An apparatus to measure stiffness properties of ice hockey skate boots

The purpose of this study was to establish the apparatus and protocol necessary to measure the stiffness characteristics of various types of ice hockey skate boots. Specifically, stiffness of the boot was measured during six movements including dorsiflexion (DF), plantarflexion (PF), inversion (INV), eversion (EV) and two torsion movements (medial and lateral, or MT and LT, respectively). Three models of skate boots were selected for testing, this included the Bauer Supreme 1000 and 5000 and the Bauer Air 90 (respectively, B1000, B5000 and A90). Ten samples of each skate boot model were evaluated. An Instron™ material testing apparatus (Lloyds Instruments Inc.) was used to obtain the force/displacement data and stiffness. For the six tests, predetermined displacement maneuvers were performed on each skate boot. A three-way MANOVA was used to test for any differences with a statistical software package (SYSTAT™). The B5000 skate boots demonstrated consistently greater stiffness when compared to the A90 and B1000 skate boot models. The B5000s were found to be significantly stiffer than the B1000 in all six tests (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the B5000s were significantly stiffer than the A90s for eversion and inversion tests (P < 0.05). Lastly, the A90s were shown to be significantly stiffer than B1000s in lateral torsion (P < 0.05). Based on the above findings, two major conclusions appear justified: (1) the constructed apparatus and protocol were able to distinguish stiffness characteristics for different types of skates and (2) quantitative measures of stiffness were possible for all six ranges of motion.