Eliminate injuries, master technique, and improve performance with proper blade alignment. When it comes to optimizing your skate's performance, nothing is more important than blade alignment. Blade alignment means positioning the blade on the boot so that your center of gravity is directly over the blade–and it affects everything about the way you skate. Proper alignment gives you quick, efficient control of both inside and outside edges…and that translates to significant improvement in performance on the ice. Incorrect blade alignment does more than just hamper performance. It can cause physical problems like knee strain, lower back pain, and groin injury. We’ve seen these kinds of injuries dramatically improve just by aligning the blades properly! Poor blade alignment can also cause premature breakdown of the boot.