O.T.I.S.

Did you know that an improperly fitted skates or improper balanced skates will cause you to develop bad skating posture and techniques? As well, an improper hollow will cause increased muscle fatigue and poor shooting accuracy. A the wrong hollow will also affect your development in the following skating areas:

• first thrust (first stride)
• power on long strides
• and much more...

Skate Faster O.T.I.S. can help you.

In our day and age, sports and athletes are progressing at increasingly faster rates. A lot of emphasis is being put on becoming better, stronger, and faster as a competitor. An athlete's abilities are constantly being polished to be at their pinnacle. The proper equipment, improved with the right adjustments, should be of the utmost importance to players. With victories being measured in seconds and inches any extra edge can change final results.

What Skate Faster offers our clients is an opportunity to regain or maintain the "EDGE you need for the PERFORMANCE you want." We are collaborating with new initiatives like the On-Ice Technology Information Session (O.T.I.S.) program to reach out and educate the hockey community on equipment adjustments and techniques to achieve your performance perfection. O.T.I.S. will allow your team to get the best performance out of your players and their gear by selecting and modifying equipment individually suited to each skater.

Custom Radius

Modifying skate blades to ensure an identical shape and balance point on both runners. Through different lies and radius sizes, these modifications can be individualized for skaters allowing for a more customized feel and an increased level of performance.

Benefits of Contouring

• Improve balance
• Increase stability
• Increase lateral movement
• Increase speed & agility
• Increase power on long strides
• Improve stick handling & shooting accuracy
• Maximize skating efficiency
• Improve accelaretion
• Improve confidence

Contouring

Center line of skating too far back. Loss of power in shooting; slow starts and turns.	Center line of skating balanced. Power on long strides; shooting accuracy; maximum skating efficency.	Center line of skating too far forward. Muscle fatigue; loss of power on long strides; loss of shooting and passing accuracy; short choppy strides.

Profiling

Seeing as how a blade's custom radius does not extend exactly from the toe end of the runner to its heel, profiling the metal to blend the custom radius into the full length of the blade is required. This can be done at different degrees to accommodate a skater’s personal preference.

The hollow is the degree of depth left in the runner after a sharpening. Although standards in hollows do exist for hockey skaters, variations are offered and may give a player the glide or bite into the ice best suited to go in conjunction with their skating style and strength.

Hollow grind chart created for each individual player according to height, weight, and position.

Equipment Selection and Modification

Q. Would you install new tires on your car without having them balanced first? No, because the wear would not be even and replacement would occure more frequently.
A. So why then would you not have your ice skates balanced properly? Your energy cannot be replaced during a game. Visit a Skate Faster O.T.I.S. Consultant for more details.

One of the O.T.I.S. teams specialities is guidance to proper equipment selection. We show our clients what may be wrong with the equipment they currently use. We then guide them to the proper equipment to maximize their performance.

Some examples of equipment problems:

• Improper ice skate fit and balance causing muscle fatigue and excess energy usage
• Wrong lie and flex in their hockey stick causing poor velocity and accuracy
• Gloves too large reducing grip and stick handling ability
• plus many more...

Possible modifications to improve equipment:

• Custom Radius and Balancing of ice skate
• Profile and radius hollow of skate blade

Skate Faster Player Profile

A Skate Faster Player Profile is next step in your evolution as a hockey player. It will give you the edge you need in maintaining your equipment and allow you to begin the perfection of your abilities. We have been developing this program to provide players with an analysis of their equipment and how it is impacting their body posture, position, and comfort.

Our Player Profile database stores all of the important information about you and your equipment. We collect this information during the Player Profile Analysis and it is then entered into the database accessible by the Skate Faster Quality Skate Care Centers. The analysis provides the necessary information for a Skate Faster Quality Skate Care Technician to know how to best modify your equipment for you.

This information helps Skate Faster Quality Skate Care Centers quickly lookup your previous sharpening and current blade modification information so you will always get the perfect sharpening or contouring you deserve. A complete and up to date player profile gives the Skate Faster Quality Skate Care Technicians the information they need to re-create the proper modifications to your equipment.