Boot: raised heel, weight shifted forward... Magic? | Golden Skate

Boot: raised heel, weight shifted forward... Magic?

Sinus Pi

Rinkside
Joined
Apr 18, 2018
After changing from badly fitted Edea Overtures to Jackson Premiere Fusion I found the boots' shafts too high for my Achilles' tendons, effectively preventing me from pointing my foot, and making even the smallest jumps a pain. So I added bit of foam under my heel, enough to raise my foot about a centimeter / half an inch. This made the shaft feel nicely lower, letting me point my toes with more ease...

... And also magic happened. The heel pad shifted my weight forward and I found myself happily skating on the "spin rocker" all the time, with my skates doing all the 3-turns and spins as if they were barely touching the ice. The slightest push of the toes gives me a nice grip on the ice, letting me hop (I wouldn't call it jumping yet) anytime I want now. My overall balance seems to be good enough for the change to not have any immediate adverse effects, even better, I now find myself easily making small shifts and curves to maintain my balance. Before the change, I skated on the flat(ter) middle of the blades, struggled to keep a steady "spin rocker" not just for spins, but for 3-turns or rockers, too, and found it nigh impossible to dig my picks into the ice without putting a serious force into the toes.

On the other hand, I keep hearing that I'm supposed to be skating on the "middle" of the blade, and shift forward to use the "spin spot", and shift even more forward pushing my toes into the ice to dig the picks in for jumps or otherwise. Instead, the way my weight seems to be positioned now, I can't shift forward any more, because my picks immediately bite the ice. This isn't a problem for my general skating comfort, I've skated about 10 hours with this setup and not once have I picked the ice by accident - but it does go against the usual instructions.

So, have I discovered something that should've been this way since I first set foot on the rink and I misunderstood all the instructions so far, or am I making some deceptively promising mistake and I should stick to the middle of the blade?
 

tstop4me

Final Flight
Joined
Oct 2, 2015
Country
United-States
Have you checked how the heel pad has affected your backwards skating maneuvers?
 

Sinus Pi

Rinkside
Joined
Apr 18, 2018
Of course. Since I can now point and flex my foot with more ease, I can squat lower while still having one foot put forward and one back and maintain full ice contact, so backwards crossovers and cross-rolls have become more steady and I don't drag my picks as much as before - I did drag a bit more right after installing the heel pad, but my balance has adjusted within an hour or two.
 
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