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"Chris":2bdyut1h wrote:Basically, we are looking at various types of inline surfaces for practise, yeah?[/quote:2bdyut1h]
Man, I’m obviously not very good at explaining this am I!
Yes, you are absolutely correct. Synthetic ice = bad, inline surface = what we’re talking about now.
"rookie#19":2zgaw6mt wrote:No offence or anything, but this ice court thing doesnt make sense, I imagine there would be a whole lot more maintenance, and think about it: A razor sharp blade cutting into some plastic surface had got to do some serious damage!! I just cant see how this type of surface would work without a whole lot of maintenance we dont really want to put up with.
I fully agree with you on the fact that we need the closest thing we can get to ice, so that training is as effective and applicable to ice as possible. However any practice is good practice and the fundamentals are the same, if you can shoot top-shelf on an inline surface, chances are you can do this on ice as well!! [/quote:2zgaw6mt]Sorry, I obviously haven’t explained myself here. You’ve totally missed the point of what an Ice Court is.
An Ice Court [b:2zgaw6mt]IS[/b:2zgaw6mt] an [b:2zgaw6mt]INLINE HOCKEY RINK[/b:2zgaw6mt]. Synthetic ice is a different kettle of fish altogether and is in no way related to an Ice Court, they’re totally different beasts.
There are two major brands in inline hockey rink surfaces, Sport Court and Ice Court. They’re much the same, it’s just that Ice Courts are a newer design which apparently has a lower amount of friction rather than a Sport Court brand rink. They were used for the Worlds a year or so ago I think – I have a vague memory of John Thomsen telling me about them a while back.
But yeah, it’s possible that the Palmerston North design is a good option. Personally I didn’t like skating on it and most of the players I know that have played on Ice and Sport Courts thought that it was quite inferior to either of them. But it is apparently cheaper and available locally so is definitely an extremely good option to try out. Also, the problems with the Palmerston North rink were mainly to do with hockey stopping at high speed which was a nightmare as you skim the gaps in the plastic and just wipe out. Stopping at low speeds was a piece of cake though, even stopping at mediumish speeds was fine. However we’re never going to get up to a high speed in a tiny training rink so that’s not an issue anyway.
Ryan,
Well my contact in Canada just got back to me! She asked one of her coaches for some advice on the issue and they’ve suggested an inline surface was a better option than a synthetic surface as well. The crazy thing is, the coach she asked actually knew me. It is Eric Mann! What a small world we live in!
For any of you who don’t know him, Eric Mann used to play here in Dunedin.
Ryan,
Er, Kyle, you may need to talk to Phil before confirming those numbers as there’s some financial details being sorted out behind the scenes at the mo which may affect the price of the DIHL, either by increasing or decreasing the price depending on the way things swing.
Took you a while to notice! They only work in Firefox though. Columns are a function being added to CSS3 when it’s officially released, but Firefox has added them as a specific function for their browser in the mean time.
"rookie#19":ij712k2t wrote:Hey i dont think these special surfaces are the best idea, I fully agree with kyle!!Put a good sportscourt surface down and play inline hockey![/quote:ij712k2t]
Why Sportcourt instead of Ice Court? AFAIK Ice Courts are becoming popular than Sport Courts these days due to the lower friction which seems more suitable for ice training since the ice puck should slide over it okay.
The rink in Palmerston North is not a Sport Court apparently but home built gerry rigged surface, both Sport Court and Ice Court are better – or atleast that’s what I’ve heard from some of the guys on the NZ team.
The Palmerston North type surface may be a much cheaper alternative though. Any idea how big each of those tiles they used are? $6 seems quite cheap.
Ryan,
"Kyle":1c946vn5 wrote:Why not just paint the concrete up there and save yourself $9,900?[/quote:1c946vn5]Coz painted concrete is too grippy for ice pucks, they’ll flip and roll something wicked. I think a better option than painting the surface would be to polish the concrete, that would be much more slippy than a painted surface, I’m not sure how much that could cost but probably cheaper than my Ice Court idea.
"Kyle":1c946vn5 wrote:Use an inline surface and pucks.[/quote:1c946vn5]Well an Ice Court is an inline surface and inline pucks aren’t the best model for an ice puck.
"Kyle":1c946vn5 wrote:For shooting there’s almost no difference at all. The goalies might have to use different pads to avoid their ice pads getting munted, but they might have to do that for the plastic court surface a’how.[/quote:1c946vn5]Nope, ice pads should be no problem on an Ice Court, but they would be on concrete or a painted surface. Polished concrete would be marginal I think, but some duct taping over important areas would probably be good enough to prevent any damage.
Ryan,
Okay, some bad news and confirmation of what Stefan and Kyle suggested:
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/rec.sp … eb906370d9
http://groups.google.co.nz/group/rec.sp … b360c319a8I found these courtesy of Clive Murphie of the Aardwolfs Ice Hockey Club in Christchurch – thanks Clive
” title=”Smiley” /> There’s also a bunch more older comments in Google groups if you go looking.Basically the gist is that your skates will blunten mega quick, plus it’s slow (unsurprising) and hard to skate on. There are also issues with getting plastic filings and oil stuck to you when you fall over.
Perhaps a better option may be to have an ice court surface (special roller arena floor) which would allow for using ice pucks and would cost significantly less but couldn’t be skated on with ice skates – it could be used with ice skates (skate guards on) but not for actually skating. That way the area could still be used for drills including passing etc. and would be ideally suited for practising with roller hockey skates. For those who don’t know, Ice Courts are an extremely low friction surface which allows the puck to glide over it very quickly but still gives plenty of grip unlike the synthetic ice surfaces. The cost of an ice court (AFAIK) is something like $50,000 for a full sized rink, so an 80m2 rink would cost around ~$2300 in theory (plus walls etc.).
Some info. about Ice courts are available here:
http://icecourt.com/icecourtexxess/technical_info.html
I’ve talked extensively to players who have used these rinks in the past and they’re quite popular, not a gimmick or anything despite some of the strange advertising on their site.Ryan,
FYI, I’ve sent an email to an acquaintance of mine in Canada (not Jenel) who runs a large hockey school. I asked for any contacts with facilities/people who have experience installing/using synthetic ice surfaces. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some more reliable information this way rather than relying on companies advertising information which seems to claim that their system is the greatest gift to mankind and is even better than real ice (which I assume is a load of bollocks).
I did a quick and extremely crude measurement of the area behind the grandstands tonight. The space available for a rink is ~16x5m with no space to spare. That gives a total area of 80m2 which based on my crude cost estimates above would cost ~NZ$10,000. This would give a suitable area for basic shooing practise, but also room to jam a bunch of people on there for doing passing drills or whatever other things could be practised on a small rink. In particular, drills could be run which would involve actually skating with a puck, turning etc. which wouldn’t be possible with a simple shot zone.
The more I think about this the more I like the idea, there’s a whole fleet of drills which are possible and would allow players to spend far longer practicing basic skills than is possible with the use of a full ice rink.
The theoretical cost of NZ$10,000 I’ve got above is a very rough estimate, but seems achievable, maybe not this year but definitely in the future. The cost of walls etc. would of course be on top of that. I’ll keep doing some more research and see what information I can dredge up.
As an interim solution, the original plan which Phil had of a simple shot zone with no synthetic ice surface could be used with inline skates instead of ice skates for drills, although this isn’t optimal for an ice hockey practise area.
Ryan,
Nup, they apparently get better the more they’re used! Some of the companies guarantee them to last atleast 10 years with heavy use. A slippery spray is applied monthly which keeps the friction to a minimum. I guess if it isn’t applied regularly then the surface may wear out faster but I’m not sure. I’ll be in touch with Jenel Bode in a week or so, she has some experience with these things and hopefully will be able to fill me in on some of the details.
There’s a whole bunch of different surface types available and I have no idea which is best, hopefully I’ll be able to get some contacts with people who have installed them/used them heavily and can pass on their experiences.
The surfaces don’t cause any significant wear on your skate blades AFAIK. Just like skating on a hard plastic chopping board smeared with lube.
Any interesting decisions made during the meeting? I wasn’t able to attend as I was busy being a tour guide for Jenel Bode.
Ryan,
Nice photo.
Isn’t Zanzee 17 now though?
And did Brook really play for NZ in ice hockey? Or was that inline hockey?Ryan,
