Feet hurt like hell in my skates

[Defgarden]

Hey guys,

Just a quick question. I've been skating at least once a week for the past few months, and my feet have been killing me everytime. Usually I can bear through it, but I have to take frequent breaks to rest my feet. I notice when I tie my skates tight, I skate a hell of a lot better, but that's when my feet hurt. When I loosen up the skates, it alleviates the pressure, but then my heel is loose and that's not good at all.

The pain is concentrated at the arch of my feet and the sides of my feet in the back. I have an E width CCM Vapor 04 skate, and superfeet insoles (I have plantar fascitis). I have a feeling the skate isn't wide enough for my feet to completely flatten out. Will baking my skates help with this? I've been skating long enough I think to break in my skates, but I haven't always tied them tight enough.

I really don't want to buy new skates if I don't have to.

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[Thepandamancan]

I had similar problems with my Bauer RX05 skate and this was after they were pretty broken in. I also had them baked when I bought them and I tied the laces so tight that the skin on my fingers peeled off.

After about 3 months, I started to get pain on the inner arches of my feet. First thing I did was get rid of my shock doctor insoles and went with the stock insoles to give me just a little bit more room in the boot.

The other thing I did was wrap my feet before skating. I got some bandages and just wrapped it around my arches. Not too tight, but just enough to kind of compress my arches in so it fits better in the skate. So far, it's been working and the pain has subsided.

I tie my skates pretty snug around the first three eyelets, just taught in the middle eyelets around the arches, and super tight with the last 4 eyelets.

Hope that helps.

 

[ponder]

Sounds like you're a new skater, and I will say this - pretty much ALL new skaters experience tonnes of foot pain. Even though it doesn't feel like it, I think it has as much to do with your feet being tense and working in ways that they don't normally work as anything else. I remember as a kid I would get plenty of foot pain in my first couple of years playing hockey (especially in long practices), and then when I was learning to skate backwards I'd again get plenty of foot pain when skating backwards for a long time. This is totally normal, and it is something that goes away as your technique and comfort level improves.

With that being said, your skates ALSO might fit poorly. Did you go to a good shop and try on plenty of skates when you bought them, or did you buy online? Have you ever had them baked? Does it really feel like your skates are too narrow, or were you just throwing that out as a possible source of pain? At a good store the appropriate skate width for you should be quite easy to measure.

 

[Defgarden]

I bought them at a store, after trying on at least 4 different pairs. I had them baked in the store.

Maybe it just is from being a newer skater. My feet do hurt a lot more when skating backwards, quite a bit. So, that's probably it. Guess I should just suck it up eh?

I have made a lot of progress though. Hell, just a few months ago I couldn't hardly do anything. Now I can do forward xovers in a circle (well, counterclockwise anyway haha), stop somewhat properly, do tight turns with some confidence.

 

[ponder]

Sounds like you're making great progress! Make sure to keep working the most on whatever you're worst at, if you get quite good at certain aspects of skating but not others (say, great crossovers to your right, but mediocre to your left), you can just sort of accept those skating weaknesses and play to your strengths, when it's much better to be a strong all around skater.

As for the skates, sounds like you had them fitted properly, so the pain probably is just from being a new skater, it should get less and less as you get better and better. In the mean time you can try tying your skates a touch looser (not too loose, but just not crazy tight, keep em tight at the top but near the middle a bit looser is OK) and not skating for quite as long at a time.

You could also go back to the store where you bought them, tell them your problems, and see if they will re-check the fit of your foot in your skates for free.

 

[beth]

I'm a noob skater too, and I can tell that there are a lot of new muscles in my feet, and it's almost like my foot is firming itself up with all this new exercise it's doing. I've actually gone down half a size in my skate in two months because my feet are so different! Now I'm doing a lot of experiments with tying and footbeds (tried shock doctors, but I think I'll go back to the regular footbed), and readjusting as necessary. I find that I like to make the skates loose at first, and then tie it tighter once all the blood gets flowing. If I tie it too tight from the get-go, then my feet ache all over. But if I let my feet warm up first, then no problems.

Keep up the good work and keep trying new things with your skates to see what works best for you.