Hockey & Ice Skating (Ankle Question)

[hansomreiste]

Hi there!

First of all, I don't know if this has something to do with my muscles and physical work. If not, sorry to have posted it here. But it bugs me a lot and I think I can get your help about what's going on with this.

I have been ice skating, even though not regularly, for some time - spent more than 20 hrs on ice, I guess. I already own a Bauer Vapor X01 skates but with them, I have a serious balancing problem, which I don't remember to have felt with the ones I rented at the skating place.

The problem is, simply, I ALWAYS go inside edge. When the blades need to look like | | they are / \ which slows me a lot and makes my experience totally inefficient.

Well, instructors are speechless. Some of them tell me to strengthen my ankles so that I can handle it. Some claim I need to do something and learn the correct technique and add; "If you keep skating like that, you will learn this style and it will be very difficult to turn it back" and some others recommend me to keep skating like that, saying, "Now you are new to ice and you are scared. Once you get enough experience, your feet automatically will learn to get their correct position as they are more brave. Just forget about it and skate as you know."

I am really annoyed with this "unsolvable" problem which prevents me even from turning. I simply can't make my blades look like / / because when I put my both feet like that, I fall down and hurt myself for a few days every time.

My skates are OK with my feet when I tie them normally, like a shoe. When I tie them tightly, I can't even feel my foot.

So what do you think the problem is? If that is about strengthening the ankles, what can I do for this? But, I don't think this has something to do with ankles... Even 6 year old girls can skate while I can't. They can't be stronger than me.

[krakkerz]

I'll preface this with the fact I know nothing of skating. I have skated once and barely managed to stand up.

What I will say is that the instructors seem to be very ordinary coaches. My 10 year old daughter inline skates. When she started, she had the same problem as you. 2 minutes talking to a more experienced 10 year old and she was sorted.

I'd suggest that this problem is reasonably common.

[hansomreiste]

Yeah exactly, they are really ordinary people as we are not a country with a good ice culture, unfortunately. People trying to help me are mostly persons who learned skating with their own effort without getting some real information from others... Therefore, when they face things like that, they really have no real idea on what's going on.

Could you please ask your daughter about what her friend told her to do? I mean, if this is something about talking and telling the correct technique, I think I can benefit from this... Apparently, there is nobody around to talk about the correct way to me so any kind of help from you would be really important for me.

[krakkerz]

I did. She said she needed to align her boots better with her feet, do them up tighter and not push out to the sides to balance.

There you go - coaching gold!

[cutchemist42]

Canadian here from Winnipeg who skates twice a week. So you have an ankle bending problem? I can't say I know to fix that, I feel like it kind of goes away after awhile. Just make sure the skate is tight to your foot.

Maybe check out books by Laura Hamm about power skating too.

[hansomreiste]

I did. She said she needed to align her boots better with her feet, do them up tighter and not push out to the sides to balance.

There you go - coaching gold!

If this is all she did, then your daughter must be a talented skater! Because, I know I have to do this to skate properly but the problem is, I can't control myself about it... I simply can't push as I should do but push inside. Many people say, "LOL, so don't?" but... This is not something I am able to control. My feet automatically position themselves like that when I wear the skates and when I stand as I should, I feel weird. Like someone experiencing difficulty in walking.

Canadian here from Winnipeg who skates twice a week. So you have an ankle bending problem? I can't say I know to fix that, I feel like it kind of goes away after awhile. Just make sure the skate is tight to your foot.

Maybe check out books by Laura Hamm about power skating too.

Yeah, it is an ankle bending problem exactly, nothing less or more. As I said, I have been on the ice for more than 20 hrs and it seems to me that as I keep skating like that, it will never go out and I need to take some steps to solve it...

Today, I rented some blue, probably noob, figure skates at the place. First 15 mins, there was no problem... My feet were as they should be and I found it a lot easier to skate faster and keep the balance. But, as time passed, my feet started to get inside edge again... The problem was not as much as I had with my hockey skates, but still, I was going inside edge. But in my opinion, what I did with figure skates were tolerable. I mean, it didn't create a problem for me with balance or speed.

Moreover, as a guy who can't even practice snowplow properly, I had some real good crossovers around the circle with figure skates. They were a lot good for me but couldn't prevent me from skating/pushing inside edge, which means, the problem is more with my feet than skates; but the figure skates were much better than my Bauer.

PS: Both my skates and the ones I rented are number 42(EU size). With figure skates, I couldn't lift up my heel, which is good. My foot was quite comfortable but it was not loose.

I really don't know what to do.

[cutchemist42]

If this is all she did, then your daughter must be a talented skater! Because, I know I have to do this to skate properly but the problem is, I can't control myself about it... I simply can't push as I should do but push inside. Many people say, "LOL, so don't?" but... This is not something I am able to control. My feet automatically position themselves like that when I wear the skates and when I stand as I should, I feel weird. Like someone experiencing difficulty in walking.



Yeah, it is an ankle bending problem exactly, nothing less or more. As I said, I have been on the ice for more than 20 hrs and it seems to me that as I keep skating like that, it will never go out and I need to take some steps to solve it...

Today, I rented some blue, probably noob, figure skates at the place. First 15 mins, there was no problem... My feet were as they should be and I found it a lot easier to skate faster and keep the balance. But, as time passed, my feet started to get inside edge again... The problem was not as much as I had with my hockey skates, but still, I was going inside edge. But in my opinion, what I did with figure skates were tolerable. I mean, it didn't create a problem for me with balance or speed.

Moreover, as a guy who can't even practice snowplow properly, I had some real good crossovers around the circle with figure skates. They were a lot good for me but couldn't prevent me from skating/pushing inside edge, which means, the problem is more with my feet than skates; but the figure skates were much better than my Bauer.

PS: Both my skates and the ones I rented are number 42(EU size). With figure skates, I couldn't lift up my heel, which is good. My foot was quite comfortable but it was not loose.

I really don't know what to do.

So let's say your doing a few pushes and then glide straight ahead, your ankles are bending?

[hansomreiste]

Not exactly. Whenever I push or glide, my ankles are already bent. The only time when my feet are OK is just when I stop on the ice to talk to someone. At first, my ankles were bent even when I am not skating. Now, at least, I can put them correctly while not skating.

I wish I could have a chance to put a camera near my feet to see what's going on. Here is a short summary on what happened with skates,

My Bauer Vapor X01, number 42: Very little speed and difficult balancing. No control of the ice when ankles are not bent.

Figure skates, number 42: Great amount of speed with much easier control of balance. Ice can be felt much better with correct feet position, even crossover is possible with this. (At least, I can lift my leg, put in front of the other one while turning)

Hockey skates, number 42: Somewhere between figure skates and Bauer. Mediocre speed, better than Bauer. Again, balancing is better than Bauer. Ice control is more difficult when compared to figure, but easier than Bauer. Even though it took me a little time to get used to it, I could do everything I did with figure skates, with those hockey skates too.

Those skates were rented at the place, they were all blue. I don't know the brand. They just had tons of them.

Many people now recommend me to ignore it and just skate. As time passes, I will overcome it. OK, but, I can't understand how come my legs are weak when 6-year old kids can skate as hell.

[Cnty10]

With skates, make sure you arent sizing them based on your shoe size. ie I wear size 10 shoes but wear a 7.5 (bauer) skate. Also if you tie up your skates the laces should run parallel with each other and not bow in or out up the eyelets from the bottom to top. If you find they fit well to start but progessively the 'bend ' at the ankle gets worse, you can try a waxed lace to make sure it stays tight. Also most skates these days can be heat molded to fit even better to your foot. Im not sure if your bauer skate has that tech in it but most do.

These will help with ensuring that the skate fits correctly.

If this doesnt help, alot of the bend does come with weak ankles and also like the one trainer said, fear. I believe the same thing happens to new skiers to an extent. But one thing (I wouldnt recommend as Im not a fan of it) that parents of new skaters like to do is to wrap the extra lace around the upper ankle after tightening the skates to try and bolster the support there. This can lead to higher rates of high ankle sprains in sport which is one of the reasons I dont like it as much.


But in the end, without someone being there with you to really teach you (again like the skier you need to learn to feel and use both edges), its all a guessing game! Its most likely going to straighten out with practice. I've skated and played hockey since I was 4 and so its second nature to me now so it can be really hard to explain.

Good luck with skating.