How to Check the Hollow of Your Hockey Skate

The right skate blades can make or break a hockey player. Checking the hollow of hockey skates can be easy; finding out the best hollow setting for the skater, however, can be a challenge that takes several sharpenings before it's perfect.

Instructions

    • 1

      Learn how skates work to have better control over the end result. When a skater puts his weight on the blade, it presses on the ice, creating a thin film of water that allows the skater to glide. As a skater shifts his weight on the blade, it causes the sharp edges to dig in, gripping the ice. When the blade digs in, it will slow down, but the skater will have more control over turns and stops.

    • 2

      Increase glide to skate faster. The rocker radius, the hollow, the temperature of the ice and the weight of the skater all will affect glide -- how smooth and fast a skater can skate.

    • 3

      Feel how deep or how shallow the hollow of the blade is by running your finger against it. A skate blade has two edges, an outside edge and an inside edge. The flat between the two edges is called a hollow.

    • 4

      Make sure the rocker is set correctly. The part of the blade that curves up toward the front and the back is called the rocker. A pronounced rocker provides a more stable blade. Speed skates have very little rocker. A hockey skater needs considerable maneuverability and needs a decent-sized rocker

    • 5

      Ask your skating coach for advice on a hollow setting. The deeper the hollow, the sharper your skate feels, the easier the turns and the slower the skate will be. A hockey skater needs to be able to both make sharp turns and skate fast; therefore, the hollow for a hockey skater needs to be set somewhere between the two extremes. Additionally, each position on a hockey team has a different preferred hollow setting;forwards, defense players and goalies, all have different hollows.

    • 6

      Set the hollow to win. Most beginning skaters can’t tell what their hollows are set to just by feeling them. It’s only after you’ve been skating many years and have had your skates sharpened many times that you are able to detect what a hollow is set at by touching it. The best way to set a hollow would be to ask a professional skate sharpener what the hollow of the skates are currently set to and what they should be for maximum performance. Most hockey skates have a hollow set between 3/8 inch and 5/8 inch, which would give it the balance between speed and agility that a competitive hockey skater needs.