How double blade skates can help your kids learn to skate

Help your youngsters have a good time without feeling left out by the older kids this winter with double skate blades.

Since winter is so long in most parts of Canada, there are several theories on how to survive it successfully. However, until you win the lottery and can spend each winter in warmer climates, your best bet is to try to enjoy yourself as much as possible playing winter sports. Finding ways to include the little ones is important, so the family has quality time together. Here's how double blade skates can help your kids have fun this winter, and help you introduce them to ice sports earlier.

Most youngsters will spend formative years going to hockey practice or figure-skating classes, with a few of them jumping into speed skating. This is part of growing up in Canada for most kids. Even if your kids are not involved in organized sports, afternoon games of shinny on a neighbourhood rink can be a way to get exercise and stay active in the winter months. While you may have no interest in seeing your children become professional athletes, getting them on skates early in life will simply help them enjoy winter more.

Small kids usually don't have the balance or ankle support needed to skate using normal recreational skates, and after falling on to the ice repeatedly with sore feet and ankles, many kids will be frustrated and cranky. Double blade skates, or double runner skates, as they are sometimes known, can give your child a greater level of stability and help them glide around the rink with older kids, having more fun.

Double blade skates are pretty much exactly like they sound: rather than having a single skate blade, they have two in parallel. Because there is twice as much surface area touching the ice, and because your child's weight does not need to be centred over a single blade, most kids find them easier to use.

These double blades can get children used to the mechanics of skating, including keeping their knees bent and their back straight, using the skate edges for starting and stopping, and shifting their weight to gather speed.

But more importantly, double runner blades can just help kids fall in love with gliding around on a sheet of ice, which can be a pastime enjoyed until very late in life.

Double blade skates are a great way for your little ones to feel included on family skating outings, and to help them get used to the joys of ice skating. You may not expect your child to become the next figure skating or hockey star, but double blade skates can help your kids have fun this winter, and let them see how winter is as enjoyable a season as summer.