Roller Derby Plates - Buying Advice

What with the sheer amount of roller derby plates coming into the market, it's difficult to beﾠ

vastly specific about the pros and cons of generic factors. Your best bet is to research individualﾠ

plates and their specifications in order to see if they will suit you.

However, there are some loose guides that you can use in order to decipher generally whichﾠ

plate you should be looking for.

ﾠ

Nylon or Metal?

Most derby skates under the £200 mark will have nylon plates. They're light and relativelyﾠ

sturdy, thus suiting the sport pretty well. However, they aren't overly strong. Although it's quiteﾠ

difficult to break them, it *could* potentially happen. What's more likely is that the plate will bendﾠ

under pressure. This will completely compromise the plate's effectiveness and the reactivityﾠ

between the boot and plate will lose its tension. Therefore, it's worth upgrading to a metal plate,ﾠ

if you can.

Metal plates are usually made of titanium, aluminium or magnesium. As they won't flex underﾠ

pressure, the rigidity ensures that the reactivity between the plate and boot remains strong.

ﾠ

Weight

The general consensus is that most people want the lightest plate they can get their hands on,ﾠ

for the obvious benefit of potentially moving faster with less weight on their feet. The Pilot Falon,ﾠ

Suregrip Mag Avenger and PowerDyne Arius are arguable the lightest plates on the market.ﾠ

However, for a newbie slater, a heavy plate can have a distinct advantage with regard to beingﾠ

easier to control and keeping you grounded.ﾠ

ﾠ

Mount

There's potentially many different ways to mount a plate, but to keep it simple, consider the twoﾠ

most obvious ones ﾭ short forward and standard.

A short forward mount is.... Short and forward. The weight will be towards the front of your boot,ﾠ

away from your heels. Most of your control will come from the balls of your feet. When it comesﾠ

to agility, this is very handy, but for newbies, you're likely to struggle to distribute your weightﾠ

appropriately. The Suregrip Avenger series are probably the most popular agility plates at theﾠ

moment, but in theory, most plates can be bought a little smaller and used as a sport mount.

A standard mount is essentially a ﾑfull' mount that goes from heel to toe. It takes away theﾠ

pressure of having to put your weight forward and offers more stability. Again, potentially anyﾠ

plate can be ﾑmade' into a full mount, depending on the size you purchase. However, you mayﾠ

find that if you buy an agility plate and use it for a full mount, you will lose some of the agilityﾠ

benefit.