Making the Jump from Inline to Ice

[CapsChemist]

Hey i have been playing inline for a while now a lot and i am comfortable with my skating on inline skates. I love playing inline hockey but i want to make the jump to ice. Is the transition hard? I was thinking i would go to public skating and then a few pickup games just to get the hang of it. Also what is the best iceskate to get for under 150 dollers? Any advice would be great.

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[PMP5030]

Definately go to some open skates to get the feel of ice, the skating motion is similar but there are some important differences in the balance and feel that you'll need to adjust to. The pickup games are also a good idea as the feel of an ice puck is notably different than an inline puck.

As for skates, my Bauer Vapors ran be about $140 a few years back and I love them, but you're best off going to a local store (preferably one that specializes in hockey) and get yourself fitted by the staff, it's hard to recommend a general skate for anyone when individiual feet vary so much.

Good luck with the switch. I used to play ice in the winter and inline in the summer, I think you'll find ice to be a much more fun game to play. I play exclusively ice now that my local rink added a spring/summer league a few years ago.

 

[saveourpens]

Hey i have been playing inline for a while now a lot and i am comfortable with my skating on inline skates. I love playing inline hockey but i want to make the jump to ice. Is the transition hard? I was thinking i would go to public skating and then a few pickup games just to get the hang of it. Also what is the best iceskate to get for under 150 dollers? Any advice would be great.

I would think that the biggest transition would be stopping. In ice hockey, you stop with two feet, and in roller, you have to sort of make a sharp turn with one foot. But, once you have adjusted I think you'll find ice hockey much easier because turns and stops involve much less strength than in roller and you don't have to work the puck in ice, it just glides for you.

I'd say that the best skate under $150 would be some of the CCM Tacks, check em out here... http://hockeymonkey.com/iceskates-ccm-sr.html

 

[Happy Pony]

I just made the same transition this past summer. I had been playing inline for 14 years. It took me about a summer to get comfortable stopping. Shooting and passing I found to be pretty similar. The most important thing I learned and I learned quickly is that you need to have two hands on the stick when handling the puck, which is not neccessarily the case in roller. This was the hardest habit for me to break. I haven't played inline since I took up ice.

Depending on how good you are the transition will be really easy or really hard. I started in the summer playing in an adult C league. In the beginning I was one of the worst players on my team and in the league, but I played hard and by the end of the session I was the best forward on my team and one of the better players in the league. I played two-three times from May until now. I tried out for my schools ACHA D2 team and I almost made the team, I was one of the last three players to be cut, not bad for my first time playing the game with checking (the adult league was no-check).

Good luck with the transition, it's hockey, so you'll enjoy it.

 

[EbencoyE]

Skating will seem odd to begin with, but you'll get a hang of it quickly.

The hardest thing to get used to is the puck. Stickhandling is alot harder with an ice puck than an inline puck. They bounce off the stick alot more and are harder to control. So you definately want to practice stickhandling as much as you can on the ice.

 

[DevilsFan38]

Definately go to some open skates to get the feel of ice, the skating motion is similar but there are some important differences in the balance and feel that you'll need to adjust to. The pickup games are also a good idea as the feel of an ice puck is notably different than an inline puck.

As for skates, my Bauer Vapors ran be about $140 a few years back and I love them, but you're best off going to a local store (preferably one that specializes in hockey) and get yourself fitted by the staff, it's hard to recommend a general skate for anyone when individiual feet vary so much.

Good luck with the switch. I used to play ice in the winter and inline in the summer, I think you'll find ice to be a much more fun game to play. I play exclusively ice now that my local rink added a spring/summer league a few years ago.

Definitely recommend this. Go to a pro shop at an ice rink and ask them to help you - I was so glad I did this when I bought my skates, otherwise I'm sure I would have ended up with something that didn't fit correctly.

 

[Slick]

Can't really recommend any certain best skate, they all fit different and what's important is what fits you the best. I bought a cheap pair of CCM's at a retail store for 50 bucks for my first year and learned on those, then recently this year I just bought some good skates.

I might suggest starting on some used skates first to learn on. They will already be broken in and you won't have to break in two pairs of skates when you eventually decide (you will want to eventually trust me) step up to some nicer skates. It will make the learning experience less painful.

 

[CapsChemist]

thanks for all the advice guys. Would doing a inline stop work on ice? By inline i mean i turn really fast and my outskate kinda skids to a stop.

 

[Islander102]

It wont, the hardest transition is probably stopping. But it is the most important. Work on an ice hockey stop until you get the hang of it. You'll thank yourself later.

 

[Slick]

thanks for all the advice guys. Would doing a inline stop work on ice? By inline i mean i turn really fast and my outskate kinda skids to a stop.

As the guy above me said, they are different.

Pick up the book "Power Skating" by Laura Stamm. I just bought it a few weeks ago and I wish I read it when I was first starting to keep myself from some of my bad habits. Goes through all the fundamentals of skating and teaches you how to get the most out of your stride.

Search on Froogle for it, I found it cheapest on Walmart.com for $13 bucks.

 

[redlighthockey]

Hey i have been playing inline for a while now a lot and i am comfortable with my skating on inline skates. I love playing inline hockey but i want to make the jump to ice. Is the transition hard? I was thinking i would go to public skating and then a few pickup games just to get the hang of it. Also what is the best iceskate to get for under 150 dollers? Any advice would be great.

I made the transition about three years ago, from travel inline to ice. And it can be a real challenge trying to get in the flow when you can't stop. Practice stopping, turning, and crossovers, everything after that is skills that will be carried over from inline. Checking isn't a big factor until you get in midget or junior hockey, you'll take some good shots here and there but you'll eventually learn to bend your knees and keep your head.

Also, I found that practicing with ice hockey pucks off ice really helped the stick handling/shooting aspect. The puck can feel heavy after playing with the inline pucks. So through a tarp over your garage and blast away. Someone earlier said something about laura stemn. She knows her stuff, but if you can also check out robby glance, it helped me a ton during the transition.

good luck eh.

 

[CapsChemist]

well i bought my self a pair of skates and went to my first public skate today. I have time between classes to go to pick up hockey at around 1:30 but i dont know if anyone is even gonna be there. If im the only one who is there you guys think they will still let me shoot around and practice?

I actually figured out how to stop on my good side pretty fast. Now i can skate as fast as possible and and stop at the redline almost on a dime.

My weak side i have alot of trouble stopping on. I guess i'm just afraid i'm gonna fall over if i go to fast and try stopping on my weak side.

BTW is stick handling on ice alot different then with roller hockey pucks? Because i like to think of myself as a dangler

 

[VisionQuest*]

Welcome to hockey. What you were doing before was just some other sport.

 

[lotus]

well i bought my self a pair of skates and went to my first public skate today. I have time between classes to go to pick up hockey at around 1:30 but i dont know if anyone is even gonna be there. If im the only one who is there you guys think they will still let me shoot around and practice?

I actually figured out how to stop on my good side pretty fast. Now i can skate as fast as possible and and stop at the redline almost on a dime.

My weak side i have alot of trouble stopping on. I guess i'm just afraid i'm gonna fall over if i go to fast and try stopping on my weak side.

BTW is stick handling on ice alot different then with roller hockey pucks? Because i like to think of myself as a dangler

I made this transition a few months ago into a beer league and I'm still having trouble now, close to playoffs. Hardest change I've ever had to make. Stick handling is different, puck moves alot faster, weighs more. You're probably going to lose control the first few times you skate fast and stick handle but the feeling comes back.