Hockey is an incredibly popular sport among many people all over the world. One of the biggest struggles hockey players face is figuring out how they can get practice at home, especially during off-seasons. It’s not like soccer where you can just go to any field with a friend and get your practice in. You have to put a little bit of thought into how you can get the proper training so you can stay in your peak shape for the next season. If you’ve been looking into this for yourself there’s a good chance that you’ve come across hockey flooring and synthetic ice more times than you can count.
Both hockey flooring and synthetic ice are great solutions for getting some training in at home, but what exactly is the difference? To the uninitiated, the two concepts may seem entirely the same, but they are two different products. We’re going to be taking a look at the differences between the two and, hopefully, from there you’ll be able to decide which is best for your needs.
What’s important to think of before proceeding with this article is exactly what you need. What kind of space you’re working with, what kind of drills you want to be running, where you plan on setting up your rink. Not all of these will help steer you towards the right product, but they will definitely help you once you have the product of your choice in your hands.
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Which has More of a Glide Factor?
If you know anyone that enjoys any sort of ice sports, you know that the glide factor is important. When you’re skating on true ice, a little bit of the ice melts beneath your blades and creates a small layer of water which helps you move more smoothly around the rink. Unfortunately, neither synthetic ice nor hockey flooring will be able to match that level of gliding perfectly. If you want the feeling of real ice under your skates, you’ll still have to go to an ice skating rink. With that being said, both hockey flooring and synthetic ice tiles provide different experiences for your training.
Hockey flooring isn’t designed to be used with ice skates, but you can slide around on it while wearing inline skates or even just your shoes. The surface of hockey flooring is slick so it allows for a good amount of gliding around. You might not be able to get as much practice on your ice skates as you need on this, but you can still practice your footwork pretty easily and build up your agility and endurance. Hockey flooring is also great for practicing your stickhandling and building upon your accuracy.
Synthetic ice, on the other hand, is specifically designed to be used with ice skates. Some synthetic ice products require a lubricant to ensure that you’re gliding as much as possible, while others use self-lubricating technology. As we mentioned, you won’t be able to glide around on synthetic ice like you glide around on real ice, but that’s just a little extra resistance training that can help you move more quickly when you get back onto the real ice. Synthetic ice is good for training a lot of the same things as hockey flooring, but with the added benefit of resistance training.
At the end of the day, both hockey flooring and synthetic ice are good for training. There are some drills that are better done on synthetic ice, and some drills that are better done on hockey flooring. Either one you go with will definitely help you get some of that much-needed practice to keep you in your best possible shape.
Which Requires More Maintenance?
One question that is brought up a lot when people are shopping around trying to decide if hockey flooring or synthetic ice would be better for their home rink is maintenance. Maintenance can be exhausting or it can even end up costing a good deal of money, so it’s a good thing that many people consider this factor before making a choice of which one to bring home with them.
Hockey flooring requires some cleaning. It can get dirty and dusty just like anything else in your house. It requires a little extra cleaning because you do walk on it and your shoes are typically the least clean thing on you. Other than a little mud here and there or whatever else you may track in by mistake, there isn’t a whole lot of regular maintenance. If one of the pieces of your flooring is damaged for whatever reason, all you need to do is get a new piece and replace it. The entire floor is made up of tiles which means that you don’t need to replace everything if something is damaged.
Synthetic ice requires a little bit more cleaning than hockey flooring. When you use your ice skates on it, the blades will create shavings from the ice. Those shavings need to be cleaned up after you’re done skating. Dirt and grime can build up on them, too, so you’ll still need to do regular cleaning on top of that. As we mentioned, many synthetic ice tiles require a lubricant to keep you gliding along as best you can, and that lubricant needs to be applied once a month. The nice thing is that synthetic ice is also made up of tiles, so if any tile gets broken you can just replace that one piece instead of the entire rink.
How Hard is the Set-Up and Tear Down?
Setting up and tearing down your hockey flooring or synthetic ice might sound like it would take a whole lot of effort and time, but it’s actually pretty simple. Both of these products are made up of tiles, so you really just need to follow a few simple steps:
- Measure the space where you want your rink: This step should be done before you even order your tiles to make sure you get enough, but it’s good practice to measure it again once you have the product in hand to make sure that you’re getting it set up exactly the way you want it to be.
- Mark where you want the rink: It’s not exactly a make-or-break kind of thing to mark where you want your rink, but many people think it makes it easier. It allows you to visually see where you had planned to set it up so you don’t have to think about it while you’re putting in your tiles.
- Assemble the rink: As we were saying, hockey flooring and synthetic ice are both made of interlocking tiles. That means that you just need to pick exactly where you’re putting your rink then set it up like the world’s easiest jigsaw puzzle. Take care to make sure everything is level enough and put together correctly so you don’t run into any issues you need to fix while you’re trying to train.
- Double-check everything: Before you get around to trying out your new rink, it will be in your best interest to double-check and make sure it’s actually safe. You’ll want to make sure that everything is locked into place and that the whole surface is even. This step may be a little arduous, especially when you’re looking forward to trying out this rink you just put together, but it’s important nonetheless.
- Train: As they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Now that you have your rink all assembled, it’s time to train to your heart’s content and take full advantage of your brand new, at-home rink.
The steps are the same for both synthetic ice and hockey flooring in most cases. Synthetic ice may require you to put some lubricant onto the tiles before you start skating, but that really depends on which company you buy from. Some companies also do things a little differently and the instructions that come with your product will always supersede anything that we say here, but you get the gist of it.
Setting up your rink no matter if you go with hockey flooring or synthetic ice shouldn’t be too much of a headache and shouldn’t take too long at all. It could take anywhere from half an hour to an afternoon, depending on how large of a rink you’re getting set up. Taking it back down is about just as easy, but it might require a bit more muscle depending on how tightly the panels are locked together.
Getting the Best Rink Together for Your Home
At the end of the day, the most important thing when deciding what you want to make your home rink out of is that it’s something that you’ll be happy with. It’s better to spend money on something you’ll use than something that you won’t, so just make sure that you do enough research that you can be sure that you’ll be happy with your choice, no matter what it might end up being.