Modifying Skate Fit and Balance:
Equalize Pressure
It is highly desirable to approximately equalize pressure over all parts of your foot,
This helps you effectively control the boot, and therefore the edge.
If there is a gap or low pressure point between part of your foot and the boot,
you will have trouble exerting pressure there, or there may be times when the boot is
not under control as you switch from one edge to the other, or change your lean.
As mentioned earlier, low pressure points are also places where the boot can slide
against your foot or sock (if you
use one), causing blisters, calluses and corns. Equalizing pressure will also help
prevent overuse injuries of muscles and
ligaments that bear the asymmetric load on your feet.
Pressure equalization is accomplished on the bottom
of the foot
by sticking athletic tape under the insole, where required. (Don't forget that when
you flip the insole
over, you reverse left and right! I.e., to better support the inside of the foot,
flip the insole over, and tape the
outside, then flip the insole back and re-insert it into the boot. Likewise, to
better support the outside of the foot,
flip the insole and tape the outside.) You can alternately tape the
surface of the boot. (If you remove the insole completely, you may also want to
cover exposed threads, so you don't indent the foot there.) I recommend that you do
not create strong sudden transitions
in the shape of the insole, but keep the modifications smooth.
Near other parts of the foot, you can apply tape to
the leather on the inside
of the boot,
but it will tend to come off. Moleskin sticks better to the sides of the boot than
athletic tape. Or apply adhesive felt.
It is equally important to recognize that selective
unequal pressure can be useful.
I have believed that footwear of all types should leave
"room to wiggle your toes", and that the front and sides of your toes shouldn't touch. But a podiatrist told me that isn't neccessary for most people. In fact, many people claim both are needed for optimal control, and that toe pressure helps you jump. But excessive pressure on the sides or front of the toes leads to various medical problems,
including a variety of issues termed "hallux valgus". E.g., excessive pressure there can create foot deformations. Excessive pressure on the front of the toes, that causes them to bend, can lead to problems like "hammer toes" or "mallet toes". Excessive pressure on the sides of the toes can produce problems like corns, bunions and crossed toes.
Common Skating Injuries And
What To Do About Them
says that
if the boots press against the tendons on the outsides of the lower legs at the top
of the boots too strongly the tendons
could rupture on high jumps. E.g., many skaters rupture Achilles tendons at the back
of the leg, during jumps.
Perhaps this is because the back of the skate digs into the back of the foot when
you strongly point for jumps. So it may be a good idea
to make sure skates are well padded at the top, and are somewhat looser fit on the
back inside, above the ankle.
Ice dancers prefer boots that are cut lower in the
back. In addition, many skaters, including
many high level freestyle skaters, prefer to leave open space in front and in back
of the foot, above the ankle bones. In addition, many people prefer boots that do
not have a sharp edge at the top of the boots, so they don't cut against the legs.
These things also makes it
easier to jump and land, by making it easier to point their toes, especially with
the very stiff boots that
high level freestyle skaters use. They still need pressure from the sides of the
boot, including at ankle level,
to provide safe support for jumps or deep edges. As stated in the previous page,
with that style fit, there will be a
reduced boot lifetime (e.g., 3 - 6 months instead of
2 - 10 years) because there is room for a breakdown crease to form, but many people
think it worth it. You should also use stiffer
boots to slow that breakdown, but if you are a high level freestyle skater, you
probably need that anyway. Again, as
described in the previous page, they also need to cover parts of the skin against
which motion can occur because of loose contact
with silicone pads (or adhesive strips, or sports wrap),
to avoid bruising and/or blisters.
Flat Feet, Pronation and Supination
We introduced these medical issues
here.
They are best diagnosed, evaluated and treated by medically trained experts, which
I am not. A skater with medical issues might reasonably consult with an appropriate
medical expert, or imitate while
customizing their insole the types of foot support an orthotic provided by a medical
expert creates. The best you can do without
expert diagnosis is to experiment with many techniques
until you find one that works, but that may not achieve all the right medical goals.
Some people need some extra pressure at specific
points to be comfortable and healthy. For example,
if you have an over-extended tendon, such as in "flat feet", that occurs when your
arch collapses, you may need to a bump under
your arch to avoid tendonitis (inflammation of a tendon, which is an end of a
muscle). E.g., that might occur if a
ligament in your foot that would otherwise stop the collapse is longer than the
muscle. A very few people need the sides of their
feet to be pinched together near the arch, too, to immobilize the affected joints.
In pronation, a foot edges inwards, placing
weight on the inside of the foot, as when skating
an inside edge, and/or an ankle or knee bends inwards. In supination, a foot
edges outwards, placing weight on the outside of the
foot, as when skating an outside edge, and/or an ankle or knee bends outwards.
Pronation and supination are used in different medical
contexts to refer to a variety of problems, as well as to motions in somewhat
different directions, by different medical specialties.
For example, podiatrists refer to "excess pronation" and "excess supination" when
the motion or position goes beyond normal healthy
bounds, and they refer to side-to-side motions, whereas Orthopedists commonly use
pronation and supination to refer to injuries that
require treatment, and they often use them to refer to motions which combine a
flexed foot with an outwards edge, or a pointed foot
with an inwards edge, i.e., to motion along a somewhat different axis of motion. In
addition, pronation and supination may refer to issues that
occur because of the foot shape, or to motions of the ankle, some other part of the
foot, the knee and/or hip. Both feet may or may
not do the same
thing (e.g., in swizzles, both feet pronate or supinate at the same time, whereas in
slalom skating patterns, one foot pronates while
the other supinates.) Likewise, two feet may or may not have the same medical issues.
As best I understand, when typical people walk, some
pronation and supination are normal.
The heel strikes approximately in its center, ahead of the body. As the foot
rolls forwards, muscles roll it outwards to place the weight on the outside of the
foot, into supination. The foot continues to roll forwards.
About mid-gait, muscles push the foot outwards and roll it inwards, rocking over
into pronation, placing the weight on the inside of the foot. The foot
eventually loses contact with the ground behind the body, near the big toe. One
source claims that most of the energy creating propulsion
comes from muscles creating the sideways rolls, rather than from muscles creating
backwards to forwards roll. This is consistent with what
you may know as a skater: to skate very fast, as in most speed skating, you touch
down with the blade on an outside edge, and push sideways on
to an inside edge. Claims have been made the this typical gait is specific to people
who wear shoes which both cushion heel bone strikes and
which have a raised heel, and that long-term barefoot walkers walk differently.
Running is also a little different from walking. Regardless, the actual
point of rock over varies from person to person, and not everyone contacts with the
heel, or has approximately equal supination and pronation
phases. By one definition, you supinate (walk bow-legged) if you mostly walk in a
supinated position, with your feet, knees or ankles slanted to the
outside, and you pronate if you mostly walk in the opposite pronated position.
Neither is considered healthy for the knee or hip, and doctors strive
to correct them.
But "good skaters" don't move like normal people.
Figure skaters, especially ice dancers, who wish to be rated
well are frequently expected to skate in arcs that stay on deep inside edges (very
pronated), or that stay on deep
outside edges (very supinated). Speed skaters exaggerate the rock over, and
eliminate or reverse the forwards roll of the foot.
(So do inline skaters, and skate skiers.) Hockey skaters skate mostly on inside
edges (pronated), or on two feet at once, for stability. Athletic
training hopefully makes what would otherwise be pathological motions and poses
reasonably healthy. E.g., we strengthen and stretch appropriate
muscles, and possibly ligaments,
so we can safely support the positions, and extend the ranges of safe motion.
But there are some types of excess supination and
pronation that skaters seek to prevent. If an arch collapses
onto the inside or outside, you can over-extend a tendon, just as in flat feet. An
appropriately placed bump can eliminate that problem.
An easy to deal with form of supination or pronation
is when the overall left-to-right slant of the
bottom of a foot doesn't match the slant at the bottom of the boot. This can cause
an imbalance, because your foot presses
down on one side the boot bottom more than the other. It also makes your foot and/or
muscles sore, because one side of your foot supports
most of the weight, and you may need to use continuous muscle strength to maintain
proper posture. Tape under the appropriate portion
of the insole can fill the extra space and equalize the pressure, as discussed on
the next page in connection with balance.
Likewise, the side of the boot may not match the
shape of your foot either, so that it presses on one side more than the other, and
causes you to edge the foot outwards. This is again discussed on the next page in
connection with balance, and is solved by placing
moleskin on the in side of the boot at appropriate point, to fill and equalize
space.
You should avoid letting your ankles bend to the
inside or outside most of the time, for safe weight support and perhaps other
health reasons, and in figure skating because it looks wrong. Except that deep ankle
bends are often used to initiate deep ice dance edges.
You can straighten ankles, on average, by applying pressure in ways that are
impossible on most shoes, because skates reach a little above
the ankle, and fit tightly. Employ differential pressure in three sideways zones,
below, at and above the ankle. For example, if
your ankle pronates (bends inwards, towards the other foot), you can apply a little
extra
inwards pressure above and below the ankle, and a little extra outwards pressure at
the ankle
joint. That combination tends to push the joint straight. This method makes a
complete sense from a physics
perspective, though I have not heard of medical experts employing this technique,
perhaps because
it is impossible in lower and looser fit shoes.
One complication to any attempt to limit ankle
motion is that the "ankle" comprises several joints, and "ankle motion" involves
motion throughout the lower foot, knee, hip and higher. It is hard for untrained
individuals to figure out what is going on.
Lauren Downes (PT)
warns that many people pronate due to motion in the forefoot, which may not be
compensatable using pressures inside the boot.
Sometimes knees bend to the inside or outside. This
is both unhealthy, and looks bad in figure
skating. In some cases the source of the problem lies in pronation or supination of
the foot or ankle, which can be corrected in the
boot. Either way, consult with a medical expert.
Medically trained
experts know how to employ unequal pressure in other places - e.g., see
this
discussion by Lauren Downs as well. She has many useful articles for the skater
here.
If you have had an orthotic
created for you previously, for other shoes or for when your feet were a different
size, you might consider imitating
the effect of that orthotic in your skating boots. Or get another custom orthotic
made for your skates.
Some people pay an expert for custom orthotics, but find they must modify them
themselves to
be more effective or comfortable. To some extent they have wasted several hundred
dollars for
the custom orthotic, but even an imperfect expert treatment provides many
people with a good starting point and the impetus to apply their own ideas.
Heel Height
I have a very incomplete understanding of the issues
involving heel height. Most hockey and speed skates have
little or no heel elevation. And many of us feel quite comfortable barefoot, or in
shoes that have no elevated heel. But figure skaters
are expected to not roll their skates onto their toe picks most of the time, except
when they do so on purpose. An elevated heel lets us
keep our feet in a reasonable position, but effectively pushes the back of the blade
down and the toe pick up, so this tends to keep us off
our toe picks. To some extent, the same goal can be attained by increasing the
thickness of the insole at the back.
Since ice dancers don't need to jump much, but do need to perform many movements in
which a non-weight supporting leg glides
in front of the main skating leg, a position in which it is hard to keep the toe
pick from touching, they usually prefer
1/4" to 1/2" (.6 - 1.25 mm) higher heels. I think the elevated heel is also an
appearance thing, because the exterior shape of many boots
makes the heel look more elevated than it actually is.
If, when skating in proper form, you feel more
pressure on the back of the bottom of your foot than on the front,
or if you have trouble staying off your toe picks, or have trouble pushing through
your heels, during those strokes when that is required, or if you cannot achieve the
apparent flexed ankle position (toe pulled back towards your upper leg) some poses
require, a
higher heel would have helped. Or achieve the same effect, by putting tape under the
insole, in the back ("fearfoot posting").
Likewise, if you place most of your
pressure on your heel, or have trouble using your toe picks when you want to, or
cannot achieve the apparent pointed toe position
some poses require, put tape under the front of the insole ("forefoot posting")
However, this is complicated by the fact that
pushing the toe or heel too far up or down may push the foot into unintended
pronation or supination, for some people. I don't understand the issues, and cannot
recommend a fix. It is possible to place the tape on the inside or outside
of the heel or front portion of the insole, but I'm not sure whether that solves everything.
In addition, if your heel is too elevated, you may
get an inflammation of the connective tissue at the
bottom of the foot called Plantar fasciitis, resulting in symptoms like heel pain,
and sometimes associated with knee and back pain.