"Hello, Canada, and hockey fans in the United States and Newfoundland." - Foster Hewitt
Welcome back to another journal entry of our stories about shooting instruction and our journey to build a second location coming soon!
Skate Sharpening is back at the Alley
Slapshot Alley will be offering sharpening again for $10 and a 20% discount for 10-packs ($80). Sometimes people come to the Alley with the notion that it's not important to get their skates sharpened for a shooting practice. This is a mistake. Shooters need to have perfect balance when they're learning how to shoot. If their skates are dull, they're going to struggle.
Our New Cag One Skate Sharpener
Slapshot Alley recently acquired a Cag One skate sharpener. I've tested it out and the sharpening is flawless. The Cag One leaves your edges just as smooth as any manual pro shop sharpening.
The Miracle of the Magic Stick
We have a couple of Magic Sticks at Slapshot Alley and this little gadget always saved the day when we didn't have a skate sharpener. When people came to the Alley with dull skates and I saw them losing their edge or not being able to push off their edge, I gave their skates 2 passes of the magic stick and voila, the player could skate again. I recommend everyone get one of these and a player should be aware that when they lose their edge, they can use this thing for a temporary fix that usually can hold an edge for the rest of a 30-60 minute session on synthetic ice.
Thoughts on Sparx
When we opened the first Slapshot Alley back in January 2021, I bought a Sparx machine and I thought it was great until I started slipping on my edge during some power skating lessons. The Sparx machine is great, because it's a machine and it doesn't make any mistakes... but the problem is the stone... it doesn't have a stone... it has a little wheel covered with some gritty "sandpaper" finish, and it wears down like sandpaper, so it works well on the first couple sharpens, but quickly after that, it leaves a rough edge on your skates. The irony behind the Sparx machine... there are no sparks. I got rid of the Sparx machine and parents and players should know that it's not optimal for your performance.
How often should you sharpen?
Yesterday Hunter's mom asked me about skate sharpening. She said that Hunter was complaining about slipping on his right inside edge on the heel, and that the coaches were telling her to get the skates sharpened, but she had sharpened them recently and Hunter had been on the ice only twice. So her question to me was, how often do I need to sharpen Hunter's skates.
I couldn't give her an answer because skates can vary, damage can happen sporadically. But I did try the nail test along the inside edge of the right skate and it was shaving off my nail just fine.
Anyways, my consensus with skate sharpening is that there are a lot of different preferences out there, so it's important to know what the player likes and makes them perform the best.
Personally, I love sharp skates and with my new machine, I will be sharpening my skates every time I use them. My wife Jas hates sharp skates. She needs to dull them down a bit on the boards after a sharpen so she can stop without catching an edge. But she's also just a little pipsqueak and needs to toughen up a bit LOL
Later skater,
Coach Andre
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