If you’ve already decided that you want to get some hockey flooring for your home, you’ll probably want a little help deciding which is best for you, There are so many options on the market that it can feel a little overwhelming and confusing, especially if you’re a first-time buyer. Fortunately, there are a few tricks that you can use to make this portion of your search a little easier that will also help you be sure that you’re going to be happy with your purchase. Whether you’re shopping online or browsing through brick-and-mortar stores, this guide will help you.
Research the Manufacturer
The manufacturer is the person that actually made the hockey flooring, so it’s good to know more about them. The internet has created a gateway for finding information, and it will also be your best friend for this endeavor. Different manufacturers use different materials and different techniques, and that’s why this is so important.
If you want some high-quality hockey flooring tiles, you’ll want to make sure that the manufacturer is on top of their stuff. Meaning that they use the best materials for the job, they have a good process for manufacturing, and sometimes it even means finding out if the tiles were outsourced. While outsourcing doesn’t always mean poor quality, it can, in some cases, mean that corners were cut.
Checking to see if the manufacturer outsources is also important for people who want to be sure that they’re only using American-made goods for their training. It’s pretty easy to find out if a manufacturer outsources because all imported goods must say their country of origin, and according to the same law, at least 50% of the parts need to be manufactured in the United States for it to be considered Made in America.
Learn More About the Retailer
Where you actually buy your hockey flooring tiles can make a huge difference. The biggest difference you might notice is pricing. Some places charge a premium for hockey flooring tiles, while other places have much more reasonable prices. If you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, make sure you shop around.
In most cases you’ll be able to expect a better deal if you buy online, but not in every case. It depends on the stores in your area and how high the demand is versus the supply. You might have better luck finding a clearance sale in person, but you could also have better luck finding particularly steep discounts online, especially if you have a coupon code. This part of the process usually has less to do with quality and more to do with saving you some money, but it is still incredibly important.
In some cases though, knowing about the retailer can actually help you get better quality tiles. If a retailer is known for just carrying the bottom of the barrel supplies, you’ll want that information before doing business with them. The same could be said if a retailer is known for selling incredibly high-quality supplies. It’s especially important to know this if you just plan on going to your local sporting goods store. Supporting local businesses is important, but not at the cost of the quality of your training equipment.
Know What You’re Looking For
One of the biggest mistakes anyone can make in a sales situation is to walk in not knowing exactly what your wants and needs are. This allows room for the salesperson to upsell you for things that you didn’t want or need in the first place. Make sure you go in already knowing how much space you’re working with, how many people will be using the flooring, and what your budget is.
For example, if you’re planning on setting up your hockey flooring in your backyard, you’ll want to measure the space upfront. That requires only a measuring tape and a few minutes, and possibly, some stakes if you want to make sure you’re being extra precise. If you’re using stakes, measure out how much space you want and put the stakes in at the corners. Take a good look at the stakes in the ground and visualize what it will look like with hockey flooring in the gaps, then adjust as needed.
Once you have the amount of space you want in mind, you’ll need to think really hard about how many people will be using it. Is this going to be something that you are using on your own, or do you plan on hosting the whole team? This is important because it can change exactly what kind of tiles you need, depending on which brand you go with.
One more important thing to know ahead of time is what kind of ornamentations you want. You can go with just classic tiles without any bells and whistles if you prefer, but if you’re feeling more festive you can get a lot more into it with red line tiles, blue line tiles, and even a goalie cut out to make you feel like you’re really in a game while you’re getting your practice in.
Understand the Product
Hockey flooring is a relatively new product, so it’s good to make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting. As we mentioned earlier, different companies use different materials. If you can find the information, you’ll make to make sure that the flooring you’re getting is made out of the right kind of materials to ensure proper gliding so you can get the most out of your training sessions.
In some cases, you may even be better off getting synthetic ice if it better suits your needs. While synthetic ice and hockey flooring are both tiles, they are still wildly different. Hockey flooring is designed to replicate the feel of playing hockey whether you’re using inline skates or just wearing your regular, everyday street shoes.
Synthetic ice is specially formulated to replicate the feeling of being on the ice, and you do use ice skates to skate around on it. While synthetic ice is more like real ice than hockey flooring, it is still not quite as slippery as regular ice. This might seem like an entirely bad thing but to the contrary. Because of the lessened glide factor of synthetic ice, it can help a lot with resistance training, which translates to an even easier time gliding around the rink.
Most professional hockey players either have hockey flooring or synthetic ice in their homes, some even having both to make sure that they’ve got options for their training. Most people would agree that hockey flooring is best for stick handling and shooting training, while synthetic ice is better for practicing your footing while in ice skates.
It’s important to understand exactly what product you’re looking at because it can be easy to mix the two up, especially if this is your first time purchasing and you don’t know the difference. After all, both synthetic ice and hockey flooring are a type of flooring and, in most cases, both are made up of modular tiles that can be moved and replaced easily. Many people have accidentally bought the wrong product for their situation simply because they didn’t understand the difference.
That’s one of the biggest reasons why all of this research is so important. You don’t want to show up to the store, make your purchase, get home, and go through all of the trouble of installing it just to find out that you got the wrong product entirely. That’s a lot of hassle for you and possibly even for the employees of whatever store you went to because they’ll need to process the return while you switch your product out for the one you wanted in the first place.
Weigh your options carefully and really think long and hard about what your needs are and which product will best suit them. After that, do a lot of research to make sure you’re getting the best product to fit your needs. It can be so easy to make a small mistake that results in a huge headache without doing the proper research first, and that headache can take important time away from furthering your training.
Leveling Up Your Hockey Training Doesn’t Have to be Hard
Most people’s training regimens could benefit from some adjustments. That’s why even some of the best athletes in the world have personal trainers, and why there’s a multi-million dollar fitness industry. Whether you need to get some hockey flooring in your backyard so you can practice your drills or you just need to up your strength training, you can easily do so with a little know-how and the right budget. There are many people that play hockey both professionally and recreationally, so knowing how to get the right training for you, and what can improve your training, can give you the leg up on your competition that you and your team need to bring home the gold.
