5 year old in Basic 6 - which skates? | Golden Skate

5 year old in Basic 6 - which skates?

Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Hi community! So, my 5 year old is now in Basic 6 and we have just started private lessons (in addition to group lessons and weekly fun/free skating). He’s advancing pretty quickly and I’d say he spends about 3.5 hours a week on ice at this point.

He’s outgrown his Jackson Ultima 452 “recreational skates”. Does he need to move on to a more specialized skate/boot/blade at this point? Our local store fitted him for the next size up of the same skate. I want to make sure that’s going to be adequate for what he’ll be doing on the ice. Thanks again for all the helpful input!
 

JSM

On the Ice
Joined
Dec 11, 2011
I don’t know much about the models of Jackson boots, but from what I understand your skater could possibly benefit from the next step up if he’s skating that often, depending on his size and weight. What does his coach say?
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Haven’t asked the coach yet, we will see him tomorrow so we will ask. The skate fitter asked what level my son is at, and we told him, so I assume that these skates should be sufficient, but just wanted to see what others might be thinking.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
If he's advancing so quickly, I'd look into at least one step up and a better blade.
 

SmallAminal

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 26, 2016
Depending on your son's size, you may be restricted by what's available in his size. If you go to a good fitter, they may be able to request (with up to a few weeks delay) stuff they don't normally stock in the store. Generally speaking, it is REALLY hard to find boys skates in the small sizes, especially beginner to mid-level instructional figure skates (i.e. the next steps up from recreational). But I would ask about this because there have been times that our local, well-known fitter has had **absolutely nothing** in my son's size in stock and we had to order.

Once you get out of recreational skates, the boots often have features that make things more comfortable for actual figure skating (e.g. padded backstay) and for my skater it made a world of difference in doing things comfortably. Take that into consideration as well when deciding whether to move him up.
 

ayb2

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 2, 2018
I'll say that at his size, he's probably not breaking down his boots at all. My 7 year old is still in a used Jackson mystique size 1.5 handed down from her sister which was in good condition and not broken down. At 5 years old, I think we were still in a Riedell Pearl. We did upgrade blades from the stock blade to a Coronation Ace this year as she's been working on axel. I think my older one graduated to a Jackson Artiste when she was maybe closer to 80 pounds? She's currently in an Elle and still doesn't break down her boots at all even with a year of skating. Check the outgrown skates and see if there are any deep creases in it. If not, probably good to not increase stiffness - there is a risk to overbooting - it's hard to get good knee bend when your skates are too stiff.
 

Ic3Rabbit

Former Elite, now Pro. ⛸️
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Country
Olympics
Most of the advice in this thread is proper. You are not going to overboot with what we suggested by going up one style of boots.

Don't keep him in a boot that is not going to properly fit or otherwise mess with his progress.

Good luck!
 
Joined
Jan 20, 2019
Thank you all for the input, and my apologies for the delayed response! We ended up sticking with the 452 one size up. He says it’s comfortable and he’s happy with them. Right now he is advancing pretty quickly through Basic 6, and he just informed me today that he wants to skate every day - which we are not going to do, obviously, but which to me indicates that his motivation and ability will likely keep him advancing at a speedy rate. So, he is probably going to be in FS in a couple months. We will see how things pan out. Thank you all again! This forum is so very helpful.
 
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