beginner blades left is Eclipse.
And then, when a skater moves from a beginner blade to an intermediate blade, the only intermediate blade with an 8' rocker is the Ultima Legacy. Wilson used to offer the Comet with a 8.5' rocker, but that disappeared from their website over the past year. Note that many discontinued model blades from various manufacturers are still available for sale.
So for the major manufacturers, we have the following sequence of rockers for currently listed freestyle blades (dance blades not being considered in this discussion):
Wilson. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8')
MK. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (7')
Ultima. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7' or 8') -> Advanced (7' or 8')
Eclipse. Beginner (7') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8')
So, is there any advantage for a beginner blade with an 8' rocker? And does the following flip-flop sequence make sense
Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8') ?
And then, when a skater moves from a beginner blade to an intermediate blade, the only intermediate blade with an 8' rocker is the Ultima Legacy. Wilson used to offer the Comet with a 8.5' rocker, but that disappeared from their website over the past year. Note that many discontinued model blades from various manufacturers are still available for sale.
So for the major manufacturers, we have the following sequence of rockers for currently listed freestyle blades (dance blades not being considered in this discussion):
Wilson. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8')
MK. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (7')
Ultima. Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7' or 8') -> Advanced (7' or 8')
Eclipse. Beginner (7') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8')
So, is there any advantage for a beginner blade with an 8' rocker? And does the following flip-flop sequence make sense
Beginner (8') -> Intermediate (7') -> Advanced (8') ?